DOC RELATES TO PROJECT MERRIMAC (MERRIMACK) - SITUATION INFORMATION REPORT

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00018207
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: September 12, 2023
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2023
• Case Number: F-2021-01028
• Publication Date: June 8, 1972

Approved for Release: 2023/01/11 C00018207
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8 June 1972
BEST COPY
AVAILABLE
SITUATION INFORMATION REPORT
Ten international unions representing more than 4, 000,000
workers will officially participate in a "Labor for Peace" conference
at the headquarters of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Local 688 in St. Louis on 23-24 June.
'The purpose of the conference is to establish a new "Labor
for Peace" organization whose principal aim will be to bring an im-
mediate end to the war in Southeast Asia.
The international unions participating in the conference include
the following: The International Brotherhood.of Teamsters; United
Auto Workers; Amalgamated Clothing Workers; AFL-CIO; the West
Coast International Longshoremen 'Union; the United Electrical, Radio
and Machine Workers; the National Council of Distributive Workers;
the National Hospital Union; the International JeWelry Workers; and
the Furniture Worker's Union.
The "Labor for Peace" group is being spearheaded by the
leadership of the United Auto Workers. Leftist labor leaders back-
ing the antiwar group are: David Livingston, secretary treasurer of
the Distributive Workers of America; Harold Gibbons, international
vice president of the Teamsters; Clifton Caldwell, vice president of
the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union and William Simons, vice presi-
dent of the American Federation of Teachers.
David Livingston who was once active in the Young Communist
League organized the Communist Party-led "bring-the boys-home-
strikes" in the mid 1940's. He is currently a spokesman for the
CPUSA influenced Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice. Harold
J. Gibbons was once active in the Workers Defense League (1951)
an affiliate of the Socialist Party (a Marxist organization), the
National Council Against Conscription (a cited Communist front group
in 1948), and is currently a spokesman for the National Peace Action
Coalition which is controlled by the Trotskyite Socialist Workers
P3rty. William Simons of-the Washington, D.C. teachers union was
most vocal backer of the left-Wing "Childreris March for Survival!'
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held in Washington, D.C. on 25 March 1972. Hanoi traveler Clifton
Caldwell is currently advocating the complete and immediate with-
drawal of all American military forces from Indochina on Hanoi's
terms.
Livingston, Gibbons, and Caldwell recently returned from
North Vietnam (April 72) wheee they conferred with Le Duc Tho,
Hanoi's chief Paris negotiator and other Communist chieftains. Upon
their return to the states, the three trade union leaders condemned
the United States participation in the war and called for the U.S. to
accept.the current Hanoi peace package.
Promoters of the new "Labor for Peace" organization promise
to mobilize the rank and file of the labOr.movement and its leaders
to bring the Vietnam War to an immediate end. Some 1,500 to 2,000
official trade union delegates are expected to attend the proposed con-
ference. Actually, the new group is an effort to undercut AFL-C10
Chief George Meany, a consistent supporter of U.S. policy in Vietnam.
In 1967 a similar effort, the "Labor Assembly for Peace" was staged
and judged a dismal failure because few working men would support
a sellout to the Communists in Southeast Asia. It is felt that the
"Labor for Peace" Conference in June will also fail to acc mplish
its goal.
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CALENDAR OF TENTATIVELY SCHEDULED ACTIVITIES
Asterisked items are either reported for the first time, or
contain additions or changes to previously reported activities.
*Date unknown, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Md.
A Lithuanian anti-Communist Emigre Organization has
announced tentative plans to hold a number of peaceful demonstra-
tions in various U.S. cities to protest the denial of religious freedom
by Soviet occupation forces in Lithuania.
Lithuanian officials are discussing plans for a demonstration
to be held in Washington and Baltimore but have not decided on a
date. The themes of the demonstrations will be "stop religious
persecution for Lithuaniar4and "freedom for Lithuania."
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*8June, Alameda, California _
Reportedly, antiwar organizers are lanning a demonstration
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at the Naval Air Station on the above date. The purpose of the demon-
stration is to protest the sailing of the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany
from Alameda to Soptheast Asia. No major problems anticipated.
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*9-11 June, Alhany, New York
Officials of the National Welfare Ridits Organization have
announced plans for an Eastern Regional Survival Conference to be
held at the Sheridan Intowne (3t)0 Broadway) on the above dates.
Scheduled to address the conference are Senator George
McGovern, author of the NWRO sponsored bill calling for a guaran-
teed family income of $6500 for a family of four and Rep. Shirley
Chisholm, leader of the National Womens Political Caucus. Other
scheduled speakers are Gloria Steinetri, women's liberation leader
and Eleanor Holmes, chairwoman of the New York City Commission
on Human Rights. The NWRO also has scheduled a national conference
to be held July 5-9 at the Coronet Hotel (20th and Collins Avenue) in
Miami Beach, Florida.
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*10 June, Washington, D.C.
A children's march to urge the end of the Vietnam War will
be held on the above date. Principal sponsors of the demonstration
are sons of directors of the Institute of Political Studies, which
has been identified as the "Think Tank of the New Left." Leaders
of the demonstration are expecting 150 participants composed pri-
marily of children under the age of 14 accompanied by their parents.
Demonstrators will assemble in MacPherson Square at 1 p.m. for a
rally, which will be followed by a march around the White House.
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*13 June, Washington, D.C.
The Congressional Black Caucus has announced the establish-
ment of an annual Adam Clayton Powell Memorial Award to exem-
plify the high standards of the late lawmaker. Rep. Louis Stokes
stated the first award will be presented at the organization's $100
a plate national banquet on the above date.
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*19 June,- Atlanta, Georgia
The Atlanta Coordinating Committee, a loosely knit coalition
of antiwar groups, has announced plans to demonstrate against
President Nixon during his scheduled trip to Atlanta on the above
dlte. Antiwar leaders are,contemplating actions which will include
a picket line in fi-ont_of the civic center where President Nixon will
'speak and will be followed by a rally. Efforts will be made to hand
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President Nixon a peace plan; however, the demonstration will be
focused on legal mass action, which does not according to ACC
spokesmen rule out the use of civil disobedience.
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*22 June, Washington, D.C. 7. -2-
The Instittte for the Study of Nonviolence, an antiwar organiza-
tion founded by folk singer Joan Baez in 1965, plans to sponsor a
"Ring Around the Congress" antiwar demonstration at the Capitol
Building on the above date..
plans call for mass encirclement of the Capitol by mothers
and their children to show "American outrage" at the Vietnam War.
After encircling the Capitol, the protesters are scheduled to break
up into groups, visit individual memb-eis of Congress and ask them
to sign statements supporting an immediate cut-off of funds for the
war. Demonstrators are then instructed to reassemble either in the
Capitol Rotunda or on the steps of the Capitol to conduct a public "roll
call" to determine which House and Senate members signed the state-
ments.
Joan Baez, current president of IFSN, civil rights activist
Coretta Scott King, actresses Candice Bergen and Jane Fonda, and
folk singer Judy Collins (all antiwar activists) Nan to join .in the
above protest. In addition, La Donna Harris, wife of Senator Fred
Harris (D-Okla.) is attempting to Organize a Congressional wives
contingent which may include the wives of Senators George S.
McGovern (D-S.D.), Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Philip A. Hart
(D-Mich.) and others. The estimated size of the proposed demon-
stration is unknown at this time. LIYI 1.4. 0 f. (,/,.
*24 June, Oakland, California
Huey P. Newton, the co-founder of the radical Black Panther
Party and current "servant of the people", recently announced that
the party was eschewing its policy of "non-involvement" in politics.
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Pursuing its new course of "establishment" politics, the BPP
endorsed black Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-N. Y.) for
president on 27 April 1972.
In addition, the ne\y. "non-militant" Newton-Seale faction of the
B PP has scheduled another mass voter registration drive, with free
groceries for all, at the Oakland Auditorium between noon and 6 p.m.
"on the above date. A-.," A/*"(1-~' - .-,,-.- Vt 517 ,2._ �
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Speakers will include Bobby Seale, the current chairman of
the BPP; Ericka Huggins, a Panther leader who stood trial for mur-
der a year ago with Seale in the gang killing of Alex Rackley at New
Haven (hung jury); and Ray "Masai" Hewitt, the current Black Panther
Party minister of education. /,� a ea-r, ",/-,117,-, (./�-�
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*28 June.; Washington, D.C. /
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Nine antiwar activists, including pediatrician Dr. Benjamin
Spock and Yale Chaplain William Sloan Coffin, will stand trial on the
above date charged with unlawful entry.
*The nine defendants were part of a crowd of 130 antiwar demon-
strators who unlawfully remained in the. U.S. Capitol Rotunda after
closing time on 16 May 72. With the -3-cception of the above nine who
pleaded not guilty, the -remaining defendants entered a plea of nobo
contendere (no contest, neither admitting guilt nor claiming innocence)
which was accepted by the Superior Court handling the above cases.
A $25 fine or two day sentence (with credit for time already
,
served) was imposed on the 'no contest" defendants.
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*29 June, New York City
The Angela Davis Legal Defense Fund has announced a fund
raising concert to be held in Madison Square Garden on the above
date. An all star cast will include Nina Simone, Chita Rivera,
Carmen McCrae, Ossie Davis, the Persuasions, Jimmy Witherspoon
and others. � / L4 7.4k/ 7 �
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Recently a jury acquitted Miss Davis of charges of murder,
kidnaping and conspiracy stemming from the shootout in the Mann
County Courthouse in August 1970. At a press conference Davis
stated she will support all "political prisoners" and their fight for
freedom. Presumably, unless the event is cancelled, funds raised
at New York will be used to assist the so-called political prisoners.
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SOURCE: Government and News Media
RELIABILITY: Probably True
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