> On Mar 28, 2026, at 14:30, David Walters via groups.io > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Eric should of covered the real disputes/differences in a more logical > format. The main anti-war coalitions by 1970 were the "negotiate now" > crowd...and that included many of the pacifists not in Eric's review...and > lead by the Communist Party, USA, the largest group claiming to be > Marxist-Leninist. This was the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice > (PCPJ). My mom's group, Women Strike for Peace, was affiliated with this > coalition. The SWP one was named the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC). > Why Eric doesn't mention this is odd to me. THEN there was SDS and huge > cacophony of "ultra left" groups that were all over the map. It should be > pointed out that the main slogan of PLP was the same as NPAC/SWP's: U.S. Out > Now. So it would of been impossible to do a survey of these groups as they > existed between 1965 and, say, 1971. And...toward 1971 and after the war the > M-L groups started popping up like mushrooms after a rain. I should add that > no other Trotskyist group was mentioned either in Eric's review or in the > book itself (Sparts, Workers League, Freedom Socialist Party).
I was with PCPJ until after May Day 1971. Most of us saw May Day as a fiasco, which became the official appraisal by Rennie Davis and other May Day '71 spokespeople. After May Day 1971, PCPJ and the CP had joined with NPAC and the SWP in the following fall and spring marches, which were numerous and sustained. After May Day '71, I hitchhiked home from D.C. reading a copy of The Militant and its coverage of April 24th, which was barely two weeks earlier. Unlike May Day '71, April 24 '71 was called the largest march in US history by many. I guess the number was between 250k and 500k; the SWP always used the larger number. It was organized by NPAC, Student Mobilization Committee, War Resisters League, and a long list of other coalition members including many trade union locals and citywide labor federations. What the PCPJ (CP, May Day Tribe, Poor Peoples' March, Womens Strike for Peace, etc.) organized on May 3rd 1971 drew about 13k people with the silly goal to shut down Washington D.C. I suppose that the PCPJ expected 10X that number. But it was a failure in that it made the Nixon administration look good and the antiwar activists look clueless, destructive, and ineffective, which was true. I moved to Philadelphia later that year and looked up the SWP based largely based on that experience. I hadn't studied Marxism at any length or had come to any opinion on Trotskyism, Stalinism or Maoism. I was drawn to the SWP because they were so central in organizing really large demonstrations. The SWP really did punch above its weight in the anti-Vietnam War movement. Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#41270): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/41270 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/118554230/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
