March 16, 1970: 54 years ago, March 16 1970, the Bay Area chapter of Movement for a [...]
54 years ago, March 16 1970, the Bay Area chapter of Movement for a Democratic Military was formed. Started out of the People’s Office at 1921 Grove St, Berkeley (the HQ of several radical anticapitalist groups) MDM was an attempt to organize GIs in order to stop the Vietnam War
MDM sought to abolish the draft & the military rank hierarchy, guarantee the legal right of soldiers to refuse to fight in Vietnam or serve as riot control, and negotiate the freedom of Huey Newton and other radicals in exchange for the release of American POWs by the Vietnamese
The following year, the BAMDM played a leading role in the Stop Our Ship (SOS) campaign, in which sailors stationed at Naval Air Station Alameda fought to keep the USS Coral Sea aircraft carrier from deploying to Vietnam https://t.co/Wd1g6Fcpf7
