Solidarity in motion: our colleges’ antiwar movement in May 1970

By Jessica Silver-Sharp

This is the third and final article in our Advocate series looking at student and faculty collaboration in our district during the 1970 Student Antiwar Strikes¹, which involved over a million students on nearly 900 college and high school campuses across the country. If you’re not familiar, these were in reaction to both the Kent State Massacre ² of students by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, opposition to America’s invasion of Cambodia, and the ongoing violence in Vietnam. 

Looking back, we know that while in 1970, Skyline (f. 1969) and Cañada (f. 1968) were very new colleges, CSM (f. 1922) had already experienced significant student protests, notably the 1968 College of San Mateo Student Uprisings ³ organized by the student members and advisors within the College Readiness Program (CRP) and members of the Third World Liberation Front.⁴

What we do know is that following the CSM student uprisings, students in the district increasingly voiced opposition to the Vietnam War, including to the Army draft. The first draft lottery was held December 1, 1969, such that male students entering college that Fall knew that once they graduated, they could face mandatory military service. 

 

Student organizing at SMCCD following Kent State

In the aftermath of Kent State (May 4, 1970), with student protests also escalating around the country, Cañada College students voted to go on strike,⁵ boycott classes for the rest of the semester, and join with faculty to hold teach-in style symposiums about Vietnam. Skyline students and faculty did not formally agree to strike but attended a mass meeting on campus, followed by multiday teach-in style symposiums⁶ organized by the Skyline College Strike Committee.⁷ They also joined protest activities at CSM.⁸

While many specific details remain to be uncovered about how students and faculty organized together, images in the CSM Historical Photograph Collection and our student newspapers from Cañada, CSM and Skyline form reliable sources for examining the events of May 1970. All of the newspapers have now been digitized by their respective colleges.

From these sources we know that CSM students did not vote to strike but a “collection of antiwar organizing committees” from the student council held several days of well attended rallies that included faculty speakers. Some CSM students and faculty also chose not to attend classes or pivoted their curriculum to anti-war topics. As CSM student journalist Tom Gildea reported in The San Matean:⁹

“The impressive movement, with its mass meetings day after day, had its origins in an open mike forum outside of the cafeteria Tuesday, May 5. A few of the speakers advocated violence, many urged non-violence, but almost all appeared discouraged over the Cambodian invasion…”

In response, on May 6 the Board held a mass meeting at CSM Men’s gym attended by about 500 people. There, “representatives from the faculty and students from Cañada, Skyline and CSM implored the Trustees to pass a resolution expressing its opposition to the war.” Remarkably, the Board complied the very next day.¹⁰

“…Be it resolved that, the Board of Trustees of San Mateo Junior College District does hereby urge the President of the United States and The Congress to take timely steps leading to the withdrawal of America’s military presence in South East Asia.”

 

On May 7, with classes canceled by the District Superintendent (we now use the term “Chancellor”), but with all three campuses remaining open, Skyline’s faculty senate passed a resolution of support: “We therefore support, in principle, the Skyline student strike to [the] end that dedicated action may take place, both on the campus and extending into the community.”  The next day on May 8, a contingent of Skyline and Cañada students joined a CSM student-organized peace march numbering approximately 500 that began from CSM campus and ended down at San Mateo City Hall. While we know little about their planning efforts, a series of photographs captures the energy of students and faculty marching en masse through the streets of San Mateo. ¹¹

 

 

As promised by the Board, the next week a CSM student rep (name unknown) and Skyline student rep Mark Lee traveled as a delegation with three faculty representatives – John McBain (Skyline) & Rudy Lapp & Ray Lorenzato (CSM) – to Washington D.C., where they spoke with President Nixon’s assistant Christopher DeMuth about ending the war. 

 

 

What lessons can we draw from May of 1970? 

Students and faculty concerns were closely aligned enough to carry out joint political activism powerful enough to bring about immediate Board action. That the student newspapers’ lack of critique of faculty involvement is also telling; it appears that many faculty directly encouraged student resistance and leadership. (In a recent email, retired Cañada faculty Kent Crockett recalled being an “advisor to the resistance.”) The faculty also contributed to their students’ political education through teach-in style events.

But we should also ask why this period of intense collaboration has been largely absent in our colleges’ regular commemorations of their history? Would our college communities today behave differently if they knew that student-faculty solidarity is deep within our colleges’ roots? As AFT continues to fight for a fair contract to ensure better working conditions for faculty, like those who came before us, our students’ wellbeing and also their political education remain important. As a union working with our student body we can continue to be stronger together. 

 

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End notes

1. https://depts.washington.edu/moves/antiwar_may1970.shtml
2. “Kent State Massacre,” https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/kent-state-massacre
3.  Peace March (May 8, 1970) and preliminary activities (part one – seven images): Issues prompting the march: Killing of students at Kent State riots on May 4, 1970; Viet Nam War, U.S. invasion of Cambodia; social discrimination. Image 1: Student speaker in class or meeting; Image 2: Student speaker near Bldg. 18 (?); Image 4 – at microphone, Greg Davis (Faculty: Political Science); Image 5: March begins; Image 7: Near Laurelwood Shopping Center. College of San Mateo Photo Archives, https://collegeofsanmateo.edu/100/cs_crp.php
4. SF State historian Jason Ferreira has chronicled this time in CSM history in his article, “From College Readiness to Ready for Revolution: Third World Student Activism at a Northern California Community College, 1965–1969.” 
5. https://aft1493.org/may-2020-advocate-recalling-canada-student-strike-50-years-ago/
6. https://aft1493.org/november-2020-advocate-50-years-ago-anti-war-movement-comes-to-skyline/
7. “Faculty-Students Cooperate In Viet Nam – Cambodia Info”, Skyline Press, Vol. 1, Number 24, 13 May 1970, https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SKYV19700513-01.2.
8. My first two articles in The Advocate written during Covid did not include College of San Mateo because The San Matean student newspaper was not accessible. This article updates information presented earlier.
9. “Campus Reacts to Nixon’s Cambodia Decision,” The San Matean, p. 1, 3. May 15, 1970.
10. Board of Trustees meeting minutes on microfiche were not available before 1974 as of this writing. 
11. https://www.smccd.edu/photoarchives/exhibit2/e21499a.htm