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

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
00018091
Release Decision: 
RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
U
Document Page Count: 
11
Document Creation Date: 
March 9, 2023
Document Release Date: 
February 6, 2020
Sequence Number: 
Case Number: 
F-2016-00496
Publication Date: 
December 6, 1968
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon DOC RELATES TO PROJECT ME[15706132].pdf782.42 KB
Body: 
Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 SITUATION INFORMATION REPORT Some seventy-five Negro leaders from throughout the United States, including both conservatives and militants, summoned to Washington for an unpublicized meeting with the Director of the Small Business Administration, formed an advisory committee to SBA on problems concerning Negroes in the ghetto. - It is reported that a similar meeting for Spanish-American leaders was scheduled 30 November and that the Negro group plans to assemble again on 20 December. Allegedly some of those in- vited were reluctant to serve in an advi,sory capacity to a federal agency and wanted their identities withheld because they felt asso- ciation with the""establishment" might tarnish their images in the ghetto. 6,x9te.br 40 At its 22nd Annual Clinical Convention which opened in Bal Harbour, Florida, on I December, the American Medical Associa- _ tion voted to bar racial discrimination in local medical societies and to set up a system of enforcement and also voted to extend an invitation to the nation's doctors of osteopathy to join with the doc- tors of medicine. The effect will be to open the American health structure more widely to participation by -about 20', 000 osteopaths and Negro medical physicians. About 250 representatives of high school underground papers, press services and syndicates, and radio, and film-making groups as well as the staffs of many weekly and bimonthly tabloids met in Madison, Wisconsin, the weekend of I December in the first national conference of the "underground press." Regular newsmen were barred from the proceedings. Setting up two problems - "How we can attack and undermine . the mass media?" ind "How we can relate to the mass media?", the underground journalists opened a debate that in the end left the two problems still unresolved. -6 It was clear from the conference, that the hottest new area; of the underground media are the high school papers and the film �� 4,11iM . . � . ' � MI... APP. Ale ..'Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091,;�4_,�,,,..:,,,�, Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 makers consider themselves as the propaganda arm of the most mili- tant factions of the radical movement. Probably influenced by the vast amount of pornographic and vulgar material available on most newstends, the loosening standards of TV and radio, and the tremendous growth of the underground media, our once prudent although not prudish college newspapers seem to be succumbing to an urge to make free use of obscenities once seen as grafiti on washroom walls. The phenomenon has been referred to as the filthy speech movement and goes beyond the use of dirty words as .it 'also encompasses verbal imagery that uses many forms of sexual perversion. Included in the modus operandi of campus dissidents to exert the most influence for their "causes" is to attempt to control either from inside of from without, the most influential of the campus or- ganizations and the carnpus paper has to be a prime target. A Vcolor- fill" means of expression is part and parcel of their articulation on most subjects. Printed obscenities have recently resulted in stu- dent-administration confrontations on four campuses,. all in the Big Ten. The four-letter syndrome appears to have infected college journalism in all regions of the country. Except for the four Mid- western cases, however, most college papers at the moment' seem to have no serious problem with official censorship. Many people wonder why the colleges don't crack down on the student papers. One -- reason is that many of the papers today are largely or wholly indepen- dent. One more modern phenomenon is the growth of the "guerrilla theater." The name was adopted because the groups use the tactics of guerrilla fighters, that is, they hit and run with emphasis on the shock effect to people. Since early June, "guerrilla" troupes have been springing up on campuses and in cities across the country. staging their surprise extravaganzas on streets and beaches, on the stage of churches and before community groups. An example of this:theater took place in the Chicago loop recently as a crowa was leaving-an early showing of the movie "The Green Berets": Four. "soldiers" marched down the street and stopped beneath the theater's marquee. "Kill! Kill! Kill!" they shouted. � "For What?" asked one. "For Peace!" the others answered in chorus. Suddenly, the four charged two women who had arrived ressed in black pajamas and coolie hats. They kicked and beat the women and CIA IlfIEUAL USE ONLY S. "i'"kWApproved for Release: 2019/08/12 d00018091 -1,7i. Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 smeared them with blood. Some people in the crowd smiled in wan confusion; others looked visibly ill. Then, as quickly as they arrived, the four marched away. Only later did the shocked moviegoers realize that they had been treated to a piece of "guerrilla theater," performed by a loosely organized band of drift resistors and antiwar protestors known as "Rapid Transit Guerrilla Communications." The cast of a guerrilla "play" often includes one or two actors planted among a crowd of "straights." Their purpose is to confuse the rest of the crowd - and the authorities. There are purists 'among guerrilla performers who insist that real guerrilla theatre must leave the victims unaware that they have been put on. Several troupes are already alleged to be in rehearsal for the Inauguration on January 20. Plans for an intensive campaign to recruit new members for the Young Socialist Alliance, particularly among high school students, wire drafted at the organization's convention in Chicago last weekend. Reportedly, some 900 delegates and observers from 32 states and 8 foreign nations were attending the four-day convention of this MARXIST youth group of the Socialist Workers Party. A spokesman said that vigorous action is planned for university campuses and at the high schools of America in an effort to enlist more students in the struggle to build the Socialist movement in the U. S. and bring down capitalism and imperialism. Reportedly, assured of a change in the American presidency in January, and encouraged by increasing hopes of a negotiated peace in Vietnam, dozens of young American draft dodgers and deseiters who fled to Canada are quietly slipping back home and the flow is beginning to reverse itself: It is estimated that several thousand Americans have fled to Canada since 1964, most of them to dodge the draft, but at least 300 of them soldiers who deserted their units prior to em- barkation for Vietnam. � Under existing treaties which cover only those offenses which are crimes on both sides of the border, the youths cannot be extra- dited. Neither draft dodging nor desertion from the American armed forces is a crime under Canadian statutes. -4 4. CitV.? .t..F.63,40/..7,10,. I.-- 4. Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091. � , � It- � -14."; 11.1P,I4 1:14r9A;V* Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 .1Pr. The maximum penalty for draft dodgers back in the states is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Deserters chance a court- martial and two years at hard labor. But the race is already on for some to avoid the shame of going home after the fighting has stopped. Timing is of great importance. On_2 December, Mark RUDD, Columbia SDS leader, was tentatively rejected for military_ service after a pre-induction physi- cal. He could be ordered back for another exam in thirty days. RUDD had promised at a news conference last week that he would go into the Army and continue his revolutionary activities if found -qualified after the physical. He had lost his student deferment after he was suspended from Columbia. His appeal for an occupational deferment as a "revolutionary" was denied. The first in a series of trials of six Black Panthers accused of attempted murder and assault following a gun fight with Oakland policemen April 6 began in Oakland 2 December. _One of the six, Eldridge CLEAVER, is still being sought as a fugitive. He failed t6 surrender for return to state prison as a parole violator last Wednesday. His trial probably will be scheduled for next year. Despite persistent rumors placing CLEAVER in Canada, Cuba, or Sweden, the search for him is centered in the San Francisco area, Attorney Charles GARRY, who defended BPP leader Huey NEWTON, is attorney for the Panther Group and the Oakland Seven. The Oakland Seven, young men indicted on felony conspiracy charges for planning last October's STOP THE-DRAFT WEEK, also had their trial set for 2 December. As CARRY is defending both groups, one of the trials will have to be postponed. Black militant Stokely CARMICHAEL and his wife, Miriam MAKEBA, have been moving out of their house in the 5000 block of 16th St., N. W., Washington, D. C., this week. His intended future location has not been revealed and he is being secretive about his intentions. Sources close to CARMICHAEL have indicated the couple is moving to another home in the residential section of N. W. Washing- ton. CARMICHAEL said his destination was secret but that "I'm going to fight and my fight is where black people are. I plan to fight with � my black brothers and sisters against Western society and its evils of racism and capitalism." S. aW�11����� IIIMmMots� linammiNtmr� � .'1414tia� AAA ,�-.:-Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091,c,..�.e.,%,.Z-.,,,.,... � for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 - One local columnist alleged CARMICHAEL has shipped his furniture, etc, to the West African nation of Guinea and that he and his wife will follow - that CARMICHAEL is beating it out of the country before the new President gets a chance to indict him. As confrontations between the BPP and law enforcement officials accelerate and more and more of the militant BPP in New Jersey have get out of uniform and go underground. said the state BPP minister of defense. policemen do not have the same option. incidents occur, the leaders ordered their members to "We're walking targets," Unfortunately, uniformed � The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which recently ousted Stokely CARMICHAEL and severed its loose ties to the Black Panther Party has just formed a new alliance. Allegedly - in an effort to ward off the mounting repression facing the black communities, SNCC and the National Black Liberators have agreed to a political alliance. The Black Liberators, organized the past summer and based in St. Louis, claims to be organized around no2-7td,,t plitical and economic issues, as well as an ideology of self-defense. They are the most militant and publicized group in the St. Louis area and also hive created deputy chapters elsewhere in the Midwest. On the local level they have formed coalitions with black and radical white groups in Missouri and Illinois. To facilitate the alliance on the inter-organizational level, Liberators.have agreed to accept positions within SNCC and SNCC leaders will become part of the Black Liberators. Phil HUTCHINGS, H. Rap BROWN, and James FOREMAN have been named General Field Marshal, General of Human Justice and General of Foreign Affairs respectively in the Liberators. Part of an obvious effort to restrengthen SNCC. HUTCHINGS said last week that the SNCC-Liberator alliance was only the first in a series of alliances by SNCC with community groups. One of Alab,ima's leading criminal lawyers has appealed the murder conviction of Marvin FELTON, a Negro, on the grounds that American white racism was responsible for the insanity that justifies a plea of not guilty. FELTON became embroiled in an afgument with a white man in a cemetery where several persons were working clearing off the land. As the argument became heated the two brothers hurled ie , � Approved for Release: 2619/0.8/12 C00018061-t - � ...It.% Wit.omere� ... � t:;1711fr 1 ..A." Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 racial epithets described as, "nigger," "buck," and "sunshine." At this point Felton threw bricks at the brothers who continued the name calling. Then one of the brothers cried out that he was "going home to get my gun and kill this nigger," and left. FELTON ran home to get his gun, too. When he returned he didn't see the two brothers, and after.a few words with fellow workers, he resumed his work. Allegedly then, a few minutes later one of thelarothers, William, standing about twelve feet away, armed with a stick, said, "I ain't afraid of your gun, rocks, bullets, or nothing." FELTON suddenly pulled his gun and shot William squarely between the eyes. The other brother, Joseph, seeing his brother shot, charged FELTON with a claw hammer, but FELTON wheeled about and fired three times into Joseph, killing him, too. The lawyer says that tensions and other racial oppressions placed upon black people in this country by whites were the force that drove FELTON insane. In contrast to that position, we (editorial) note the strong feelings alleged by mariy that the Chicago Police Department wrong- fully and viciously overreacted to the tensions existing and to the . attacks upon them during the Democratic National Convention. According to the Daily_World (Communist newspaper) - an intensified drive against militant black organizations is foreshadowed by the preparations for a "full-scale witchhunt"by the Senate Perman- ent Investigations Subcommittee against the Black Panther Party. The SNCC�and SDS are also on the roster. The student council of New York University's Washington Square College last week adopted a resolution supporting the National Liberation Front of Vietnam.- This is not so surprising when it is noted that a recent .election put the Peace and Freedom Party student group in control of thirteen of the sixteen councirseats of this 6,000- member college. Voter turnout at the election was slightly over 600. Affiliation with the national party is one of the unique features of the radical Peace and FreedoM Party at New York University. For the New York University group this-affiliation ties in with the concept that student politics cannot be separated from the society as a whole. By controlling the student council, PFP also controls student govern- ment Tunds. A PFP member stated that "PFP gives leess money to clubs like the biology club and more to SDS and the Black Allied 6 a. e Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091�,,�' � Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 Student Association which are the largest activist groups on campus." � The cumulative affect of harassment, criticism and tightened control of the Metropolitan Police Department in the District of Colusnbia, Would seem to be reflected in the announcement that recent extensive recruitment advertising similar to that conducted by Fairfax County earlier in the year, had produced only one appli- cant for the MPD whereas Fairfax County had netted 2,000. Despite recruitment teams touring the nation's military bases and other recruitment efforts, currently the Department has filled only 64 of the 1.000 vacancies recently authorized by Congress. Not only are a rather small percent of interested Negroes able to meet the eligibility standards but very few are showing any desire for employment by the Department. Apparently the present total climate is such that the MPD finds it difficult to just maintain its numerical strength. Further deterioration in police:community relations and in the law enforce- ment atmosphere locally could present an even more serious man- _ power problem for the Department. ige flORNMEM.re. .� A:44' _ _1. _- � t .Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 Calendar of Tentatively Scheduled Activities of Possible Interest For the Remainder of 1968. � "Asterisked" items are either reported for the first time or contain additions or changes to previously reported activities. While considerable spontaneous or planned activity is likely at high schools and on college campuses during December, other volatile action will probably be reduced until after the first of the year. The militznt Negro segment, particularly students; however, seem to be getting more vocal and more demanding. School vaca- tions, the coming Holidays, inclement weather, and a need to re- energize after all the election campaign protests will have their cumulative affect. Much early planning has begun under the loose leadership of the National Mobilization Committee and the SDS to generate protest actions centered around the January 20th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D. C. December 1968 December 6 December 7 Author Norman MAILER, will appeal his conviction on charges of unseemly and disorderly conduct during the October 1967 peace march on the Pentagon. Sentenced to five days in jail by a U. S. Commissioner, the appeal will be made to the 4th U. S. Court of Appeals. Baltimore, Maryland - A new date for the trial of H. Rap BROWN will be set when Chief Fedpral Judge Roszel C. THOMSEN makes his decision relative to an argument made 25 November by BROWN's attorney that the change in venue in BROWN's trial on arson and riot charges in Mary- land courts violated his constitutional rights. *Fayetteville, North Carolina - The United-Anti- War Mobilization Front (UAWMF) has announced plans for a mass meeting at the Moorehead Planetarium, Chapel Hill, N. C., where speeches are to be given zdvocating that GI's be given the right to speak out against the war. The UAWMF hopes to .have military personnel -_Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091;,,,:K.k;;,.. Win I "061 r December 7 December 7 December 7 December 7 & 8 December 8 December 10 Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 present at this meeting and if enough servicemen do attend, UAWMF plans to proceed to Fort Bragg where they will attempt to leaflet the post and talk to soldiers stationed at the post. *Tampa, Florida - An anti-war demonstration will be held at Tampa, Florida, by students from nearby colleges. *Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The Student Mobiliza- tion Committee has announced that the Ft. Dix Free Speech Movement will sponsor a "GI Teach--In" on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Allegedly, active duty GI's_will participate - math topics will be "The War in Vietnam" and "Rights of Citizens in Uniform." *Columbia, South Carolina AWARE, a left-wing student organization at the University of South Caro- lina has proclaimed 7 December as "GI Peace Day." A rally and demonstration will be attempted on the grounds of the South Carolina State Capitol. Allegedly, efforts will be made to organize soldiers at Ft. Jackson for participation in the demonstration. Task Force the underground newsrag published in San Francisco--- aimed at servicemen and veterans - carried a notice in its October 25 edition calling for GI actions December 7 and 8: "1. Organize - teach- rnarches, discussions, GI dinners, etc. 2. Contact - local vets, student anti-war groups for assistance. 3 Write - P.IO.BOX 31268, San Fran- cisco, 94131, so we can inform you of what's' happen- ing around the country." *Tacoma, Washington - The GI-Civilian Alliance for Peace plans a GI March and speak-out for soldiers from Ft. Lewis, Washington. It hopes to attract 5.000 demonstrators. . . *Bloomington, Indiana - Alleging that it had come to their attention that CIA was sending recruiters to � Indiana University on 9 December, representatives OFNIMill��������� � '4. a . � "Itt,"...%Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091n7A314r-W!,,fk.r:74,711".:, �..N Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 - December 10 December 12 December 13 of the SDS, Young Socialist Alliance, New Politics Party, Committee to End the War in Vietnam, and the New University Conference has requested that the Agency dispute the contention of these repre- sentatives that CIA should not be permitted to re- cruit on campus.before an open public meeting with radio and press coverage on Tuesday, December 10. *New York City - The appellate division stayed the jailing of Adam Clayton POWELL for criminal con- tempt within hours of the 4 p.m. deadline set for his surrender, -Z December. Argument is scheduled 10 December on his appeal from his conviction. He faces a maximum sentence of 90 days. POWELL's seating in the 91st Congress is still moot. The eight attorneys defending POWELL recently won his plea for a hearing in the Supreme Court on his expulsion from the 90th Congress. The hearing will be placed on the court calendar next January. If seated at all, the question of restoration of his twenty- two years seniority may rest on the Supreme Court decision. *Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Ira EINHORN, a mem- ber of the Philadelphia Resistance (PR), announced plans to sponsor a rally at he Young Men's Hebrew Association. The purpose of the -rally is to raise money to reimburse the-Warlocks motocycle club which has blamed members of tho PR for damaging motorcycles belonging to the WE:locks during a George C. WALLACE for President rally in October 1968. This rally will attract "Hippie" types and the motorcycle groups and could result in a confrontation between the two. New York City - The National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee annual Bill of Rights dinner is scheduled for the Americana Hotel. � The NECLC a the old ECLC rejuvenated with a new name. The old ECLC was cited as a Communist Front in 1956 by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and in � 1959 by HCUA. Featured speakers will be: Dr. Benjamin SPOCK and Dick GREGORY. I. 91�11=men. ����eame.. � � 11��41111M.. T � :".r.:" 11.21M�Moir ; '!ApProVe-crfOr-'R--e'le;-a;'240iI-610-67I-2' C0001 809 pproved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091 .1 December 16 Corliss LAMONT is chairman of NECLC. *San Francisco - The trial of Attorney Terence HALL1NAN, arising from earlier disturbances on the strife torn San Francisco State College campus, has been set for 16 December. He is charged with battery against a police officer last May. SOURCES: Government and news media reports RELIABILITY: Probably true �sot ..4 11 � a. . � � .� a. � 11���ft` � . ��� ' ,$ a ,W)F71 ..iM14Approved for Release: 2019/08/12 C00018091. � ���01 117'005 ItsiX. 11.1.�=��� 1