UNH's strike: 40 years ago, students took stand against Vietnam War
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100502/GJNEWS_01/705029865/-1/FOSNEWS
By Adam D. Krauss
[email protected]
Sunday, May 2, 2010
It's May 5, 1970, a day after Ohio National Guard troops gunned down
four college students at Kent State University and Congress was
roiling over President Richard Nixon's plans for the Cambodian incursion.
At the University of New Hampshire, tension had been running high as
student activists wrangled with the administration over a planned
visit by anti-war radical activists Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and
David Dellinger. They were part of the Chicago 7, the group charged
with conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National
Convention in Chicago.
Mark Wefers, president of the UNH student body, had invited the trio,
who were touring college campuses, to speak. But as May 5 rolled
around he wasn't sure if they'd show.
They were scheduled to take the stage inside the gymnasium at the
Field House at 7 p.m., but university trustees wanted the rally to
take place earlier in the day, between 2 and 5 p.m., out of concern a
nighttime visit would attract "noncampus outside agitators."
Indeed, said Peter Rivierre, who was then executive editor of the
student newspaper, a threat was reported to the university that if
the Chicago 3 spoke on campus "anybody that looked like a hippie"
would be shot.
"They were so afraid of violence. You could see it in their eyes,"
Wefers said of school and state officials. "Everybody was. Everybody
was terrified."
The son of journalists from Lawrence, Mass., Wefers had petitioned
the U.S. District Court in Concord to block the university from
saying when Hoffman and company could speak. He figured it was a
"no-brainer" of an argument.
"We figured we can't go wrong," he said. "Well (it) went wrong."
The court issued a split decision. UNH was "enjoined and restrained
from enforcing their directive," though the three could speak between
3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Wefers knew his guests had to be in court in New
York City that day and didn't think they could make it to New
Hampshire until later.
Thousands of students made their way to the field house for the
earlier starting time, and Wefers dispatched friends, including John
Scagliotti, to pick up Hoffman, Rubin and Dellinger at Logan Airport
in Boston. They arrived mid-afternoon and headed north, and "Dover
was our landing spot," said Scagliotti, class of 1970 and producer of
the PBS documentaries "Before Stonewall" and "After Stonewall."
The group headed to a Central Avenue building where Jan Clee, dean of
the Whittemore School of Business and Economics, had a condominium.
Wefers and others considered him a student ally, and they say he went
so far as to sign a $5,000 check to cover the groups' speaking fee.
The activists passed the time making phone calls before heading to
Newicks's for a pre-rally lobster dinner, Scagliotti said.
With the nation on edge, "you would expect them to be that day at
Columbia University or a major university or Berkeley, one that
already made its stake in terms of the politics of the '60s,"
Scagliotti said. "It was rather smart and brave of them to choose a
state university that was not known ... where we were lucky to get 10
people to come out against the war five years earlier. ... UNH was
important. Of all the schools it was the 'everyman's school.' It was
not known for its radicals. It wasn't known for anything. So if UNH
could be the seedbed of being against the war, then the war was lost
by America."
Professor Val Dusek, who has taught philosophy at UNH since 1966,
said the university long enjoyed a celebrated tradition for promoting
free speech, which haunted trustees when they appeared to be
restricting it with the activists' visit.
"Radical movements on campus" at the time were hard to come by, but
the trustees' seeming position "radicalized" students, he said.
At some point before arriving at UNH the trio penned a note on a
napkin that was relayed to Wefers, who was waiting at the field
house. It read: "The conspiracy has come to New Hampshire. We will
speak tonight at 7:30 at the STRIKE rally. We refuse to be duped by
the trustees of the University into compromising the plans by the
strike organizers. There's no such thing as half a free speech. See
you tonight."
Soon, about 4,500 students and others would greet the three visitors
inside the field house while about 3,000 gathered outside. State
troopers were dispatched to the area, and the National Guard was set
up in Newmarket. It would be the night, Rubin declared, that "we
showed the trustees it's us, not them, who decides who runs this university."
Last year, a senior at Oyster River High School, Alex Freid, met with
Dusek to talk about activism of the 1960s and learned of a
documentary, "Mayflowers," that captured the visit by the Chicago 3.
His interest was sparked, and he set out to uncover what he could
about that Tuesday night in early May, at a time the nation's youth
was demanding a new social order.
The 40th anniversary of what has become known as the "strike rally"
is approaching. This Tuesday, Freid's Peace and Justice League at UNH
plans to commemorate the anniversary by playing the documentary, the
brainchild of filmmaker and Spectras' saxophone player Gary Anderson
of Deerfield, and hosting a panel discussion with Wefers and others.
"I hope people would ask critical questions," Freid said. "It's
really interesting because when you see some of the reasons why
students went on strike there are similarities between then and now,
with national issues like war to local issues on campus with the
student senate not having enough of a voice and the board of trustees
making decisions for the students."
The word "strike" still bothers some people today.
"To think it was a student strike glorifies a different sort of
thing," said former Gov. Walter Peterson, who led the state at the
time of the rally.
He said classes were replaced with "talk fests" that resulted in some
of the best "educational experiences" institutions of higher learning
can offer.
Unrest at college campuses over the Cambodia campaign and Kent State
shootings was growing. On May 7, Foster's reported more than 80
colleges and universities "were officially closed today."
The headline of the May 8 Manchester Union Leader whose publisher,
William Loeb, led the opposition to the visit declared "Faculty,
Students Vote UNH Strike." The lead story said faculty and the
university senate voted to strike despite Peterson's "stand that he
will 'vigorously oppose' such action. All classes for the remainder
of the academic year have been suspended."
The story continued, saying an administration spokesman "attempted to
spread the word that professors were not striking because the
university was staying open and 'regular university activities' were
merely being replaced with other activities," such as "various
programs attacking the American invasion of Cambodia, the killing of
the Kent State students and opposing attempts by federal officials to
punish anyone involved with bringing the Chicago 3 to campus."
In Foster's the same day, the lead story featured UNH President John
McConnell's statement denouncing "deliberately misleading headlines"
about the strike.
"I want to re-emphasize to students of the University of New
Hampshire, their parents and the people of the state that this
University is open and will remain so," performing its function, he said.
Some students didn't get the message. Scagliotti was among those who
started publishing the "Strike Daily," which in early May provided a
copy of the "Why We Are Striking" speech that was a call for students
to join the strike and "get UNH moving."
Three reasons were given:
"We want power over our lives at the University the University must
be run by the people and serve the people. ... We want power over our
lives OUTSIDE the University. At this point, we don't have any! We
are getting sent to fight an unending war in Indochina. We have no
say in policies which determine whether we live or die. The president
and his power elite have arbitrarily decided to increase the war in
spite of massive protests by the American people. ... Thirdly, we are
striking in protest of the murders of four Kent State brothers and
sisters. These brothers and sisters were only asking to control their
own lives. WE ARE NOW ASKING TO CONTROL OURS!"
On May 15, McConnell wrote UNH alumni to address concerns and
confusion brought on by recent events and "grossly distorted" news reports.
"The facts speak of a much more stable and disciplined campus than
these reports would indicate," he said. "Almost overnight, a pattern
of revitalized education has sprung forth largely at student
initiative, but enthusiastically embraced by a great many of our
faculty. Across the campus from early morning to late night,
seminars, 'workshops,' discussion groups, forums, and
question-and-answer panels have been organized to delve into the
background and development of contemporary issues."
McConnell said students and faculty had to complete coursework
"desired by any student, while enjoying the additional opportunity
for special educational experience now in progress."
Students from the time said in some cases plans were made with
professors so final grades were based on coursework completed before
the rally.
Meanwhile, venom continued to be directed at Hoffman, Rubin and
Dellinger, who repeatedly led the field house crowd in a chant of
"Strike!" On the same day Foster's reported of the nationwide campus
strikes, a professor's letter to the editor was featured on the front
page and said the trio are a "major reason, if not THE reason, our
country is in its present condition of turmoil."
"Democratic free speech does not give license to defile, desecrate,
degrade, and to advocate violence and destruction of our flag, our
country, its laws or our institutions," wrote Russell Eagert, who
taught in the plant science department. "It is time that the people
of this state, our Legislature, Board of Trustees, University
Administration, faculty and responsible students recognize for what
they are, these internal attempts to destroy our nation."
The Legislature did weigh in, but not unanimously. About a week
before the rally, the N.H. House passed a resolution barring Hoffman,
Rubin and Dellinger from speaking at UNH. The measure said the
"potential danger of violence and a certain disruption of university
activities make it appear that the three individuals should be denied
the use of facilities."
The Senate, however, did not agree, according to a May 1 report in
The Concord Daily Monitor: "When Senate President Arthur Tufts
received the emotion packed resolution, he quickly assigned it to the
Rules Committee and the item was never heard from again."
Perhaps members of the Senate were familiar with McConnell's
"detailed dossier" that Foster's reported about May 9 in explaining
the university's decision to allow the trio to speak: McConnell had
reviewed 40 speeches by the men and "did not turn up a single
instance where the speeches could be shown to have incited either
rioting or violence."
The situation at UNH could have been different, the newspaper
reported, considering the number of people who turned out and the
charged atmosphere.
"Yet, as Gov. Walter Peterson pointed out Wednesday," it was
reported, "there was not a pane of glass broken, not a single bloody
nose reported, not a single arrest recorded."
In a recent interview, Peterson said he was in favor of letting
Hoffman, Rubin and Dellinger speak, "because if you stop free speech
the side that may be trying to even pervert the truth in some instances wins."
Still, Peterson said precautions needed to be taken to prevent a
riot, especially on the heels of Kent State.
"We were determined not to let that happen," he said.
Fred Hall, a Rochester resident who was chairman of the trustees at
the time, recalled that on his way to UNH the day of the rally he
noticed "a lot of students sitting on the grass or milling around but
sensed they were more curious than belligerent."
He penned a recollection of the event, which noted there "had been
predictions of demonstrations and possible violence. The Governor had
two groups of State Troopers out of sight but nearby. He also had
alerted the National Guard in Concord. There was a commotion in the
hallways. It was a couple of Federal Marshals seeking to serve an
arrest warrant on Wefers."
Really, Wefers said, it was a clarifying order by the federal judge
that ruled when the rally could take place. Hoffman, Rubin and
Dellinger had already made their intentions known, and after the
event the 21-year-old Wefers, a political science major, was cited
with criminal contempt for "willful violation" of the court's order.
Former U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman, then the state's attorney general,
was not happy with what took place the night of the rally, telling
reporters, "I believe we have seen the depths of deceitful behavior
this afternoon" and "it will be dealt with."
More than 1,000 students signed a petition saying they were "equally
responsible and legally accountable" for the contempt charge.
Legal action was not taken against the Chicago 3 because they were
not "subject to the court," the Monitor reported then-U.S. Attorney
David Brock as saying.
Wefers lost his case and was fined $500 and ordered to spend 20 days
in jail, but not before the proceeding, which attracted hundreds of
students looking to show their support, was interrupted by a fire
alarm during Hall's testimony. Wefers appealed to the First Circuit
Court of Appeals in Boston, where he was represented by Dover
attorney Bill Shea, who sported a crewcut and was "as straight as an arrow."
Shea's daughter, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter of Rochester, said
at the time of the case her father supported the Vietnam War "but
what my dad supported the most was the First Amendment. ... Even
though he was a conservative Republican that's what we shared in
common ... and that's why he did that."
She said her father didn't agree with Wefers's approach to the issue
"but he knew that they had a right to speak."
Wefers' first taste of activism came on the residence hall council,
when he successfully petitioned to have better lights installed in
the men's rooms and subsequently so students old enough to fight in
a war could have girlfriends in their dorm room for part of the night.
Anderson's documentary portrays Wefers as a principled young man
unabashed in his views of authority, especially of the "pig" who
delivered the contempt summons. But he said he actually respected the
decision by Peterson and Rudman not to have students leave the field
house when it was clear the Chicago 3 wouldn't show until later.
"They couldn't have gotten everyone out of there and locked this
place up," he said.
Hall said administrators sensed that despite concerns the rally was
going to turn out to be "pretty much a nonevent. The large crowd was
mainly curious and peaceful," and some people, especially women,
drifted toward the doors before it was over. Anderson said the
students were self-regulating.
The documentary also features a philosophy professor, Paul
Brockelman, addressing students outside of Thompson Hall on the eve
of the rally.
"I think we have to be extremely careful at this stage," he said. "It
means we have to be careful with those policemen. We have to be
careful with those National Guardsmen. We must be as sure as we can
be that we do not allow them to get in the position where they can
pull the trigger. We must control our own lives."
At the rally, Dellinger apologized for being late, but "I don't mean
I'm sorry we were not here at 3:30."
The crowd cheered.
"Right on," he said. The group was stopped by a police officer at a
"routine" checkpoint, he said. Scagliotti was driving, and he said
there was no way the police could prevent the group from arriving.
"I think the National Guard was afraid," he said, "because what to
you do with 4,000 screaming college students who would come wherever you are?"
Inside the hall, Hoffman, after smoking a marijuana joint on stage
with Rubin, declared, "Tonight the granite is going to crack."
He also cracked a few anti-American imperialism jokes about the
Washington Monument, and the crowd laughed.
Richard Polonsky, who at the time was working for a UNH program that
dispatched college students to tutor children in disadvantaged
communities, said there was definitely a festival element to the
rally, "and I think the sympathy for what happened at Kent State just
matured over the week that followed. ... I would say right at that
point in time things were just happening too fast you couldn't
digest it all with the speed at which it was unfolding."
Rivierre, the UNH newspaper editor, drove the trio out of town that night.
As the 40th anniversary approaches, those who were there are
wondering if college students today are capable of mounting the same
resistance to unpopular policies.
"Frankly, I just discount it as we were in the right place at the
right time," said Rivierre, who today works for a regional
development corporation in Coos County. "There was this collision of
... music, culture, drugs, the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War ...
baby boomer generation ... the draft."
Polonsky, a Bedford resident and visiting fellow at Brown University
focused on climate change, said the country's leadership became so
frightened by what it saw in the late 1960s that "they've worked very
hard since to minimize the potential for social conflict. ... One of
the things they've figured out how to do is how to make people happy
by having them focus on personal consumption. If you have a lot of
toys to play with you're not as likely to be upset by society's shortcomings."
Some of the graduates of that era have remained committed to social
change, Polonsky and Rivierre said. They said graduates have founded
food co-ops, helped divorced women go to college, set up accessible
day care centers, worked to improve the mental health system or serve
in government. Hoffman, Rubin and Dellinger are deceased.
Wefers, who lives in Manchester, went to work for the state, first as
a food stamp case technician and then a welfare fraud investigator.
That thrust him into a high-profile role hunting down parents who
didn't pay child support.
In 1999 he became the chief of internal affairs at the Department of
Corrections and today works as an investigator for the Massachusetts
Department of Mental Health. Over the years he also held stints as a
part-time police officer in Nottingham and a special deputy sheriff
in Rockingham County Sheriff's Office.
He acknowledges it wasn't a career path he envisioned for himself,
except he was always intrigued by criminal investigations.
"It's really a simple question of you get to be 25 years old or
whatever and it's time to make a living and you need health insurance
and you need to get an apartment and pay for a car and all this
stuff," he said.
As for UNH 40 years ago, Dukel said, the political radicalism died
down by the fall.
"There was not an overall organization that a significant number of
students aligned with," Dukel said.
Still, the fire ignited in Durham and on college campuses across the
land burned into the pages of history, Scagliotti said. Between April
and May 1971, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held 22
hearings on the war and anti-war groups were allowed to testify.
"They allowed us in the body of Congress," said Scagliotti, who
testified, "and that really came from that week a year before."
.
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