1970 Special Conference Issue of The Student Mobilizer, Supporting GI Resistance, Black Panthers, and Vietnam Self-Determination

[Counterculture, Radical Activism] The Student Mobilizer, "Special Conference Issue” Volume 3, No. 2 (February 5, 1970), Published by the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
Washington, D.C.: Student Mobilization Committee, 1970. 23 pages. Light edgewear, some toning and a small tear at lower corner of front wrapper.

A powerful primary document of student antiwar organizing at the height of the Vietnam War, this 1970 special conference issue of The Student Mobilizer captures the urgency and ideological complexity of the largest student-led antiwar coalition in the United States. Published by the Student Mobilization (truncated) Committee to End the War in Vietnam (SMC), the newspaper served as a national platform for movement strategy, internationalist solidarity, and intersectional radicalism—including support for the Black Panther Party, imprisoned activists, and women’s and labor struggles. This issue reflects the group’s Third National Student Antiwar Conference, held in Washington, D.C. in early 1970. The cover art is a stark black-and-white cartoon by T. Ungerer showing a Vietnamese peasant recoiling in terror before a mounted American soldier, under the looming presence of a full moon. The caption—“The Americans Are Coming”—casts colonial violence in ironic counterpoint to Paul Revere’s revolutionary cry. At bottom is a boxed table of contents revealing the issue’s militant scope: “GI organizing... Black student struggles... Women’s liberation... Building the mass movement... International solidarity... The war and the recession.”

Inside, the newspaper features a powerful handwritten headline across a double-page spread demanding: “FREE THE ‘CONSPIRACY 7.’ FREE ALL BLACK PANTHER PRISONERS! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!” Accompanying this is a bold image of Black protestors holding signs reading “Community” and “All Power to the People”, and a placard supporting Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and the Panther 21. The visual language evokes the paper’s explicit alignment with Black Power and revolutionary anti-imperialism. Numerous position papers expand on these commitments. A major article titled “Self-Determination for Vietnam” declares: “Imperialism, war is an expression of the drive by capitalist countries to exploit the labor and resources of the underdeveloped world... The Vietnamese people have the right to determine their own future free from foreign domination.” Elsewhere, the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) contributes a text titled “Building the Mass Antiwar Movement,” which states: “Only the power of masses of people... can stop the government from continuing this war. It will not be won by moral appeals to the President but by pressure from the streets.”

Economic critique is central to the issue, with Eric Lerner’s position paper “The War and the Recession” arguing: “The war economy and the inflation it causes... are not the result of mismanagement but of capitalism’s contradictions... The working class must come to see this war as their war—waged against them.” Another critical section outlines the SMC’s official “Resolution on 1970 Antiwar Work,” passed at the conference. It calls for “massive spring demonstrations,” coalition-building across race and class, and organizing “in high schools, on campuses, and among GIs,” while reaffirming support for liberation movements at home and abroad. Notably, the resolution critiques liberals who “want to negotiate an imperialist peace” and urges the movement to “refuse illusions in the Democratic Party.” A photograph below shows a massive antiwar march with signs reading “Bring All the GIs Home Now” and “Vietnam for the Vietnamese.” The crowd, stretching deep into the city street, underscores the scale and urgency of antiwar sentiment in 1970—a time when over 475,000 U.S. troops were deployed in Vietnam, and opposition had reached both working-class and military communities. Very good condition overall. (Inventory #: 22203)