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U.S.: Hub of 1960s Protests Turns Quiet

Amantha Perera

BERKELEY, California, Mar 19 2004 (IPS) - Walking through the famous Sproul Plaza at the University of California in Berkeley, it is hard to imagine it as the place where thousands gathered in the late 1960s to protest against the Vietnam War.

Student activists still flock to the plaza to demonstrate against new immigration laws, the construction of the wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories and the war in Iraq, but unlike four decades ago, anti-war protests are yet to galvanise this once bastion of liberalism.

Stickers advertising a protest march on the anniversary of the U.S. attack on Iraq fight for attention on notice boards with others touting yoga classes and employment opportunities.

Last year on Mar. 20 about 1,500 anti-war protestors gathered at the plaza to oppose the U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

During the peaceful demonstration 117 people, including 98 students, were arrested for misdemeanour and trespassing. But crowds have diminished at protests since then; according to observers, by October only about 300 people gathered for similar events at the university.

Berkeley’s changed attitudes were well on display in February, when Robert McNamara, U.S. secretary of defence when the Vietnam War began, attended a screening of the documentary movie ‘Fog of War’.

It was the first time the Berkeley alumnus had visited the campus since the Vietnam War, and he was warmly received by the audience during the talk that followed the screening. Even when McNamara dodged questions on the occupation of Iraq, there were no protest calls, just the occasional sigh from the audience.

"There seems to be a segment in Berkeley that is downplaying the liberal tendencies," says Jonathan Jones, a graduate student.

"There seems to be plenty to be outraged about, but it rarely gets beyond bumper stickers," adds fellow student Tristan Spianski. "It is like the people who gave Berkeley its name have diffused into the community".

The shifting focus of the university curricula might be partly responsible for the changed attitudes at Berkeley, which are reflected at other U.S. universities, where there were no signs of a popular anti-war movement during the first year of the Iraq occupation.

Business studies have gained prominence at the university, whereas in the 1960s the focus was humanities, according to Michael Nagler, who teaches peace and conflict studies at Berkeley. He believes that the attitudes of today’s students reflect their preoccupation with securing employment.

"The business school is dominant now and people are in the university looking at jobs. The university has reinvented itself as a corporation," Nagler told IPS.

Tuition at Berkeley can cost up to 20,000 dollars a year, making education an expensive business.

But the impact of the U.S. "war on terrorism" has not bypassed Berkeley, where several instances of hate-crimes have been reported. Last May, for example, a student wearing a turban was attacked by a man yelling ‘Taliban’.

The ’60s anti-war protests at the school were also part of a larger social movement that included popular support for free speech and civil rights movement, says one observer.

"There was an overriding large cultural movement then. The anti-war protests were part of that," said Jon Rainwater, executive director at California Peace Action. "It was the culture at the university".

Conversely today, no such social revival is taking place, Nagler observes.

Jones says that despite strong anti-war sentiment at the university, the anti-war movement itself is fragmented. "Maybe it is because there is no crackdown now. In the 1960s there was a crack-down here against free speech, but now this is the best place for free speech," the student told IPS.

Both Rainwater and Nagler agree it is too early to definitively compare the two anti-war movements, but they note differences. For instance, few people protested as Washington gradually increased its military engagements in Vietnam and the large-scale demonstrations popularly associated with the war built up over years.

But "there were massive crowds protesting (in the general population) when the (Iraq) war began," Rainwater said.

Despite the lack of protests at Berkeley, Nagler said today’s public has a deeper understanding of the reasons for this war. "People are aware that the issues go beyond the war in Iraq, that there are questions about the whole system".

Peace Action has seen people participate in anti-war rallies and then join other campaigns that involve U.S. foreign policy and nuclear proliferation, he added.

"If the U.S. remains in Iraq for a number of years, the protests will grow larger," predicts Rainwater, adding that it took almost a decade of military engagements before the huge anti-Vietnam war rallies occurred.

"Unfortunately, large protests seem to require a large number of American casualties in the war," Nagler added.

If the protest wave does wash over U.S. universities, there will be no lack of rallying points in Berkeley.

Though comparatively subdued, the school still remains a beacon for liberal thinkers, such as Daniel Ellsberg. The 72-year-old Berkeley resident, who released the Pentagon Papers to the press, changing the U.S. public’s perception of the Vietnam War, continues to urge citizens to resist the policies of administrations in Washington.

His book, ‘Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers’, has seen revived interest since the invasion of Iraq. In a recent interview, Ellsberg encouraged people with access to intelligence documents on Iraq to release them to the U.S. Congress or the press, just as he did with the Pentagon Papers.

"We were lied into both wars, the reasons for going in, the prospects, the length, the scale and costs in lives and dollars," Ellsberg recently told a crowd in Berkeley, adding that he saw Washington making similar mistakes in both wars.