| RECENT survey prepared
hs by the Research Siaff of
a the National Coordinating
} Committee to End the War in
_ Vietnam indicates that there are
_ Presently in the United States
_ More than 60 candidates for
local, state and national offices
Who can be’ considered “peace
Candidates.” These candidates
following about half that many
id Who ran in Spring primaries, are
‘Tow engaged in primary cam-
Paigns or are planning to run as
‘Independents in November. For
the most part, these candidates
have never previously partici-
_ Pated in electoral politics. With
_ few exceptions, they are run-
_ Ming without the support of re-
_ bolar party machinery, whether
Democratic or Republican.

The peace Campaigns can be
found all across the country —
_ Many in localities that have ne-
_ Yer previously experienced radi-
_ fal political activity.

, ce Vigor and seriousness of
ie Peace candidates has already
made itself apparent. But many
questions remain to be answered
efore we can understand the
Phenomenon of the campaigns.

First, just what is meant by
_ “te term “Peace Candidate?”
_ Obviously, there can be no
Single answer to this question.
some commentators apply the
term to any candidate who iden-
tifies With the “dove” position
of Senators J. W. Fullbright
(D-Ark.) and Robert F. Kennedy
(D-N.Y.). This position calls for
® limited de-escalation of the
War coupled with greater initia-
| tives to set peace talks. Others,

cluding this writer, would use
the term more discriminatingly

—— teserving it for candidates
| who take an unequivocal stand
*eainst the continued American

U.S peace candidates

New dimension given
anti-war movement

military presence in Vietnam.
Included within this Jatter cate-
gory are a number of candidates
who cajJl for the immediate with-
drawal of U.S. troops; most,
however, call for a cease-fire fol-
lowed by the staged withdrawal
of U.S. troops, to make it pos-
sible for some _ international
agency to arrange a peaceful
transfer of power to a popular-
ly-elected Vietnamese govern-
ment.

What are the origine of the

By MICHAEL KLARE

they did not constitute a politi-
cal challenge to the power elite
that determines U.S; foreign
policy.

The involvement in electoral
politics has of course raised
many questions on its own: in
particular, whether to work
within an established party or
to run an independent campaign.
Some prospective candidates
have sought to mobilize exist-
ing left-liberal coalitions within
the Democratic party to pro-

MICHAEL KLARE is director of news service of
the National Coordinating Committee to End the
War in Vietnam. A graduate student at Columbia
University, he is chairman of the Independent Com-
mittee on Vietnam there. His article is republished
from New World Review.

peace campaigns? There can be
no question but that the impulse
for the current upsurge in peace

politics is to be found in the

great groundswell of opposition
to the war in Vietnam. In fact,
the most vigorous peace cam-
paigns have grown directly out
of local anti-war protect activ-
ity. A year ago, the peace can-
didates and their supporters
were engaged in the kind of pro-
test. actions that have become
familiar to us: marches, parades,
rallies, vigils, etc. Through these
activities, an anti-war constitu-
ency was established in many
communities across the coun-
try. But a protest movement has
its limitations, too.

By the end of 1965, it had be-
come clear to many people in
these new constituencies that
protest actions alone were not
adequate to achieve peace—that

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Adigie in Grenma (Havena)

mote their campaigns. The
Scheer and Weiss campaigns are
examples of this approach.
Other examples were the ambi-
tious senatorial campaigns of.
Thomas B. Adams in Massachu-
setts and David Frost in New
Jersey. Frost had the support of
the New Jersey Democratic
Council, which also sponsored
the primary campaigns of three
Congressional candidates, Win-
ston Bostick in the 5th District,
William Nicholson in the 7th
and John Joseph in the 9th.
Other peace candidates are en-
tered in the Maryland primary
(William R. Martin in the 5th
C.D., Seymour Spelman in the
8th, and Philip Goodman in the
7th), and in the New Hampshire
primary (Eugene Daniell in the
2nd District). °

There are other candidates,
however, who have rejected this
path — arguing that such a co-
alition elected Johnson in the
first place, and that the Demo-
cratic Party has become.a “war .
party.” For candidates of this
persuasion, the only alternative
has been the formation of inde-
pendent campaign organizations.

What do the peace candidates
hope to accomplish? At_ first,
peace campaigns were intended
largely as protest actions — as
a further means of registering
opposition to the war in Viet-
nam. In these cases, votes for
the peace candidates were pub-
licized as a vote of “no confi-
dence” in the Johnson Adminis-
tration. But the candidates be-
gan to see their role in a more
positive light — as an opportu-
nity to educate people on the
-meaning of the. war, and to
present concrete proposals for

the achievement of peace in
Vietnam. At this point, it was

also felt. that the peace cam--

paigns would force some
“hawks” in Congress to become
“doves” in order to stay in office.
In all of these cases, however,
the peace campaigns were
view as complete acts ~ in
themselves, as “one-shot” affairs.

An increasing number of can-
didates, however, are looking
beyond the election, toward the
formation of an on-going anti-
war political base that could
eventually compete for the con-
trol of national power. This per-

spective represents the transfor- -

mation of the anti-war protest
movement into a serious politi-
cal movement. Leslie Silberman,
a founder of the Queen Com-
mittee to End the War in Viet-
nam and now an independent
candidate for Congress, expres-
ses this perspective as follows:
“We propose the formation of a
new movement, a movement
which will necessarily have to
start small and locally, but which
with serious effort can become
a national movement which in
1968 or soon thereafter can raise
a serious challenge to the two
war parties and the powers for
which they speak.”

What do the peace campaigns
portend? Although most of the
peace candidates have yet to
test their objectives at the polls,
it is possible to make some in-
itial estimate of the significance
of their campaigns. There can
be no question, whatever the
electoral results, of their tre-
mendous contribution; at the
very least, they have given new
life and dimension to the peace
movement. But they have ac-
complished more than that.

In the first place, the involve-
ment in electoral politics has in
many cases led to a real break-

through in relations between the
peace movement and the Negro
freedom movement. It is clear
that this has been a consequence
of political activity: for if a can-
didate is to win electoral sup-
port, he must make his appeal
meaningful to his constituents.
And those candidates who have
exposed the domestic conse-
quences of the Vietnam war
have discovered that they are
precisely those conditions which
are under attack from the civil
rights movement: too little funds
and attention given to ending
poverty, urban decay, and in-
adequate, unequal education.

_A further consequence of elec-
toral activity has been the effort
made. by some candidates to ap-
proach the labor movement with
their radical program. Although
it is too early to point to speci-
fic results, several candidates
have been sufficiently encour-
gece to pursue these efforts fur-
ther.

Perhaps the. most significant
consequence of the peace cam-
paigns, however, has been the
creation of permanent organiza-
tions dedicated to the formation
of an anti-war political move-
ment. Unlike past peace cam-
paigns, which usually disap-
peared a few days after the elec-
tion, most of the present peace
candidates are vitally concerned
with what will happen after
Election Day, and many are pre-
pared to continue their political
organizing whatever the out-
come: at the polls,

In many communities, the
peace campaigns have resulted

“in the emergence “of a young

leadership, people in their 20's
and 30’s, who are interested in
building an on-going political
movement,” a fact that portends
well for the future of anti-war
political activity.

Nobel prize winner
urges peace vote

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER Al-
bert Szeni-Gyorgye last week
urged American voters to parti-
cipate in the coming Congres-
sional elections to back advo-
cates of peace in Vietnam and
against those candidates who
support Johnson's dirty war.

“Our present Congress and
Senate have a few such men who
see the complete senselessness,
immoraiity and danger of our
present killing-party in Vietnam

October 28, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9

. .. Our future depends on whe-
ther we can find people of this
type and get them into leading
positions in our representative
system, replacing the people
who ‘think they can solve great
moral problems by napalm.”

“Moral responsibility cannot —
be delegated. He who will vote
at the polls for people who sup-
port war will have blood on his

- hands, which may be the blood
of his own son.” ge