Topic 3: Civil Society Protests 1950s to 1970s

Question 1

What forms of civil society protest emerged from the 1950s to 1970s?

Answer 1

This period was one of growing prosperity in Western industrialised countries. More young people were able to go to university. Members of well-educated generation were critical of their society’s accepted practices and values. Over time, a counter-culture, or alternative way of viewing life and society, developed. Women also began to question their subordinate role in society and began to campaign, in the Women’s Liberation Movement, for equality with men in all respects.

Question 2

What forms of civil society protest emerged from the 1950s to 1970s?

Answer 2

In South Africa, women have tended to see themselves first as black or white and only then as women. Nevertheless, certain non-racial, largely female, trade unions did function from the mid-1920s. The rise of Apartheid from 1948 caused some degree of racial separation within trade unions. Thousands of women did combine across racial lines to resist the application of the Pass Laws to women, culminating in the historic Women’s March on the Union Buildings in Pretoria in August 1956.

Question 3

What forms of civil society protest emerged from the 1950s to 1970s?

Answer 3

In 1955, an organisation of middle-class white women, the Black Sash, was set up to oppose the removal of coloured votes from the common voters’ roll. It soon extended its activities to many other fields to try to counter the negative effects of Apartheid on people of colour.

Question 4

What forms of civil society protest emerged from the 1950s to 1970s?

Answer 4

In the early 1980s, in response to the Botha government’s policies of reform and repression, active opposition to the Apartheid government intensified. In 1983, an anti-Apartheid alliance of hundreds of organisations, the United Democratic Front, UDF, was established. In 1985, the anti-Apartheid Congress of South African Trade Unions was founded. Many thousands of women were actively involved in the campaigns of both these organisations and in 1987 a UDF Women’s Congress was set up to campaign for women’s rights.

Question 5

What forms of civil society protest emerged from the 1950s to 1970s?

Answer 5

In the developed world, the 1950s and 1960s saw the rise of movements for peace and disarmament and students’ movements. Two noteworthy marches against nuclear weapons were the Aldermaston and Greenham Common protests. In the United States, students protested in support of the Civil Rights Movement. The biggest student protests were against America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. These protests led to the eventual withdrawal of America from Vietnam in 1973, but not before a number of protesting students were killed at Kent State University in 1970.

Question 6

What forms of civil society protest emerged from the 1950s to 1970s?

Answer 6

Many Americans, black and white, protested against the inferior status of African-Americans from the 1950s. Martin Luther King Jr came to the fore in the 1950s as a believer and leader in non-violent passive resistance and civil disobedience. Examples of this protest were: bus boycotts, school desegregation, sit-ins and the Freedom Rides on interstate buses in 1961. This movement cultivated in the March on Washington in August 1963 and the passing of the Civil Rights Act by the American Congress (Parliament) in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Question 7

What forms of civil society protest emerged from the 1950s to 1970s?

Answer 7

Some black leaders felt that the methods of the Civil Rights Movement were too passive. Thus a Black Power Movement developed in the 1960s, led by Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael.

Question 8

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: Pre-1960

Answer 8

Women had a subordinate position in society in most countries for centuries. They had to obey males’ authority, first their fathers’ and then their husbands’. Some women and even some men had argued against the injustice of this situation for centuries, there had been few significant changes in the status of women in society. Only in the 20th century that such changes began to occur in the more developed, industralised countries.

Question 9

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: Pre-1960

Answer 9

In the first 20 years of the century, many women in Britain and the US fought for the right to vote. They were known as suffragettes (suffrage means the right to vote). When millions of men went to war during the First World War, women began to do men’s jobs. Women proved that they could do hard and skillful work as well as men, and won new respect.

Question 10

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: Pre-1960

Answer 10

As a result of this changed attitude and their continued campaigning women over the age of 30 were given the vote in Britain in 1918, while all women in the US got to vote in 1920. For the first time, women in these countries had some political power, but were slow to take advantage of it. Very few women became Members of Parliament in Britain or members of the US Congress.

Question 11

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: Pre-1960

Answer 11

After WWI, men returned to their jobs and women were replaced. During WWII, women again took on jobs traditionally done by men. They also did non-combatant military service in the army, navy and air force. Many women trained for specialist, traditionally-male jobs, such as welding, electricians and shipfitters etc.

Question 12

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: Pre-1960

Answer 12

After WWII, women were once again expected to leave their jobs and return home to care for their husbands and children. If they worked outside the home, it was in traditionally female jobs, such as teaching, nursing, secretarial work, or cleaning. This remained the pattern through the 1950s in industrialised Western countries - women were home-makers and family-carers. In the Communist world, women did some traditionally male jobs, such as doctors, engineers, machinists and labourers. To some extent, they were supported with childcare facilities and cafeterias provided by the state.

Question 13

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: The 1960s and 1970s

Answer 13

The 1960s was a decade of remarkable change, especially among the youth. As described in the introduction, the younger generation was critical of established values. The Women’s Liberation Movement (Feminism) criticised society’s values regarding the statues of women.

Question 14

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: The 1960s and 1970s

Answer 14

Feminists believe in equality for women, in terms of pay and work rights, and also in terms of their treatment of their individual relationships with men. During the growth of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960s, feminists adopted the slogan: ‘The personal is political’. Men had more power in society, the feminists said, and exploited that power in their personal relationships with women. The man was seen as the head of the household and the women were expected to serve him and care for his children. Thus, women were subject at home, as well as in the workplace.

Question 15

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: The 1960s and 1970s

Answer 15

Some women also began campaigning for the right to have an abortion legally and safely. In 1967, Britain allowed legal abortion if two doctors agreed that having a baby would damage a women’s physical or mental health. In 1973, after the Roe vs Wade judgement, the US also allowed legal abortion, but only under certain conditions - during the first three months of pregnancy, a woman, in consultation with her doctor, could decide to have an abortion; after that, the state could intervene in the decision.

Question 16

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: The 1960s and 1970s

Answer 16

During the sixties, women became more publicly active in promoting their interests. Although the Civil Rights Act on 1964 in the US prohibited didn’t allow sexual discrimination in employment, this continued to happen in practice. In 1966, the National Organisation for Women (NOW) was set up, with Betty Friedan as its president. NOW campaigned for women’s rights, including reproductive and abortion rights, the right not to be subjected to violence or racism, constitutional equality, lesbian rights and economic justice.

Question 17

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: The 1960s and 1970s

Answer 17

In 1968, the New York Radical Women’s Collective protested against the Miss America pageant, Many women felt that such contests degraded women, reducing them to the level of sex objects. They marched, handed out pamphlets and crowned a sheep as Miss America. They also deposited various items, called ‘women’s garbage’ in a Freedom Trash Can - bras, hair curlers, false eyelashes, wigs, heels and so on. Although these items were not burnt, passionate feminists came to be known as bra-burners.

Question 18

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: The 1960s and 1970s

Answer 18

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate in 1972. The ERA would guarantee equal rights for women under the law if it was approved by 38 out of the 50 states. The deadline for this was 30 June 1982, but it has not yet been achieved. However, the American constitution says that all people are equal before the law, the rights of all American women are protected.

Question 19

Women’s liberation and feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s: A middle-class movement in industrialised countries: The Position of Women today

Answer 19

• Girls often do better than boys at school, many go on to tertiary studies
• Girls are no longer discouraged from doing math or science at school. All professional careers are open to them.
• Some women have reached the highest political offices through their efforts and abilities.
• However, many working-class women, especially in less developed countries are still treated as subservient.
• Many Christian denominations now allow women to become priests. However, the Catholic church still maintains all-male priesthood.
• In developing countries, women are still often treated as inferiors and work for far less than men.
• Even in developed countries, certain jobs are not usually occupied by women. This is known as the class ceiling
• The principle of equal pay for equal work is generally accepted in developed countries, it doesn’t always happen in practice.
• Childcare facilities for working mothers are often lacking, although maternity benefits do exist in many countries so that mothers can take time off to have children and return to work.
• Many women still carry the double burden of working and also having to look after children and their home.
• In developing countries, girls and women get less education and training. In Afghanistan under the Taliban, girls and women were not allowed to be educated in schools or universities.
• Some countries in the Middle East and South Asia, women can be murdered by family members if they ‘dishonour’ their families, by not being prepared to accept an arranged marriage or having a relationship outside marriage.
• Globalisation has meant that many women in developing countries are employed by multi-national companies for much lower wages and longer working hours than in developed countries.

Question 20

Women’s identity in South Africa from the 1950s to the 1970s: Black women see themselves first as black, the same for white women:

Answer 20

South Africa’s policy of segregation since the arrival of the Dutch in 1652, the policy of Apartheid since 1948, ensured that black women and white women had separate identities. They believed that they were first black or white, women felt they had little in common with each other. Women from different groups did not generally work together to improve their respective positions in society, there was a small percentage of white women who did work with their black sisters to try help them gain the human rights denied them in the land of their birth.

Question 21

Women’s identity in South Africa from the 1950s to the 1970s: Trade Unionism and Women Workers

Answer 21

In the mid-1920s there was a surge of industrial growth in South Africa, followed by the onset of the Great Depression from 1929. These developments led to the founding of the non-racial largely female Garment Workers’ Union in the Transvaal and the Food and Canning Workers’ Union in the Cape. Among the GWU leaders were two white Afrikaner women, Anna Scheepers and Johanna Cornelius, and another white women, Ray Alexander, an immigrant from Latvia, who helped to lead the FCWU. These unions worked to improve pay and working conditions for women, but also focused on other aspects of women’s lives, health, housing and childcare. Experience in the trade unions taught some women organisational skills and methods of mobilising other women and trade unionists to fight their common interests. However, the rise of Apartheid from 1948 led to some degree of racial separation within these unions. Reproduced with permission by Human Sciences Research Council.

In 1955, the non-racial South African Congress of Trade Unions allied to the ANC, was founded. It soon become involved in the campaign against passes for black women, which led ultimately to the famous Women’s March on 9 August 1956. However, after the Sharpeville Massacre in March 1960 and the banning of the ANC and PAC in April of the same year, SACTU was subject to increasing repression by the South African Government, which made it very difficult to function as a trade union movement. It was effectively forced underground.

For much of the 1960s, opposition to the government was muted because of massive government repression. In the late 1960s the Black Consciousness philosophy began to surface, which led to renewed, illegal trade union activity. In 1979 the government legalised black trade unions. Women also involved themselves in the Black Consciousness Movement. Among them were Fatima Meer, Mamphela Ramphela and Winnie Mandela. However, the government banned all BC organisations, including the women’s organisations, in 1977, after the Soweto Uprising. In 1985, a major trade federation was founded in Durban, the Congress of South African Trade Unions. It soon became the largest body of its kind. Many thousands of women were involved as members, and the 1980s became the decade of the highest number of strikes in South African history.

Question 22

The Economic Role of Women in Rural Areas and in the Formal Sector | Men working on mines

Answer 22

The economic role of black women in the rural areas changed after the discovery and exploitation of minerals by white capitalists. This gave a rise to the migrant labour system, this meant that black men went to work on the mines on contract. This increased the burden on rural women. The women now had to tend to the crops, look after livestock and be a single parent. Fathers were away for many months and became strangers to their children. This had very negative effects on rural families.

Men on mines lived in compounds under very basic conditions and few services provided. Life was dull and work was hard and men sought relief in alcohol and prostitutes. This damaged family relations and led to the break down of marriages.

Men often brought diseases home from the mines and infected their partners. STDs and TB were common. Finally, men would return home permanently when they became chronically ill or too old or weak.

Question 23

The Economic Role of Women in Rural Areas and in the Formal Sector | Working Women

Answer 23

Until 1956 it was easier for black women to migrate to towns and cities because, unlike men, they weren’t subject to pass laws. However, the pay women received wasn’t enough to meet the high cost of living in urban areas, they had to add to their income by working in the informal sector. They worked as beer brewers and ran shebeens, taking in washing and becoming hawkers, and prostitution.

Brewing beer and running shebeens were the most popular because they were the most lucrative. There was a great demand for beer. However, it was illegal for blacks to brew or drink beer, so shebeens and breweries were subject to police raids. Brewers and shebeen queens were subject to arrest and imprisonment or heavy fines. Women saw the possibility of paying for an education for their children to receive better prospects.

Shebeens became local gathering places where musicians played and people partied. Sometimes parties lasted all night. A curfew was in place for black people, nine or ten o’clock at night. On the negative side, brawls sometimes broke out and people were stabbed and seriously injured. Shebeens also attracted prostitutes.

Cato Manor was a shanty-town outside of Durban, inhabited by black and Indian people. In 1959, the government declared it a white group area. Protests followed, in June 1959 black women were attacked by the city council’s breweries in the area, which they saw as competition. The police retaliated and four people were killed. In 1960, nine policemen were brutally murdered by a crowd. Mass evictions had nevertheless begun, and by 1965 all the black and Indian people in Cato Manor had been removed to other segregated areas.

Question 24

Women as Political Anti-Pass Campaigners

Answer 24

The 1950s saw surge of mass political action by blacks in response to the Apartheid legislation of the National Party government. In 1954, the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was founded as a national, broad-based women’s organisation. The next year it produced a Women’s Charter, which called for:
- The vote for all men and women of all races
- Equal opportunities for women in employment
- Equal pay for equal work for women and men
- Equal rights for women in relation to
property,marriage and children
- Maternity leave
- Childcare for working mothers
- Free and compulsory education for all children, girls
and boys
These demands were later incorporated in the Freedom Charter adopted at the Congress of the People in June 1955.

Question 25

Women as Political Anti-Pass Campaigners

Answer 25

All black men in South Africa had to carry passes to prove that they had a right to be in white South Africa as workers. The pass book would include details of their employment history. In September 1955, the government announced that the need to carry passes was to be extended to women from January 1956. This meant that black women would not be allowed to join their husbands in the towns unless they were also registered as workers. Women’s freedom of movement within the country would thus be restricted in the same way as men. This would make it even harder to maintain family units.

In October 1955 some 2 000 women, mainly black, converged on the Union Buildings, the seat of government, and left anti-pass petitions outside ministers’ office doors. The protest was organized by FEDSAW. Nevertheless, the government began distributing passes to black women.

After more protests around the country, a massive protest organised by FEDSAW took place on 9 August 1956, at the Union Buildings. Twenty thousand women from all over the country converged on Pretoria. They sang a new Zulu freedom song. When finally allowed into the Union Buildings, a few women, representing all women in the country, deposited their thousands of protest forms at Strijdom’s office. They stood for 30 minutes in silence as a form of protest.

They ten sang the African national anthem Nkosi sikelele’I Afrika (God bless Africa) and dispersed quietly. The government ignored the women’s protest and the application of the Pass Laws to women continued. Today, 9 August, is a public holiday in South Africa, commemorating this event - Women’s Day.

Question 26

Women’s initiatives taken during the liberation struggle, including the middle-class Black Sash

Answer 26

In 1955, an organisation for middle-class, liberal white women, the Black Sash, was set up to oppose the removal of colored people from the common voters’ roll. It was called the Black Sash because its members wore black sashes draped over their right shoulders to symbolise their mourning for the death of the 1909 constitution of the country.

The Black Sash soon involved itself in marches and demonstrations against the government policies. It also set up advice offices to help black people affected by the Pass Laws and other problems, such as employer-employee disputes, compensation, unemployment insurance and pensions. From 1972 onwards, more than one person standing together in public for a political purpose was defined as an illegal gathering. The Black Sash women had to stand alone in their protests in terms of this new security legislation. They were often subject to abusive comments and actions from white members of the public.

In 1975, the BC-influenced Black Women’s Federation was set up and focused on issues like education, housing, labour, rural development and repression. After the Soweto Uprising, all BC organisations were banned by the state in 1977.

Question 27

Women as Political Anti-Pass Campaigners: Tricameral Parliament

Answer 27

Tricameral Parliament is the parliament of three houses - white, coloured, and Indian - introduced by the South African government in 1984. In the early 1980s, with PW Botha’s policies of repression and reform, including the Tricameral Parliament, active opposition to the Apartheid government intensified. In August 1983, an anti-Apartheid alliance of hundreds of organisations, the United Democratic Front, was founded in Mitchell’s Plain. Women were much involved in this movement, including Albertina Sisulu, the wife of imprisoned ANC leader Walter Sisulu and Helen Joseph, a veteran of the 1956 March of the Women.

The UDF identified itself with the Freedom Charter adopted by the ANC and its allies in 1956. It became an unofficial domestic front for the banned ANC. The UDF was involved in mass action against the Aparthed regime, including marches, demonstrations, boycotts and strikes, with women playing a prominent role. In 1987, the UDF Women’s Congress was formed to increase awareness about discrimination against women, to improve women’s skills and campaign for their rights.

After the unbanning of the ANC and other political organisations in 1990, the broadly based National Women’s Coalition was set up in 1992. It soon began drafting a new Women’s Charter, the terms of which were later incorporated in the new constitution of 1996 and the Bill of Rights. This organisation now concentrates on educating women for their role in national, provincial and local government and community leadership, as well as focusing on adult basic education and gender training.

Question 28

The Peace Movements; Disarmament; Students and Anti-war Movements

Answer 28

The peace, disarmament (taking steps to reduce the number of armed forces and weapons of different countries), anti-war and students’ movements were closely interlinked. Young people in these movements were especially interested as their futures might depend upon them. Students were educated young people who had the time, opportunity and intelligence to question the values, attributes and ideas of their societies. This generation became increasingly aware of the injustices, racism and human right violations occurring within their societies.

Opposition within the US forced, especially on the Vietnam War, where young people’s interests were directly involved. They could be conscripted to serve in a war on the other side of the world, which they did not understand and did not support.

Question 29

Peace and Disarmament Movements

Answer 29

After the nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII, a peace movement developed in various parts of the world. The aim of this peace movement was to end war, especially nuclear war, because of its destructiveness. In 1958 in Britain the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was launched. It soon adopted a peace sign as its symbol or logo; the semaphore symbols for N and D, standing for Nuclear Disarmament, were enclosed in a circle, the symbol of life.

At Easter 1958, CND conducted a protest march against Britain’s possession of nuclear weapons. Protesters marched about 80km from London to Aldermaston, the home of the British government’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). For a number of years, this became an annual event, but the direction was reversed - from Aldermaston to London - so as to get the maximum media impact on the arrival of the marchers in London.

Question 30

Peace and Disarmament Movements

Answer 30

After the near-outbreak of nuclear war between the two superpowers during the Cohan Missile Crisis of 1962, the nations owning such weapons moved towards an agreement to limit the testing of nuclear weapons. In 1963, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed by the US, the USSR and Britain. This treaty banned the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in the water, and in outer space. Since then, most countries have signed the treaty, notably excluding China, France and North Korea.

In 1968, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed. This aimed to limit the spread of nuclear arms, to ensure that nuclear energy was used for peaceful purposes only, and to encourage the world to move towards nuclear disarmament. Since then, nearly 200 countries have signed this treaty.

The above two treaties achieved some of the aims of the peace movement; as a result of the movement lost some of its momentum. However, in 1981, s group of women marched from Cardiff in Wales to Greenham Common near London, to protest against nuclear cruise missiles stored there by the US government. They chained themselves to the fence and set up a peace camp outside. They also cut holes in the fence and organised ‘sit-ins’ on the site. In December 1982, some 30 000 women gathered at the base and held arms around it in an ‘Embrace the Base’ demonstration.

In Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was signed in 1987 between the US and the USSR, eliminating such nuclear and conventional weapons of intermediate range as cruise missiles in Europe. In 1993, the Greenham Common airbase was closed and became public parkland. The last of the peace campers, however, stayed on the land until 2000, in protest against the UK government’s Trident (submarines with nulcear weapons on board) programme. The Greenham Common protests had lasted for 19 years.

Question 31

Students’ Movement

Answer 31

In the 1960s, more people than ever before went to university. The youth’s improved education encouraged them to challenge their parents and other authority figures, such as university administrators and politicians.

The youth were strongly influenced by C. Wright Mills, a great supporter of the individual. This philosophy appealed to the rebellious among them, who wanted to to do their own thing. Herbert Marcuse, was another influence. He argued that people were ‘unfree’ in a developed industrial society and that the solution to ‘unfreedom’ was revolution, an idea which appealed to the young.

In 1960, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was founded by American university students. It focused on the need:

• Oppose racism and support the civil rights movement
• Promote universal disarmament so as to prevent nuclear war
• Reform the universities by challenging the administrators and forcing the introduction of more relevant curricula and encouraging the free thought and discussion.

Question 32

Students’ Movement

Answer 32

The SDS believed in participatory democracy. They also believed that all authority was suspect. They wanted to sweep away all ruling groups - military, business and political - and replace them with people like themselves - the young intellectual and enlightened.

Among the young people who rebelled were the hippies. Hippies embraced an alternative lifestyle devoted to love, peace, personal freedom and an appreciation of the natural world.They wore their hair long and distinctive clothing - long, loose, multi-coloured garments, headbands, and beaded necklaces. They also explored eastern religions and experimented with drugs and sex. One of their mottos was: Make love, not war’. Groups of hippies often lived in communes, away from traditional, conservative towns and suburbs.

The most famous protests took place in Paris, in may 1968, where a student rebellion almost resulted in the fall of the government. Student strikes led to brutal police and running battles between students and the police. This, in turn, led to much bigger strikes and the closing of universities, including the famous Sorbonne. Workers joined in the strike in support of the students; eventually, as many as ten million workers, of the French workforce were on strike.

The President, Charles de Gaulle, fearing overthrow, flew to West Germany. There, he received promises of military support from their French army and returned to France. A pro-government march of about one million people then took place in Paris. De Gaulle called a general selection, which he won by a large majority in June 1968.

Question 33

Students’ Movement

Answer 33

Czechoslovakia was a completely different case, a community country subject to the dominance of the Soviet union.Some young people in Czech had been influenced by Western youth and wore jeans and sandals, sported beards and listen to rock ‘n roll music. They demanded more political parties, access to Western books and magazines, and a stop to the jamming of Western radio stations, such as the BBC World Service. In late 1967, students in Prague, protested against bad heating and lighting in their dormitories. They marched towards government buildings, but were met by police who clubbed them down. Some had to be hospitalised, This overreaction led to a bigger, more determined protest movement.

January 1968, the Stalinist leader of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, Antonin Novotny, was removed from office and replaced by Alexander Dubcek. Although a communist who believed in a one party state, Dubcek wanted ‘socialism with a human face’. He relaxed controls on free expression and the press began reporting on government corruption and even attacked the Soviet Government. This time of relaxed controls in Czech came to be known as the Prague Spring.

Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, summoned Dubcek to a meeting in East Germany in March 1968.Dubcek was warned by both Brezhnev and his Warsaw Pact allies to rein in the press. However, Dubcek seemed unable to do this. In August Brezhnev sent an invasion force of perhaps 20 000 men and 5 000 tanks into Czech to crush the Prague Spring. Dubcek was taken into protective custody and later removed from the office. He was replaced by Gustav Husak, who undid Dubcek’s reforms and normalised the situation to the satisfaction of the Soviet Government,

Question 34

Anti-war Movement

Answer 34

Some of the earliest opposition to the Vietnam War within the US came from the Civil Rights Movement. In 1967, Martin Luther King spoke out against American involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1967, the world heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali refused service in the American army. He was stripped of his title and found guilty of a felony. After several years of appeals, the Supreme Court dismissed his conviction on a technicality in 1971.

Students soon adopted this cause. During 1965, a number of teach-ins occurred at universities to explain the background to the Vietnam War. The biggest of these took place on the UC Berkeley campus in May of 1965, where more than 10 000 people gathered. The next major teach-in was in October of 1965 at Oakland Military Terminal, but students were stopped by considerable force of police and others, including Hell;s Angels.

As the war continued and casualties increased, doubts about the war increased among Americans. Majority of Americans thought the war was not wrong and that poor and poorly-educated people were more likely to oppose the war then the well-off and educated. The poor suffered more as a result of the costs of the war; they were also more likely to be conscripted.

In October 1967, the National Mobilisation Committee to End the War, known as Mobe, organised a march on Washington, which attracted more than 100 000 protesters. Some of the more drugged-up people tried to levitate the Pentagon.

Question 35

Anti-war Movement

Answer 35

More common ways to protest against the Vietnam War were refusal to register for the draft, refuse to serve if drafted, public draft-burning or returning draft cards. Desertions from the American armed forces also increased as the war continued. The Tet Offensive of January 1968 showed that the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were a long way from defeat, and opposition to the war within the US increased.

In November 1968, Nixon was elected on the promise that he would achieve peace with honor. However, this did not happen quickly, 250 000 people converged on Washington in a second anti-war march in November 1969.

When Nixon expanded war into Cambodia in May 1970 in order to attack the North Vietnamese forces there, universities campuses in the US erupted in protest. On 4 May 1970, National Guardsmen opened fire on demonstrating students at Kent State University, Ohio, killing four and paralysing another. Ten days later, two more students were killed at Jackson State University in Mississippi. In 1971, 20 000 demonstrators came to Washington to commit acts of civil disobedience in protest at the continuation of the war. Fourteen thousands were arrested.

More and more Vietnam veterans, some crippled by the war, were joining the Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement, formed in 1967. In August 1972, at the Repubican convention to nominate their presidential candidate, a number of crippled Vietnam veterans wheeled themselves about the ailes and shouted at Nixon, who had been nominated.

Question 36

The Civil Rights Movement

Answer 36

During the 1960s, there was a range of movements around the world which aimed to achieve the human rights and equality of all people and groups of people. These are known as civil rights movements. The Civil Rights Movements in the United States, which aimed to achieve equal rights for people of colour in the US. Linked to the CRM was the movement to achieve equal rights for women, for gays and lesbians.

The CRM also included attempts to improve conditions and achieve equality for Native Americans and Mexican Americans. In Canada, some of the people of Quebec fought for recognition of the rights of French-speakers. In Australia and New Zealand, there were movements to achieve better treatment and equality for the aboriginal peoples.

A very prominent and well-publicised case was that of Catholics and Protestant-dominated Northern Ireland, which is part of Britain and not of the independent Irish Republic. Catholics are outnumbered roughly two-to-one in Northern Ireland. Catholics were in an inferior position and had to fight for equal access to public housing and the municipal vote. This led to significant outbreaks of violence from 1969, between two Irish Republic Army (IRA) on the one hand, and the Northern Ireland police and British troops on the other.