Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 33, No. 2 4 March 1970

[Introduction]

In the United Stales, as in most Western countries today, we see a new radicalisation among certain sectors of the population Explosions in the black ghettoes, students occupations of campus buildings, and massive anti-war marches are the must outstanding examples of this, contrasting with the quiescence' of the fifties, — the era of the Cold War, of Joe McCarthy, and of the near-disappearance of left-wing politics to the U.S. This vacation I visited the United States and spoke to participant: in the various struggles across the country By attending the national convention of the Young Socialist Alliance, a revolutionary socialist youth organisation. I got s very dear picture of the direction in which these struggles are heading.

Photo of American protest

Without a doubt, the radical upsurge has been greatest among students, but already deep inroads have been made into other groups, such as the Afro-American and Mexican-American populations, and soldiers in the American forces — both draftees and lifers —who oppose the Vietnam War in significant numbers The movement against the War and the struggle of blacks and others for certain rights are at the heart of the whole upsurge.