| Successor | New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1966 |
| Dissolved | 1969 |
| Type | Anti-war activist organization |
| Legal status | Defunct |
| Purpose | Oppose involvement in the Vietnam War |
| Location |
TheSpring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which became theNational Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, was a coalition of Americanantiwar activists formed in November 1966 to organize large demonstrations inopposition to theVietnam War. The organization was informally known as "the Mobe".
Individuals and organizations associated either with the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam or the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam include Dr.Benjamin Spock andSANE, Sidney Peck, Eric Weinberger,David Dellinger,Jerry Rubin,James Bevel,Stew Albert,A. J. Muste, Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.,Coretta Scott King,Rennie Davis, Karen Wald,Fred Halstead,Bradford Lyttle,Charles Owen Rice, Vietnam Summer, Cornell ProfessorRobert Greenblatt (who became national coordinator of the Mobilization to End the War),[1] andTom Hayden.
TheNovember 8 Mobilization Committee formed inCleveland, Ohio September 10–11, 1966.[2]The Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam emerged from the November 8th Mobilization Committee, and was cemented at the Cleveland Conference on November 26, 1966.[3] The national director was ReverendJames Bevel.
On April 15, 1967, the Spring Mobilization's massive march against the Vietnam War fromCentral Park to theUnited Nations attracted hundreds of thousands of people, includingMartin Luther King Jr.,Harry Belafonte,James Bevel, andDr. Benjamin Spock, who marched and spoke at the event. During the event many draft cards were burned, according to theNew York Times.[4] Among the speakers at the simultaneous march in San Francisco wereCoretta Scott King,Eldridge Cleaver, andJulian Bond.[5]
At the New York march its last speaker,James Bevel, the Spring Mobilization's chairman and initiator of the march on the U.N. (until Bevel came aboard at the invitation ofA. J. Muste andDavid Dellinger the plan was for just an April 15 rally in Central Park), made an impromptu announcement that the next major anti-war gathering would be in Washington, D.C.[6]
Bevel's announcement brought about the Spring Mobilization Conference, a gathering of 700 antiwar activists held in Washington, D.C., May 20–21, 1967, called to evaluate April's massive antiwar demonstrations. It was organized to chart a future course for the antiwar movement, and set another large antiwar action for the fall of 1967 and created an administrative committee—the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam—to plan it.
The Mobe then planned and organized a large demonstration for Washington, D.C., onOctober 21, 1967. This demonstration was a rally atWest Potomac Park near theLincoln Memorial and a march tothe Pentagon, where another rally would be held in a parking lot, followed bycivil disobedience on the steps of the Pentagon itself. The action was known as the "March on the Pentagon."
Hoping to attract young, educated college students, Mobe coordinator David Dellinger appointedJerry Rubin, who led the largeVietnam Day Committee at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,[7] to organize the march.[7] The initial D.C. rally, which was galvanized by a concert performance from counterculture folk singerPhil Ochs,[8] drew approximately 70,000 participants at the Lincoln Memorial.[9] Following Ochs' concert, as well as speeches from Dellinger and Dr. Spock,[10] around 50,000 of those attending were then led by social activistAbbie Hoffman and marched from the Lincoln Memorial toThe Pentagon in nearbyArlington, Virginia to participate in a second rally.[7]
About 650 people, including novelistNorman Mailer, were arrested for civil disobedience on the steps of the Pentagon. A few individuals such asAllen Ginsberg,Ed Sanders, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin (Hoffman and Rubin would co-found theYippies later in '67) attempted by means of meditation and chanting to "levitate" the building and "exorcise the evil within." These events were chronicled by Norman Mailer in hisnon-fiction novelThe Armies of the Night.
Following the Pentagon demonstration, the Mobe began discussion and planning for demonstrations at the1968 Democratic National Convention, to be held inChicago, where PresidentLyndon B. Johnson was expected to be nominated for a second term.
Rennie Davis andTom Hayden were the key Mobe organizers forthe Chicago demonstration, and would later be indicted for conspiracy and inciting a riot as members of theChicago Seven.[citation needed] The Chicago demonstrations drew only 10,000 participants because it was widely anticipated that the mayor of Chicago,Richard J. Daley, would deploy his police to prevent marches to the site of the convention.
Norman Mailer wrote anon-fiction novel about both the 1968 Democratic and Republican Conventions entitledMiami and the Siege of Chicago.
Following the election ofRichard M. Nixon, the Mobe organized a "counter-inaugural" to take place in Washington, D.C., on the day of Nixon'sinauguration. This demonstration also attracted about 10,000 people and was accompanied by street violence.
The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam then disbanded.
Future national marches against the Vietnam war would be organized by other groups. The similarly named and inspired New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (New Mobe) was founded at a conference atCase Western Reserve University in July 1969, and, together with theVietnam Moratorium Committee and the Student Mobilization Committee (SMC), organized the October 15, 1969Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam which resulted in large demonstrations against the Vietnam War held nationwide.[11] The groups then organized another large demonstration in Washington, D.C., to occur a month later, on November 15, 1969, which was also attended by a large crowd.
April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006 | |
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