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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 9. 1966.

Misnomer

Misnomer

Dr. Mrak felt that the name "Free Speech Movement" was really a misnomer. Speech was never involved, he said. It was a clever gimmick. It was freedom of activity the students wanted.

"It was humorous to hear them talk of free speech. No one ever said they couldn't speak. Free speech came into it this way. When they were lecturing off the steps outside the Student Union and causing disturbances, then the question was: should they stay there or move elsewhere?"

Dr. Mrak spoke to me about some of the people involved in the Free Speech Movement. "There was this fellow Savio (a philosophy student) who was an excellent speaker. He was a man who, just like Hitler, could bring the mobs behind him.

"The University of California is one of the great educational institutions of the world. It's a centre for people, an attraction, a magnet for people who like to think in all terms and in all directions. So you had all types of thinkers drawn to this thing. A lot of them, as I told you, were not students. A lot of people have said that subversive elements were involved in sponsoring it. I don't think they set it off. But I am certain that some of them were involved later and encouraged them to go on."

"What sort of subversive elements were involved?" I asked.

"Well, what is a subversive element in your country? It's people who . . . Well, one of the girl leaders subsequently admitted she is a member of the Communist Party. There was this type of thing."

"Did you have any warning that these demonstrations were likely to come off, or were they just a spontaneous eruption?"

"They were rather spontaneous, but there were indications (I don't think they pertained to this at all) that there might be demonstrations in some of the great universities. There was some forewarning of this."

"From the students?"

"Not from the students. This came from people who know what's going on behind the scenes."

"Who would they be?"

"People in Washington. There was an indication that there might be demonstrations. But we didn't know how or what. I don't think that these demonstrations represented what we were warned of. But I do think that once they got started the subversive elements got into the picture."