Utah's Gandhi Alliance for Peace** *(which i have worked with in anti-war coalitions and occasional peace projects) gives an annual award to someone each year around Gandhi's birthday (October 2). I learned recently that they decided to give me the 2020 peace award. I was asked to write a brief 'peace movement bio' which you might find interesting. I've copied it below. Dayne
I had been sympathetic to the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements before i got involved with the 1967 "Vietnam Summer" project (initiated nationally by the American Friends Service Committee) canvassing door-to-door in Logan, Utah to promote community discussion about the war. In September a few of us from our small peace group drove to Salt Lake to help with the Peace Torch Marathon, taking turns carrying the torch which had been lit at Hiroshima up Parleys Canyon on its way to Washington, D.C. for the October 21 demonstration at the Pentagon. We had a busy October in Utah with a protest against Dow Chemical (manufacturer of napalm) recruiters at USU and a peace march in Salt Lake City where i met and walked and talked with Ammon Hennacy of the Catholic Worker "Joe Hill House." That fall I was among the young radicals who launched a mimeographed 'underground newspaper' "The Pot" at USU. My article "Why Do Mormons Kill?" in the first issue recounted my recent discussions about the Vietnam war that started with my local bishop who referred me to W.W. Richards, Director of the LDS Institute at USU, who arranged for me to correspond with General Authority Marion D. Hanks. I was pressing them that a good Christian couldn't participate in the war in Vietnam. Richards' advice that it is wisest to 'go along to get along' and Hanks' information that there was an all-Mormon Marine battalion where i wouldn't be exposed to swearing, drinking, drugs and other sins (while we killed Vietnamese people) had not impressed me. My antiwar sentiments had been emboldened when Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the war in April 1967. I was excited by King's work to organize a multi-ethnic Poor People's Campaign in early 1968 and his assassination in April strengthened my allegiance to the project. In early May, Andy Zipser, J.J. Platt and i drove out from Logan in JJ's 1953 Chevy to participate in the Poor People's March on Washington, D.C. At the "Resurrection City" camp on the National Mall i got an unconventional education. There were daytime "Freedom Schools" run by young Black activists and nightly programs featuring well-known musicians and a spectrum of activist leaders. One of the contingents of the Poor People's Campaign was a large SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) inspired group of people who wore "JOIN" buttons, "Jobs or Income Now." They had organized in Appalachian migrant working class areas of Chicago. I was intrigued that they sometimes called their vision of a humane society of economic security and individual freedom "socialism." Back in Logan i helped to start a local SDS chapter but that fall newly arrived USU faculty member Sterne McMullen advertised public talks at his home on the Cuban revolution, the Vietnam war and Black liberation where he said he was a Marxist and criticized SDS for not being serious enough. I lost interest in the university curriculum and began reading and studying about Marxism. I was impressed with Marx's 1845 "Theses on Feuerbach" written in preparation for he and Engels' 1846 work "The German Ideology" where they first worked out their new philosophical perspective. "Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it", the famous Eleventh Thesis on Feuerbach became my unspoken credo. I joined the first of a series of socialist organizations - some nationwide, some local creations - but always prioritized activism, participating in scores of projects and movements over the years. The international solidarity and peace movements got the preponderant portion of my time and energy. I am proud of two antiwar mobilizations in Salt Lake that took place thirty-five years apart. Local pro-war and right-wing politicians expected that President George W. Bush's August 2006 visit to Salt Lake to speak at the American Legion Convention would deliver a severe blow to Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson who had foolishly criticized the president and called for a protest. Our broad Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice http://wasatchpeaceandjustice.org/index.htm became an energetic part of the even wider coalition that organized a rally and march of about 5,000 in downtown Salt Lake led by Anderson. The pro-war rally in Liberty Park attracted about 200 people. Starting with a small group in Logan in the summer of 1970 we built the regional Wasatch Peace Action Coalition which organized Utah's largest demonstration against the Vietnam War on May 15, 1971; i carefully counted over 7,000 marching down from the Capitol and over to Pioneer Park for the rally. Fortunately for historical truth about the antiwar movement's relationship with soldiers, the May 16 Salt Lake Tribune published a photograph of the front of the march coming down the hill and arriving at North Temple. You can see the lead contingent with their banner stretching across the street "Active-Duty GIs Against the War", some in uniform. You can also see the second, much larger contingent behind with their banner "Vietnam Veterans Against the War." Although you wouldn't recognize him as a 25-year old, you can also see Dayne Goodwin at the front of the march with a walkie-talkie radio. I was communicating with other organizers along the march to pace it, keep it together and flowing smoothly. *** Deb Sawyer is a leader of the Gandhi Alliance. She is a niece of Myra Tanner Weiss who was the SWP's candidate for VP of the U.S. in 1952, 1956 and 1960. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#784): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/784 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76376991/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES<br />#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.<br />#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.<br />#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
