Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

uilding in acts of civil disobedience (Hunt 142-143). He spent several months observingthe war in Vietnam before returning to the United States to lead the Spring Mobilization’scommittee meetings. As chairman of Mobe, Dellinger asked Jerry Rubin to help planprotest actions at the March on Pentagon.Because Mobe was an umbrella organization consisting of largely moderateactivist organizations, “a loose confederation of Left wing, pacifist and moderate antiwargroups,” it was known for passive protest (Robinson, “100,000” 2). The plan to shutdown the Pentagon, however, demonstrated a new willingness to engage in activeresistance. Rubin was responsible for this new tactic in Mobe’s activist repertoire. Whilethe Mobe committee was expert in planning marches, selecting speakers, applying forpermits, and negotiating with local authorities, Rubin’s presence on the 87-memberMarch committee added a sense of danger and theatricality to the plans. Rubin was theradical who had organized Vietnam Day activities at the University of California,Berkeley, which included the immolation of an effigy of President Johnson, and a marchaimed at preventing troop trains from reaching the Oakland Army Terminal. As the“acknowledged master of the theatrics of dissent,” Rubin wanted to ensure that thePentagon demonstration was both memorable and different from Mobe’s previousprotests (Viorst 429). Why gather a large group of people in Washington if they didn’t doanything but listen to speeches? If they were going to march against the war, why notattack the beating heart of the war machine?As Rubin planned for a sit-in at the steps of the Pentagon, the Mobe committeefuriously negotiated with authorities over their permit to protest and planned route up55