Free Speech and the New Left-A Documentary
1 The SDS at New York University THE FOLLOWING appeared in a leaflet distributed by Students for a Democratic Society at New York University the day after it broke up a meeting at which...
...Because COMMENTS AND OPINIONS "they" are vicious and wrong and "we" are humane and right, it is easy to conclude that whatever we do is justified...
...But our young people ought to realize that the Bill of Rights is a precious thing for all Americans, young or old, and for everyone from left to right politically...
...3) And a Word of Anguish from Corliss Lamont The item below appeared as a letter in the New York Times: The attempted or successful disruption of public affairs meetings from coast to coast has become a dangerous threat to American civil liberties and democracy...
...James Reston of the New York Times came as a spokesman for one of the most influential newspapers in the country...
...The streets belong to the people...
...1 The SDS at New York University THE FOLLOWING appeared in a leaflet distributed by Students for a Democratic Society at New York University the day after it broke up a meeting at which James Reston was scheduled to speak, as well as another meeting at which the Ambassador from South Vietnam was scheduled to speak...
...To stop a doctor on his way to the hospital or a worker on the way to his job or family, to overturn or burn the cars of those who chance by when a protest is in process—this is not to take over the streets for the people...
...By restricting its criticism and limiting its reportage of government policies, the Times works to contain opposition within manageable channels...
...One has only to talk to some of the [Chicago] participants—and to read some of the reports in the underground press which exaggerate and extol the violence of our side while forgetting to mention the reasons for our being there—to realize that it can happen here...
...The young dissidents primarily responsible for this situation are flagrantly violating the First Amendment "right of the people peaceably to assemble...
...At the Ethical Society a band of self-styled Crazies marched in and might well have broken up the meeting had not the police intervened...
...And such cases as I have mentioned are bound to provoke a backlash that strengthens the reactionary forces of this country...
...I was present at this meeting and was greatly shocked at the actions of the intruders and by their denunciation of all the speakers as "fascist pigs...
...These symposiums consisted of a distinguished panel on the drug problem held on campus March 1 under the auspices of the State University of New York at Buffalo...
...A situation is developing throughout the United States in which it COMMENTS AND OPINIONS is becoming increasingly difficult for speakers freely to express their views, for teachers to lecture and for audiences to listen...
...In New York State in the week of March 1, rude and noisy demonstrators invaded three important symposiums and seriously interrupted the proceedings...
...At the Hilton Senator J. W. Fulbright, one of the most effective opponents of the American war in Vietnam, was unable to conclude his address...
...a panel on "The Challenge of Building Peace" on March 5 at the Hilton Hotel in New York City sponsored by the Fund for Education in World Order...
...At Buffalo the poet Allen Ginsberg was routed from the platform by shouts and the beating of tom-toms...
...Some people are saying that the time has come when we must fight "by any means necessary...
...But the streets— like the factories, airwaves, the .immense resources of the universe— belong to ALL the people, not just those who would seize them for their elitist clique, as the corporation magnates have seized them in this country and the Party bureaucrats have seized them in the Soviet Union...
...No man and no government has the right to propagandize for a policy of genocide...
...Exactly whose meetings would thus be invulnerable is not clear...
...As far as we know, national SDS has not repudiated this position...
...The Ambassador from Saigon came to NYU to urge the American public to continue America's pursuit of the war in Vietnam...
...But some means that seem necessary at the moment end by degrading and corrupting the Movement...
...Tactically they provide the enemy with ready-made excuses for its most repressive actions...
...But there must be limits...
...Emphasis in original] It should be noted that not only does the NYU SDS take to itself the right to break up meetings of those who support the Vietnam War but also meetings of those, like Reston, whose opposition to the war it finds politically unacceptable...
...Last night the Ambassador from South Vietnam, Nguyen Huu Chi, and James Reston, Executive Editor of the New York Times, were scheduled to speak...
...I am deeply sympathetic to the idealistic concern and militant spirit of today's youth in confronting such major evils as the Vietnam war, the plight of our Negro minority and poverty amid an affluent society...
...SDS members interrupted, and both of them left...
...Of course...
...A new manifesto: There are no limits to our lawlessness...
...We have the same obligation to prevent Ambassador Nguyen Huu Chi and James Reston from speaking...
...The future of our struggle is the future of crime in the streets," says an article in New Left Notes (September 16) by people intoxicated by the Chicago victory and eschewing a sober analysis of aims and tactics...
...and a panel on "The Crisis in Democratic Institutions" on March 7 at the New York Society of Ethical Culture...
...Chairman, National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee New York, March 9, 1969...
...Violation of free speech and the right of assembly, from whatever source, undermine the democratic process by making democratic dialogue impossible...
...21 A Word of Caution from David Dellinger The following appeared in an article by David Dellinger, national spokesman for the Mobilization against the war, in Liberation, October 1968: the problem of having an increasingly cruel and irrational enemy .. is the danger of becoming cruel and irrational oneself...
...What was the purpose of the confrontation...
Vol. 16 • May 1969 • No. 3
