London March 19th, 1968
At a well attended press conference today, three leaders of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, Mike Martin, secretary, Pat Jordan, chairman, and Tariq Ali, a leading member of the Ad-hoc Committee, repudiated allegations printed in the "yellow press" that they had set out to deliberately provoke violence on March 17th.
"At no time," stated Pat Jordan, "did we advocate a confrontation with the police or violence against the police." Tariq Ali stated that the police were as "responsible as anyone for what happened." Mike Martin informed the conference that certain allegations made by several papers were being considered by the Campaign's lawyers to see if they were actionable.
The three spokesmen for V.S.C. issued the following statement:
"We wish to point out that we attempted to deliver letters of protest to the American Embassy - as had been agreed to by the police - but were prevented from doing so, in the first instance, by the crowd in front of the square. When we attempted to get through the police lines to tell the crowd to proceed with the march as planned, we were prevented from going forward by the police.
"But having said that, we think it is absolutely hypocritical for the press and the Government to moan and whine about the 'violence' of the demonstrators. What can be expected when we are constantly exposed - in the press and television - to the daily crimes of the Americans in Vietnam: napalm, torture, bombing etc? As far as we are concerned, the mood and temper of the demonstration on Sunday was determined by the nature of the American aggression. It is impossible to remain calm and peaceful before the barbarism of American aggression in Vietnam. As our president Bertrand Russell has said: to remain quiet, to acquiesce in face of such barbarism is to condone it. Many of those who have been "shocked" by events on Sunday have not made one word of protest about events in Vietnam.
"Frustration has increased because all efforts to turn the Americans from their course seem to have failed, and especially because the Labour Government has reneged on every promise it ever made on Vietnam. Its leader, Harold Wilson, just ignores his own party's annual conference decision on Vietnam.
"We are convinced that all those who are concerned about the war will seek to use whatever means are necessary to influence the Government to change its policy of slavishly following Johnson. We do not think that there is anything alien in this to British tradition. It was not until the suffragettes used the most militant means - which resulted in much violence and the smashing of windows that their voices were listened to and women won the vote. Perhaps the Vietnam movement will have to do the same.
"For our part, we are not going to let ourselves be intimidated by the press or by Tory M.P.s. We plan to counter-escalate and intensify our opposition to the Government's support for the Americans. Last Sunday's demonstration was only a beginning of our campaign against American aggression in Vietnam and in solidarity with the people of Vietnam against that aggression."