This manual is a first for a national action. The Ann Arbor Student and Youth Conference on a People's Peace decided to organize Mayday on a regional decentralized basis. This means no "National Organizers." You do the organizing. This means no "movement generals" making tactical decisions you have to carry out. Your region makes the tactical decisions within the discipline of nonviolent civil disobedience laid down by the Ann Arbor Conference. That is why this manual was produced.

This manual is a supplement to the Mayday Orientation Sessions, which will be held April 3, 10, 17. If it is impossible for your region to send representatives to one of the sessions this manual will give you the basic information you need.

Coordination is being handled by the Tactics and Logistics section of the Mayday Collective, in D.C. The last page of this manual has a form you should send in as soon as you can answer the listed questions about your region. If you fail to mail or call in the answers to the questions there will be no D.C. logistical support for your region.

The words and target photographs in this manual were done by the Tactics and Logistics section of the Mayday Collective. The Mayday Collective is politically responsible to the Student and Youth Coordinating Committee which grew out of the Ann Arbor Conference. The Ann Arbor Conference is responsible for Mayday.

All graphics, layout and production work on this manual was done by brothers and sisters from WIN magazine, located at 339 Lafayette St., N.Y.C. 10012, We were lucky they thought enough of Mayday to do this manual. WIN is published every two weeks and relates to what's happening-the anti-war movement, counter-culture, ecology, etc.-from a nonviolent perspective. Supscribe if you can. It only costs $5.00 a year. Love from the Mayday Collective, Jerry Coffin

P.S. As you read through you will see that Mayday is an action, a time period, a state of mind and a bunch of people. Be free.

L. ON NONVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

This is not a polemic. It is not designed to convince you to become a pacifist or argue against the theory of armed revolutionary struggle or people's war. It is an explanation of the tactic we will be using during the Mayday actions. The tactic is nonviolent civil disobedience. It was decided by the Ann Arbor Student and Youth Conference on a People's Peace which issued the call for the Mayday actions that this was the most valid tactic for this period.

In brief, the aim of the Mayday actions is to raise the social cost of the war to a level unacceptable to America's rulers. To do this we seek to create the spectre of social chaos while maintaining the support or at least toleration of the broad masses of American people. It is felt that given the current political climate in this country, it is suicidal to isolate ourselves from the 73% of the American people who wish an immediate end to the war.

The strategy that was developed at the Ann Arbor Conference sought to build support among the American people through the mass distribution and ratification of the People's Peace Treaty. With that basic "base building" well under way we would engage then in disruptive actions in major government centers, primarily Washington, D.C., (creating the spectre of social chaos) that would be supported by the "base". The tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience was chosen because it could be used effectively to disrupt government functions and yet still be interpreted favorably to the broad non-demonstrating masses of Americans. Also by engaging in nonviolent disruptions we severly limit the containment and dispersal options of the government and lessen the likelihood of coming into violent conflict with the G.I.s who will be ordered to disperse us and who we wish to win to our side.

America is a violent country. We are raised on a diet of violence, and therefore we feel we understand it. Nonviolent civil disobedience on the other hand is widely misunderstood and the extent of most people's knowledge is inaccurate characterizations. We need to be clear that we are not talking about an exercise in martyrdom; we are not talking about negotiated arrests; we are talking about using a tactic to attain an objective. The tactic is nonviolent civil disobedience. The objective is to close down the Federal government sections of Washington, D.C., by blocking traffic arteries during the early morning rush hours of May 3 and 4.

A working definition of nonviolent civil disobedience in this context would be A) the actions we engage in are nonviolent which means we don't trash or street fight; B) we are "civil" which means we will try to express our solidarity and friendship with G.I.'s and attempt to see the rank and file policeman as a member of the working class who's simply on the wrong side; C) We will be disobedient which means no matter what anyone says, no matter what laws we break. we are going to reach our action target-the roads, bridges, and traffic circles leading into the Federal areas of Washington-and we will not leave our action targets until we have succeeded in our target objective or until we are arrested.

In earlier days the small pacifist groups developed out of necessity and preference a type of nonviolent civil disobedience that we could call the traditional school. Crudely put,

this involved a very small group of people engaging in a "moral witness" or action that involved them breaking a specific law, almost always with advance notice to authorities. Much of the early civil rights actions-such as lunch counter sit-ins-followed this model. Recently another form of nonviolent civil disobedience has developed. This conforms more with our new life style. It is free, joyous, exciting, fun. It's yippies throwing money on the floor of the N.Y. Stock Exchange, draft card burnings in Central Park, the invasion and takeover of the N.Y. Tass offices during the invasion of Czechslovakia and Sgt. Sunshine of the S.F. Police dept. lighting up a joint in front of the S.F. Police Building.

At the same time this new mode of action was developing among the white youth movement, nonviolent civil disobedience was being used in new ways by third world groups. Martin Luther King, Jr., pioneered the use of mass nonviolent civil disobedience in this country to challenge government racist policies. The Birmingham movement is perhaps the best example of these actions. Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers Organizing Committee consistently broke injunctions and picketing laws as they organized California farm workers and used nonviolent civil disobedience including sit-ins and shop-ins to enforce the grape and now the lettuce boycott. We're talking of combining this experience with our life culture to create Mayday in Washington.

Flash on Ghandi-An organic food vegetarian, a stone Indian culture freak who met the English Viceroy of India in a loincloth and organized civil disobedience campaigns which paralyzed entire sections of India-what comes.to mind is thousands of us with bamboo flutes, tamborines, flowers and balloons moving out in the early light of morning to paralyze the traffic arteries of the American military repression government nerve center. Creativeness, joy, and life against bureaucracy and grim death. That's nonviolent civil disobedience; That's Mayday.

Finally, if for philosophical, political, or emotional reasons any people feel they cannot adhere to the tactic adopted by the Ann Arbor Conference we strongly urge them to stay home or engage in actions they organize at other times or other places. We feel it is reprehensible and manipulative to expose people who respond to the Mayday call for nonviolent civil disobedience to be exposed to forms of actions for which they are not prepared. In addition we expect large numbers of agent provocateurs to be present during Mayday. We think it would be unfortunate for brothers and sisters who are unable to adopt the style, discipline and tactics decided on through a long collective process to be mislabeled and dealt with as agent provoca

teurs.

IL THE SPRING PERIOD

The Mayday actions are to occur in the May 1-7 period. Mayday, however, should be seen in the context of an entire spring offensive that will begin the first week of April, reach a high point in May and continue on into the summer. The schedule for the Spring Offensive is:

APRIL 2-5: "Tribute in action to Martin Luther King."

These actions are organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Welfare Rights Organization and the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice. There is a special emphasis on New York with a march on Wall Street on Monday, April 5, led by the SCLC Mule Train.

APRIL 10: Women's March on the Pentagon APRIL 18-23: Operation Dewey Canyon III organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War will take place in Washington, D.C. Vietnam vets, their families and the families of POW's and GI's killed in Vietnam will engage in intensive lobbying, vigils and guerrilla theater depicting search and destroy missions, torture and other activities of US forces in Indochina.

APRIL 24: "Algonquin Peace City," the encampment area for Mayday, opens in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.

April 24: Mass, legal, peaceful anti-war demonstration in Washington D.C. by National Peace Action Coalition and PCPJ.

APRIL 26-30: Peoples Lobby in Washington, D.C. organized by People's Coalition for Peace & Justice. Will include civil disobedience at selected government buildings and congressional offices.

MAY 1-7: Mayday International-Major demonstrations will take place in large cities around the world. These actions will express solidarity with our Mayday and will focus on U.S. foreign policy. In South Vietnam the people of the large cities will rise up in massive street demonstrations challenging the U.S. presence.

MAY 16: Armed Forces Day. Support for anti-war Gl actions at bases across the country.

MAY 25-28: NATO International Conference on Cities in Indianapolis. Nixon and other heads of state will be greeted with massive demonstrations.

THE MAYDAY SCENARIO

Saturday, April 24: Algonquin Peace City Opens

The first national implementation of the peace treaty is planned in Rock Creek Park, an Indian woodlawn area of 1,754 acres about 4 miles long and one mile wide in Washington, D.C. Algonquin Indians were the first inhabitants in this ancient mountain range. In late April, we'll settle again, along the drier ridges with the pignut and mockernut, hickory, white ash, black cherry, the yellow poplar and beech, being careful and loving of nature. Regions and constituent groups can set up living communities or villages in one of the 70 odd picnic groves where there are tables, benches, sanitary facilities and usually a fireplace. People should bring their own tents, blankets, flashlights, transistor radio, rice and other foods, along with a cooking pot.

To cut down on confusion and ecological injury to our peace city, cars should not be driven into Rock Creek Park. Some people may want to park on the edge of Washington and walk into the city. Others may want to drive into the downtown Washington area and take buses to their villages. Bus trasportation between the Washington Monument Grounds and Algonquin Peace City will be provided at 11:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M. every day by Mayday Motors. Detailed maps showing the village of every region in Algonquin Peace City will be available from information centers on the Monument Grounds. Any large group wanting to be listed on the map should call Mike Maslow (202) 347-7613.

It is in the interest of the government to provide us this park, for training in nonviolence and to keep us out of the streets at night. Should police clear the park at any time during the two weeks, however, it will be necessary that we know the various exits from our area of encampment. There are 15 miles of trails through Algonquin Peace City. Maps will be provided.

Algonquin Peace City is opening early in order to provide housing areas for the thousands of people staying after the demonstrations of April 24. Many of these people, as well as early Mayday arrivals will participate in the P.C.P.J. People's Lobby. Others will act as construction battalions to prepare the park for the massive May 1 influx of people. Map number one in this manual shows you the layout of Rock Creek Park. Two weeks prior to May 1st, maps will be available from the Mayday Washington office giving the location of regional campsites.

If bloodroot, fawnlily, toothwort and spring beauty bloom doesn't turn you on, Mayday has secured housing for twenty-two thousand people in churches, universities and private homes.

SATURDAY, MAY 1:

CELEBRATION OF THE PEOPLE'S PEACE

Most Mayday participants will arrive on May 1st. People will be coming in by chartered bus, car caravans, and long walks. The morning will be devoted to the May 1st arrivals setting up camp in their regional area villages and getting to know the land.

In the early afternoon the celebration will begin. The Mayday Collective is currently assembling a list of wellknown rock groups that will play. The list of groups playing for the Peace Treaty Celebration Rock Show will be released as soon as possible.

The Celebration, with rock bands, and dancing, singing, and smoking in the fields will last late into the night. Bring along bamboo flutes, drums, guitars and tamborines, and the woods will be filled with people's music.

Sometime during the day of May 1st the SCLC Mule Train and hundreds of people who marched with them from Wall Street to Washington will arrive in Algonquin Peace City. They'll set up camp and join us in the Celebration of the People's Peace.

SUNDAY, MAY 2:

We'll sleep late. In the late morning, the population will follow the SCLC mule train out of the park to the Sylvan Theatre near the Washington Monument grounds. We will march down Rock Creek Parkway.

At the Sylvan Theatre we'll join SCLC, National Welfare Rights Organization and the United Farmworkers Organizing Committee in a rally calling for an end to the war against American Poor People. This will be the last opportunity for Nixon to announce an end to the war before we fulfill our promise: If the government won't stop the war, we'll stop the government.

In the evening we march back to Algonquin Peace City for food, cultural activities and turning in early for a good sleep.

MONDAY & TUESDAY, MAY 3 and 4, at 6 A.M.:
NONVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

The population of Algonquin Peace City will disperse in regional groups to their target areas for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience (see section III, IV, VI, for details). PCPJ joins with us along with religious forces, such as Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, SCLC, NWRO, and pacifist organizations, such as the War Resisters League, and the American Friends Service Committee.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5-7:

All across the country, on May 5, people respond to the call for "No Business as Usual" in a massive people's strike Against the War. At Algonquin Peace City the people not arrested on Monday and Tuesday take camping gear and food and move camp to the Capitol Building where we lay a nonviolent siege demanding that congress ratify the Peoples Peace Treaty (See section VI for details).

We will be joined by masses of people from the PCPJ, SCLC, NWRO, AFSC, WRL, CALCAV, Women's Strike for Peace, and other groups. We'll stay at our siege encampment until the treaty is ratified or all are arrested.

III.ORGANIZATION FORM

The decision of the Ann Arbor Student & Youth Conference on a Peoples Peace was that the organization for Mayday be decentralized with organizational forms being decided on a regional basis. Because of this the entire Tactics and Logistics section of the Mayday Collective in Washington is oriented toward providing information, support and coordination only. There are no movement "generals" sitting in closed rooms making decisions binding on any participant.

All organizing and preparation for the action must be done at the regional level. No "National Office Organizers" will do it for you (or to you). What the Tactics and Logistics section has done is number the targets, prepare this manual, prepare intensive orientation sessions for regional representatives, and act as a coordination center for various regions which have selected targets.

Once you have established a regional structure and begun organizing for Mayday, contact the Tactics and Logistics Section of the Mayday Collective at (202) 347-7613 (ask for Jerry Coffin, Lynne Shatzkin, Nancy Fowler, or Rick Lubin).

Arrange to send two or three regional representatives to Washington on Saturday April 3, Saturday April 10 or Saturday April 17 to attend a Mayday orientation session. The subjects covered will include an overview of the Mayday actions, discussions of specific targets, Algonquin Peace City information, medical and legal information. In addition there will be tours of Washington and Rock Creek Park. Following the orientation sessions the regional representatives will be asked to select a target for their region and, on the basis of projected numbers of people from their region, select a campsite in Rock Creek Park.

Every phase of the Mayday actions is organized on a regional basis. Individuals coming into Washington will be asked to join with whatever apparatus represents their region in Washington. Prior to Mayday, maps and leaflets will be published listing the target areas and campsite locations of every region the Mayday Collective is in touch with.

This May we will see the culmination of an exciting and important experiment. Can national actions dependent on self motivated regional organization succeed? Our politics, our style and our instincts say it will work. Mayday will be the test.

Note: There are several constituency groups (Gays, Women, Third World) planning to function as distinct groups outside of the regional structure. These groups will function much the same as the regions with their own targets and campsite areas.

IV. MAYDAY NONVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: THE TACTICAL OVERVIEW

OUR APPROACH

Washington, D.C., is a colony. It is ruled by a committee of Congress made up of racist white southerners. The overwhelming number of people living in Washington are black. Virtually the only industry in Washington is the Federal Government with the overwhelming majority of the em

ployees being white and, with a few exceptions, all upper echelon employees being white. This means that most employees of the Federal government commute to work each day from the suburbs of Virginia and Maryland.

Because of the racist nature of the Federal government, closing down the apparatus that controls the War against Indochina and America's oppressed is a relatively easy operation if it is coordinated.

Twenty-one targets have been selected for the Mayday nonviolent civil disobedience. The targets (see Map no. 2) are broken into two general categories: (1) traffic circles and (2) bridges. These targets if blocked during the early morning rush hour will seal off the Federal Triangle area of Washington and the Pentagon. All of the targets selected deal directly with the Federal Government and blocking these targets will have a minimum impact on the surrounding black community. These targets were specifically chosen to minimize disruption of the black community. No disruptive actions will take place North of Massachusetts Avenue NW or East of 6th Street, SE and NE, which are the boundaries of the black community.

Actually sealing off a section of an American city through nonviolent direct action has never been attempted before in an organized fashion. The experience of May, 1970, however, shows that it can be done. During the Cambodian crisis many cities had main thoroughfares blocked by nonviolent actions, including sit downs and street parties. In several instances the thoroughfares were six and eight lane expressways. It can be done!

From a propaganda point of view, and to minimize the number of enemies we will produce, the style and method of our actions are crucial. Our disruption of Washington must be seen as an attack on the Federal Government, specifically those sections dealing with the war against the people of Indochina and America. It must not be seen as an attack on the employees of the Federal Government. We wish to win them as allies and so we need to minimize their antagonism towards us.

To divert our attention from institutions to persons employed in those institutions would be a serious political

error.

Therefore, the days of May 3 and 4 are being projected as a government employees strike against the war. Our nonviolent civil disobedience actions are enforcing a two day strike of government employees.

By May 3 every government employee will know that to attempt to get to work he or she will have to brave a six hour traffic jam. We are attempting to create a "four-day weekend" consciousness among government employees. If this is successful any employees caught in traffic jams will blame themselves for attempting to get to work and therefore, not us. In the happy event that the government orders all federal employees to be on the job, those caught in traffic jams will blame the government, and not us. One benefit of this will be an unconscious gratitude towards the anti-war movement for getting government employees a two day holiday.

Our tactical approach to stopping the government is decentralization and concentration. By this we mean that the targets are decentralized and our demonstrators are concentrated. No target will have less than a thousand demonstrators and no major target (see map no. 2, targets bearing