Original subtitles

Student films and radical newsreel films are useless from the revolutionary point

of view for many reasons, because Americans are, on the whole,

ideologically immature still.

And they simply are very casual about aesthetics in cinema, in the sense that

they don't want to work. They think they can just press the button and shoot.

No, really. In other words, to express the contradictions and the sentiments

and the real existential changes which revolution should bring about.

One has to speak through living characters, through the subjective

existential realities, and not only in terms of objective slogans.

In other words, one has to film, one has to be proleptic, as I said, one has to

film the invisible.

and six that to keep a people out for a year not to ride buses and to take all

the economic and other hardships including criminal charges that go along

with that and the broken heads is a very difficult thing it's people do waver and

i think students are no different than other human beings they have all the

fears and the aspirations and the hopes of everybody else they want to go to law

school they want to go to medical school they're imbued with the the virtues of

this society in subliminal ways which maybe they even don't recognize.

And when an older man like myself says, go out, I'm not doing it in some blind

sort of a way. I'm not doing it in a way unconscious of the realities.

But there do come times when people have to do it or the world will never change.

I think all of us want something far more than just a few broken windows and

a few broken heads.

We want the world that Abby talked about. We want a new world. We want to

end a corrupt and immoral society.

Two days ago when I spoke at Columbia, a student from Kent State, after outlining

what happened on the commons there, said as he left the stage, this

is a sad country we are living in.

And it is terribly true.

This is a sad country we are living in.

Could you tell us what you think of this?

What? Could you tell us what you think? I don't even want to talk to you. Don't

bother me.

I don't want to talk.

No, you don't have to take my picture.

Why not? Because I wouldn't be seen in your publication.

I don't sign anything unless I talk to my lawyer.

I don't want to appear in one of your underground movies.

Do you think the war is more important than your work?

Absolutely.

Do you think it's worth one day taking off to protest it? Not even one day.

Yes, I think so.

But do you feel you couldn't do it?

I wouldn't be able.

I still have to eat. I still have to make a living.

You're an hour late.

I'll still make a living.

Are you going to get fired for an hour?

I don't have to answer to anybody.

I mean, it's my business, okay?

But believe me, I completely sympathize with it, and I've only been out of

college for just a year.

with President Kennedy when he sent advisers over to South Vietnam.

Right? But I didn't protest on the street. And I

protested when President Johnson sent more advisers and then passed

the Tompkins Resolution, right? But still and all, here's our president and

the majority.

Because if you don't agree with your... No, I don't. For what purpose?

Then you have a right... Why shouldn't my brother go over there? Are you old

enough to vote? Huh? Am I what?

I'm a man. That makes me old enough to vote anywhere.

Are you old enough to vote? I'm a man. Are you over 21?

Are you registered? No, he's not.

I'm a registered voter.

Good. Then you go to the polls and...

elected representatives to Congress. And every four years, we have a presidential

election. Four years? Man, that's a lifetime.

Now,

now. If you wish to change. We did.

They're not seem to be listening to you. They're not listening to us? I don't

think so, no.

That's all right.

Can you do something more constructive? Can I? Yes. Sure, I'm an architect.

Oh, I mean about the war.

Oh, about the war?

do something constructive?

Yes, because I mean, I don't think this is constructive because the people

aren't listening to you.

People are not listening to us? Sure. The people who work on Wall Street. They

never thought of it. You see, they've got to see that there's a lot of people

like them, you know?

They think they're the only ones having these bad dreams at night.

So this way, we just let them know they're not alone, you know?

Solidarity. But they don't seem to like you.

They don't?

at NYU Law School, of all places, got together. We decided we got to move

beyond the rhetoric. It took us two or three days to shut down the law school.

We shut it down.

There are no classes and no exams.

The law school faculty is actually working with us to try and do whatever

we can to stop this war.

The question is, what are we going to do? We've got to figure out positive

actions.

We worked up a proposal and this is what we want to do. We want to come back here

tomorrow and shut the Wall Street area down.

war. We're tired of asking people to end the war in Asia. We're tired of asking

the people to end the war in the United States.

Those are our demands.

Those wars, both of them, at home and abroad, have got to end.

All right, so we're not asking anymore. We're demanding.

Wall Street, the stock market, is going to be closed tomorrow.

We're asking people who work down here to join us. Our faculty, the law

faculty, came around and joined us. Why don't you people join us? When is enough

enough?

Let me just say one thing about violence.

I'm not sure where I stand on violence, whether I'm for or against it. But one

thing I'm against, coming down here with our bodies, when the cops got the sticks

and the guns, then violence is crazy.

That's suicide.

I don't know about violence in general, but that's bullshit. When they got the

guns and the clubs, and we're just down here with our bodies.

So when we come down here tomorrow with our bodies, we're just going to sit

around that building, and we're not going to let people go to work.

I'm going to stop Wall Street tomorrow.

We're going to stop New York City on Monday, and we're going to bring the

whole country down with us next week.

And then Nixon's going to have to respond.

And he's going to respond in two ways.

He's either going to come around to our corner and shut this war down, both at

home and abroad, or he's going to come down with his fifth.

I don't know. Maybe he's going to come down with his fifth. A lot of people

probably think so. But let's find out now.

No more shit. We want to find out where it's at now.

I want to tell you Wall Street workers, we're all out now.

I want all you Wall Street workers to come out.

Three cheers for Nixon!

Let's hear it! Nixon!

Action workers have ties with the mafia on the one hand and with the government

on the other hand.

And I consider it, there's a lot of evidence that this was a highly

organized and planned action.

It's a little hard to say whether it was planned and organized out

of the federal government or out of the mafia.

If one wants to be realistic about it, the connections between the two and the

reliance of the one upon the other are sufficient that it may not make that

much difference.

Well, we're getting these voids for defense against the construction

workers.

Why do you think the construction workers are going to do?

They'll probably come out here and tear up the place.

Where'd you hear it from?

A lot of people. A lot of rumors all over that they're heading this way.

Just in case, like, before they were throwing rocks over here, the

construction workers, and, like, there's rumors they're coming down here, and

we're just taking a chance, just in case.

What about the rest of the people inside? Are they prepared to do

anything? Like, they don't know yet. Like, we don't want to get everybody,

because, like, we might get out of hand. You know, they might start, you know,

like, somebody, like, a gun crew might come along with a stick and march around

outside with sticks.

Yeah. Any other defenses beside...

Wood.

We've got a fire hose up there.

And if anything comes to anything, we can throw these chairs and tables off

the balcony.

And in a sense, that was the appearance of the brown shirts on American streets.

So we're really on the verge of the most serious disasters that have ever...

ever struck our country.

Hang on.

Before we break up to do the rest of our organizing for today, and your

job is not finished because you've got to go out and organize, just like

we're going to Union Square, we're going to be talking with shoppers

and workers.

Now, I notice there are some people from my union, District 65.

Why don't they just leave?

Try to demonstrate some of themselves.

Put that down, why don't you?

I've done my bit. I don't think you people have.

And all the bums for work.

What did he say?

You don't really think you're bums? That's right.

Why is that?

Why? I'm going to work.

I don't feel it's right to go try to destroy this country, building things

down, stoning cops and national guards.

Have I stoned anybody?

Your type is.

Why am I coming?

What is my type?

Sympathizing with a margin. Because I have long hair and I'm a commie star?

You're involved in demonstrations like this. Am I demonstrating or am I taking

a picture?

Fine, take it.

Am I demonstrating or am I taking a picture?

What are you going to use your pictures for? Commie propaganda?

Send him back to Moscow.

Go to Moscow, you bum!

Send him back.

You rat bum!

You are, you bum!

Get a haircut and clean up!

I'm going to talk to Harry about going down to Wall Street yesterday and

meeting some construction fellas.

Harry, once more, and probably finally and forever, would you tell us a little

bit about Friday on Wall Street?

We were filming a returning...

A band of marauders, marauding... God, what is this?

A band of returning marauding construction workers, and we were

filming them on the sidewalk, and we thought that it was going to be safe,

but it turned out not to be. You're bothering wild state workers, that's

your problem. I'm not, I'm here for you.

And who are you? Are you the representative of all these people? I am

my own representative, and I'm...

It was said that there were guys in suits running the thing.

Oh, man. I don't know.

Let's go on. Did it ever strike you that they might be organized?

It looked like it was organized in the treasury. I don't see how they could

have gotten like 2,000 guys or whatever. It wasn't 2,000. 200, 300 guys there

just spontaneously with...

Huge American flags. I mean you don't go to work with a huge American flag We

were just now on the TV listening to somebody who said that we shouldn't take

those fellows as an example of the typical American working man Do you

agree with that?

It's probably true, but I'm very nervous around the typical American working man

these days

When you go up to people and use the vilest language you can right to their

face and tell them your mother's a whore and your mother does this and your

mother does that. See, Connie, don't make faces because I saw it with my own

eyes out here yesterday. Did you see construction workers at the top of a

building throwing cans at people that were walking in the city? I don't say

they're right. I don't say they're right. But I don't say you're right

either. I say this is not the way to do it.

At least the construction workers know what they're doing.

because they went all the way down, up and down three times, and they say, all

the way, all the way.

Now, you tell me what these kids meant by red, red, red.

That's all I could hear from them.

Okay. Yeah, and that's what they were saying. But that's maybe all you could

hear. I can understand why the construction workers were saying only

one thing, too.

And they were saying all the way, all the way.

Right. They meant the United States all the way.

They're for the United States, too, the other people.

Huh? They're for the United States, Jay.

I know that, but they don't act like it.

You pay your taxes. Where the hell does your tax money go, huh? You don't have

to use such obscene words.

I'm sorry. The time has passed for liberal bullshit because that's exactly

what it is. I'm concerned with where that money goes.

Vulgar language.

I understand the point. I don't even want to get into it.

What do you think I can do about it? What do you think I can personally do

about it?

Don't pay my taxes?

Well, why not?

I'm only too happy to pay my taxes.

I'm not copping out at all.

No, I'm not. No, I'm not.

And I pay a small price for freedom.

You people are supposed to be going to college, which is a privilege.

That's right. It's not granted, everyone.

We're not striking for the right to go to college. What are you striking for?

So you don't have to study the rest of the year?

You get pushed through?

If you couldn't come out of here and shovel shit in an alley. What were you

striking for?

We were striking for a living wage.

And we agreed with you. You were three cheers.

Because we have to pay taxes to support the likes of you in college.

And we're striking for peace.

What peace?

You never fought for anything.

What the hell did you ever fight for?

What did you ever fight for? For my country.

What did you ever fight for? We're fighting for our country. You are like

hell. I mean, you don't agree with us, right?

Is that what you're trying to say? You don't agree with us? No, don't distort

words.

What do you mean? Are you telling me I'm wrong?

That's right. I think you people are a bunch of scum. Okay, and you're telling

me, and I'm telling you, that the reason that you think we're scum is because you

don't agree with us, not because we're wrong.

You are wrong.

Oh, why? Because we don't agree with you? No.

Anytime you back up your country, which you people have learned to do. We are

the country.

You are.

God help it.

God help it to hear the language.

You people come down Broadway chanting, one, two, three, four.

What's that? And the language that went with it?

What's that, huh? The kind of language you use in church and around your

mother.

And you people are supposed to be educated?

Why, you couldn't shovel fertilizer.

I think we're a little angry, though, because four of us just got shot, see?

What for have you got shot?

Your goddamn badges didn't get more.

You like people getting shot?

Why? What the hell? In other words, you people can go to college, set fire to

buildings, right?

What are you just doing? Why don't you pick out a policeman to get

an unbiased opinion?

You're picking out the most obvious person to say the kind of thing you

expect them to say.

I have to say that no one could make a decision on what you see here. You pick

out somebody who obviously has a preconditioned idea of what they're

doing. And that stinks to use somebody like that. What is your idea?

I couldn't even make a judgment.

Nobody here could make a judgment on what's going on.

And you know what kind of a judgment he's going to make, and that's why

you're picking him out of the pack.

But a judgment about, we're talking about Vietnam, we're talking about...

the students who were killed.

Obviously. And you could tell in a second what he's going to tell you. And

he's going to tell you just what you want to hear. Just what you want to use

for your end of the... You're speaking now, sir.

I'm speaking without even a decision.

That's right. We're asking you. We're asking you now.

It's too complicated for somebody to stand in this corner and give you a

valid opinion on this subject. Hundreds of thousands of people are being killed

while you're waiting to make a decision. Right, but you know what he's going to

say and that's why you asked him. You're talking now and we're filming you.

You've got a chance to speak.

Go ahead. I wouldn't say anything. I couldn't say anything in five minutes

that would mean anything. That would even be indicative of the situation. And

you know it. And to use something like that is the dirtiest, cheapest kind of

politics. Sir, are you interested in politics?

Childish question.

He's afraid of the truth.

That isn't the case at all. I'm probably pretty much on your side in the way you

feel about the situation.

To use an obvious case like that is very... You're using you now, though.

You're not going to use me now. I'm not going to give you an opinion. What do

you argue with the dilettante middle class revolution? Don't say that. They

have a right. Forget about them.

They go back to their little middle class home. Yeah, that protects me. Oh,

that's another challenge for you. It's a completely middle class and upper middle

class movement. It has nothing to do with working people. You can't even make

contact. You can't even make a contact with the working class in this country.

And you know damn well I'm right.

Where is your revolution?

No place. Why don't you find a truck driver and ask him, too? He'll give you

the exact answers that you want to get. No place. Why don't you give him an

answer? Because it's not that simple. Your revolution is confined to the

campus, and that's where it's going to be confined.

Tell us how complicated it is. You know how complicated it is. Try to reach the

average person. You can't do it. If you have firm convictions on a subject, why

don't you give them some opinions?

I approve of what you're doing, because it's going to cause a revolution, but

not your kind, my kind.

What is your kind? I'll leave that to you. I don't have to leave you by the

hand. But I don't know you, brother. I don't know whether I want to be part of

your revolution.

Oh, I know you don't want to be part of my revolution.

Think!

Think is your revolution?

Think of what I said.

Meditate on what I say.

Meditate on what I say.

There'll be a revolution, but not your revolution.

Maybe you and Jimmy have counter-revolutions.

You're making it for me. Keep it up.

We feel justified in demanding the following from the network.

A, an immediate cessation of all regular programming for the duration of the

current crisis. B, continuous live coverage of the March on

Washington and all events which represent the dissenting voices against

government policy.

C, a continuing opportunity for all dissenting spokesmen to represent their

positions vis-a-vis the government, with which we find ourselves in principled

disagreement. Only by meeting these demands will you fulfill your

responsibility to the American people.

Yeah, I work for CBS, and I'm glad you're here.

Right, good.

Right. I'm with ABC.

Good. You got the phone.

No, really.

There's been a couple idle petitions. The young kids are figuring out.

how to stop the war.

Nobody's ever stopped the war.

If they keep on doing the crazy things very creatively, there's more creativity

in a youth movement than there is in this building.

You say that everything that we

have done today has been something against something. We are for something.

We are for the truth. We are for using the public airways to...

to inform this nation about the truth. I would like to know who the enemy is that

we continually talk about. I would like to know where the figures come from,

these death ratios that we get all of the time. I would like to know, we

really would like to clear up all... All of the vague nature of the reporting

that's done on the public airways. And as far as I'm concerned, as far as I'm

concerned, the public broadcasting companies in this country have been

extremely instrumental in perpetuating the situation as far as it's gone today

because they have not really gone into it as they should have. And they owe it

to us. We know more about moon trajectories, lunar modules, the

baldness of some...

some man sitting in front of a television. We know more about crying

and praying women than we have any idea of what's going over in Vietnam, and I

think we have a right to know it.

You're so good at informing us about funerals of presidents, about...

problems with moon shots, but when it comes right down to the problem of

Vietnam, we just skirt, skirt, and skirt. And I think it is a, I really

think it's a crime against the public.

Sit home with me in two cases.

Two nephews, 19 years old, lost their lives in Vietnam.

I know, I'm talking from experience.

I don't want those kids to go down the drain. Maybe they were there. They

didn't have to go there. They were drafted. Well, that's what they're

trying to stop. Right. Well, that's trying to stop. I don't condone the war.

All right, let's stay on that point. Let's get out. Yeah, right. Stay on

that. I'm saying these people are infringing on other people's benefits.

Look, the first benefit is to be alive, and we're killing people like mad all

over the world.

Let's stay on that point.

But survival of the fittest, right? No.

What? Not the survival of the fittest. At the moment, you think you're the

fittest. No, no, no.

The survival of the fittest. No, I don't believe in that. Why not?

What happened two years ago? Then you're saying you're openly a gangster. What

happened two years ago? Right now, are you the fittest man in this crowd?

windows on the left. That's the big news here. I can go in there.

down.

Oh, you got telegrams and the statements and it's over 300 universities in

support.

Has everybody got a statement?

Go ahead. It says students and faculty from the city's major schools of

communication demonstrated outside the headquarters of three major television

networks today in protest over media coverage.

Get out. You're not supposed to be in there.

I'll call him.

That must be the newspaper.

Okay. Thank you.

I'll call him anyway.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Sounds like a memory, I see.

Are you Mr. Corbin? No, he's coming.

Is Mr. Gordon the director of news? He's the general manager of news operations.

I see.

And Mr. World?

He's vice president of news.

We're top heading with establishment.

Uh-huh, I see that.

Good.

Mr. Gordon, wait a minute. Not this law.

Right now.

Please.

No camera.

No, we're not recording.

Hey, you know you got to have that boogie in you, baby. I'll come out.

You know that?

I was walking down the street, you know.

And I bumped into an old friend of mine.

There were three demands made that this track is based on, and one of them was

freeing all political prisoners.

And these were demands that were made by the students, and the university belongs

to the students, and all property that's university property is used to meet

these demands.

And holding Quran Institute is one of the ways.

I understand there's been a threat on the computer, bail money is not raised.

What's the university's position about that, or has there in fact been a real

threat? Well, there was the rally at Loeb this evening, I gather. They didn't

say they were going to hold it hostage.

They've been saying so all day, and we've taken it, I think, in reasonably

good humor so far.

The computer had been timed to blow up.

We got in there in time to remove the fuses from the weapon.

From the Molotov cocktails and the plastic bombs that were there, just

barely.

And at the present time, the police and the FBI are reported to the Senate

today.

other magazine turn around let's sink it i'll sink which problem

the brakes are lost on the car is it all worth it i mean like is it worth the

hassle yeah what do you think's gonna happen with this strike i mean it's

gonna go on is everyone gonna come back from washington and uh say gee it's

summertime and start having a good time or what no i don't think so we're from

madison and we just closed down our drift board in Morristown.

I don't know. It's against the war in Vietnam.

Do you have any opinion on that?

Definitely. Okay, what's your opinion?

Come on. You wouldn't want us to tell you that you were fighting. No,

you wouldn't. I'm an old veteran from World War II, honey. You wouldn't want

me to tell you what I feel about that.

Yes, I would.

Are you actually calling the war in Vietnam a war?

Well, what do you think it is?

Cowboys and Indians.

Excuse us, Lieutenant. Would you care to make any kind of statement about the

upcoming march in Washington?

Lieutenant? Lieutenant?

But if your parents won't protect you, then of course you have to. It's up to

the parents to see that boys don't dash into adventure that's going to be

dangerous. How can we get the parents to go out and demonstrate? Well, after

talking to them, I'm sure you can, so you've got to do it yourselves.

They won't go.

They've raised you.

They don't like the results.

And they say, the heck with them. Let them go and get killed. I don't like

them. I'm sick of them.

All right, this is Ed Sumner.

Ed Summer.

Ed Summer.

Excuse me, sir. Could I use your bathroom?

Sir, could I use your bathroom? I have to go to the bathroom.

There's a public bathroom about 130 feet down the road. Turn to your left.

Where are you people from?

We're from Cleveland, Ohio.

How many of you came down here today?

Well, we're a family, my husband and our son and my sister, myself.

Is your son in the armed forces?

No, no, he goes to college.

Is your husband over here? Yes.

Hello. How do you do, sir? Why did you come down here today?

Just to show the young people that some of us older folks are concerned also.

We think that this protest is a sincere form of patriotism.

It's only those people in the administration who think there's

something wrong with it.

Is your son here today?

Is your son down here today? Yes.

Yes, he's here. Participating in the rally?

Yes, he's standing there taking pictures at the moment.

I see.

Who is this lady?

My sister, Dorothy Barton. And I came down here because I'm very concerned

about the young people. I think they're our finest youth.

I think they're so well educated.

And I feel that if there's any hope for this country, it is our youth.

And we're here because we care about them. We love them.

And we are only disappointed.

that more adults aren't here.

Right. And we walked through the crowd, and it was the most stirring moment in

my life when the young people clapped and acknowledged us and said, you're

right on, and they hoped that there would be more adults among them. It was

the most touching moment in my life.

That's a very exciting thing, I'm sure. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Bruce Tabor, Global News.

May 9th, 1970, 7.45.

Four filmmakers went to see the president today for an interview.

And they got bullshit and a runaround.

This is a warning.

Watch the skies.

Watch the skies.

And they said fine, so we sent them down there. You know what they did? They took

their cameras and tape recorders away from them.

Bought them cokes and sat them down to watch television.

No, he was a nice guy because he got us Coca-Colas.

And it was their condition there, so it was very comfortable to sit there and

watch television, which is what the other newsmen were doing.

They gave us a nice couch to rest the car on. We were watching Captain Video.

You're demonstrating that you're just working.

We're just filming right here. We want to hear what you have to say.

I mean, this is what I'm talking about. You're a demonstrator, just a filmer.

We're filming everything.

You're filming everything?

That's our demonstration.

That's your demonstration? That's it. We're doing our thing to help.

You belong to the Peace Corps, Joe?

No.

Why not?

I applied. I didn't get in.

Ooh.

That's a terrible thing.

Well, this is like they're supposed to have a tremendous thing trying to

condition the police force, you know, to react to civil disturbances and things.

They take them out to Fort Meade and let them practice.

Yeah. Look at that girl. Didn't you know that? And they take the trainees and

things, and they pretend to be the hippies.

And then the police try to contain them.

And this is practice, you know.

Everybody's a human being for openers. I mean, actually, you can train people so

much, but then you can't take away the human element. You're going to react.

Can you stand and just let somebody throw rocks at you without reacting?

taking your thumbprints and everything. The people eventually, like they're

freaked out, but they come together again by the time they get out, usually.

The people are the workers.

If we're going to make it for the people, let's remember who the people

are. Let's remember why we're here.

I was on the march,

one of the first marches on Washington in 62 or 63 when Martin Luther King

spoke, and it was a...

extremely moving experience for me personally.

hospital 23rd street and first avenue patients there are not allowed to speak

their minds or say how they feel against the war in vietnam we need a lot of

support from the outside because we can't do it alone the patients are

scared that if they participate then they might get discharged or might not

get no kind of medical help i was in vietnam and i got wounded and i know how

it's like and i didn't want to go there if i could do it in any way of my power

Stay together. It's a procession. Stay together. It's important not to let too

much space between you because the power of the peace is in the mass of blood

together. Don't keep distance between yourselves.

Don't allow more than two feet between each of you. That's important.

The important thing is to keep up the chant.

Stop death.

Stop war. Stop murder. Stop atrocity.

Got it?

Say it loud, agonizingly.

Stop war, stop death, stop murder, stop atrocity. That's what you're working

with.

No,

pick some of it, leave some, but try not to lose all of it, okay?

Because we'd like to leave some in different places, and if all of you drop

it in one place, that's it.

But remember, do not lose sight of the fact that you are, in fact, atrocity.

You represent someone who has been murdered.

Someone who has been slaughtered.

You understand?

You are speaking for those people.

because I thought when the tear gas came from the front, I would be able to

quickly move away.

But when the tear gas did come from the front, and it was very easy to see it,

and I was not near it, I would not have been touched by the gas, policemen came

out of back buildings unseen before, came out of these back buildings and

started firing tear gas at the back of the crowd so that the whole crowd was

surrounded in tear gas.

You see, when they do it this way, students start running in all

directions, and that's the danger.

Nobody really dies from tear gas, but you can die from a mob.

Well, there was a church right there, and I thought I would go into the

church, but as soon as the tear gas started to come, the church boarded up

its doors and wouldn't let anybody in.

And then I ran to an apartment house, and they were just coming to close their

doors and lock their doors.

Then there was a restaurant, and they were also coming to lock their doors.

Somebody grabbed me and pulled me into a shelter.

But we were kicked out of that shelter.

I guess no one was supposed to be near the White House.

Let's get into it a little bit about how you got into the White House to see the

president.

Or not see the president, as the case may be. How far did you really get when

you went down to talk to him?

We got into the press room.

That's it.

They just kept insisting that there was nothing for us to do there.

And they didn't want us around.

How are the other press people in the building towards you? Were they groovy

about it?

The people who are interviewing us from the Post, from the Star, and people from

the papers, these are the reporters, like, are sitting around, and they're

being very groovy towards us. There was one woman, that girl, I think she was

basically conservative, don't you think?

But she was, like, very, you know, she was conservative, but on the other hand,

she was very sweet, you know, she was a sweet little girl.

Liberal conservative.

Nice chick.

I

don't

want to change the subject from the film or anything, but I would just like to

ask anyone here if they don't think something strange is going on in this

country. I mean, it's strange, isn't it?

Very weird.

But I would...

I was just out on the streets, and I would like to say that we own the

streets down there.

I did not see one octogenarian. I've never had such fun walking down the

street in all my life.

I think it's here.

I miss octogenarians. I want to see octogenarians around. What's the matter

with an octogenarian?

Octogenarians for supper?

I want to get in here and ask you a question.

Because what do you think, as a member of the working press, what's this strike

all about, and where the hell are we going, and how long is it going to last?

What do you think about it? Look, we're making a record, and we're trying to

watch it stay together.

And all we can do is keep making the record and hope that it does stay

together. Because right now, it don't look like it's going to hold together

much longer.

I don't think I can judge right now because I'm just too tired.

But I see a lot of enthusiasm. Where do you see the thing breaking up?

You sit and you listen to a lady in the park talk about no women

going to work on Wednesday and Friday. Thursday is okay to go to work.

Wednesday and Friday, bad.

Why, man? Do you honestly believe that women en masse are going to walk out of

their jobs on Wednesday morning? Little dinky secretaries in Peter Pan collars

and Mr. Kenneth hairdos, man, are going to walk out of their jobs?

What? Come on. You think it's going to fold up in three days, right?

It's going to fold up in three days. But Bruce Tabor, Bruce Tabor feels, on the

other hand... We have just heard from Martin Scorsese commenting

on the strife in the White House.

He's copping out.

Oh, he has copped out.

Oh, he's will cop out.

He's just a cop out.

Like,

like, like... The thing isn't going to, the strike isn't going to work unless

people do something about it. I mean, I know you're all tired and everything,

but sitting around laughing in a hotel room isn't going to do anything. I mean,

like what David Dellinger said.

What can do it? What can do it? We all have to go back and go back home and

try and do something like the man said, you know?

like call up a friend or get involved in whatever field that we're in and really

try and make people go out on strike.

Do you think making films is enough?

What do you mean enough? Do you think making movies is enough?

I wasn't talking about that. I was saying, look, when I get back... I'm

asking you if you think making movies is enough to justify not going out on

strike. If you were a filmmaker, if you were an artist, as an actress, Would you

go on strike?

If you were supposed to go and be in your movie tomorrow, Verna, would you go

on strike and not go down to New Mexico?

You mean if I was the only one? No.

I said if it was a moral decision and you had to leave tomorrow to go to New

Mexico to be in the hired hand, would you not go?

You won't give me any qualifications.

I'm asking you the question.

Would you go?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Obviously, we all communicate through making films and through acting. Now, I

don't know why you're hesitant about an answer to that.

This is the way we communicate.

And one thing that is wrong with this situation here right now, you folks up

here in the hotel room and I was downstairs by the bus, and that bus that

you filmed rocking, I don't know if you saw who was rocking the bus or not, but

that distressed me.

Because they were very young boys, about four or five of them.

I say they must have been 18 years old, 19 years old.

And except for the fact that they have long hair now, 10 years ago they would

have been wearing a motorcycle jacket and black boots.

There's no leadership, unfortunately.

Because the responsible people were in the back hollering, no, no, no.

But these other kids are very aggressive, Jay. They're very

aggressive, you see. And you need something to count to them. The question

I'm asking you is, why aren't we on strike?

We're doing what we do, man. We're working right here, man.

Because we have a message to give to the people.

We're showing them what is happening. That's why we're not on strike.

That's your answer. And also, you know, if you're really going to be realistic

about it, I mean, the things that are, the people that really should go on

strike are the people that could really cripple the nation. I mean, you're not

going to cripple the nation. Don't you think media people are people who

cripple the nation?

Yeah, but you're not involved. You're not involved.

In the news media life. What good would a strike do if the news media didn't go

out, if the telephone operators didn't go out? That's what I'm talking about.

The telephone operators should go out and the post office should go out and

people in the banks.

How are you going to go to people who are poor?

All I said was that instead of sitting around and saying it's not going to

work, the least people can do is try.

That's all I said.

to the people.

But I want to know how you're going to make people that have been living a

certain way all their lives, people who think that we are threatening their very

existence, follow us.

We're going to put your films on the street. What are you going to say to

them? You don't have any reason with them. No, look. Wait a minute. Wait a

minute. Wait a minute.

Look, I think the whole issue, you know, like, gets down to the fact that either

you go on strike and you don't do anything or you do whatever you can.

And, uh...

Like, it's pretty depressing both ways, because you've probably tried both

things before in some way or another, and it didn't work. And it just doesn't

look like it's going to work ever, and that's why it's uptight. I think you're

right. It's better to go on strike and do something else other than what you

do, right, than to go on strike and do nothing, to just sit at home and do

nothing, right?

So what we're talking about when we say go on strike is not work.

Go outside and talk to people.

What I'm saying, and what I said five minutes ago, and what that lady says

over there is, do you honestly think that by cornering 40-year-old people on

their way home from work or to work, or on their way to the automat to grab a

sandwich before they go back to their desk, that you're really going to get

them to walk out of the insurance office?

Well, let me ask you a question. Do you think you're going to get them to walk

out by saying, hey, you fucking dumb construction worker, you fucking goon?

Is that going to help you? Nobody's saying that, man.

But you are saying it, don't you understand? No, no, no.

Wait a second. The same way I think in my mind, the same way Mr. Nixon and his

crew, his advisors can't relate to us and what we feel about ourselves, about

people today, the same way we're missing something here and feeling what these

people who don't agree with us are like.

I'm not missing it. It's because he knows what they feel and because she

knows what they feel that they question whether or not they're going to really

want to know. What we're doing is we're making the construction workers our

enemy. Instead of directing the enemy, you know, who the real enemy is, we're

making the construction workers our enemy.

You're right.

Look, nobody...

These are a bunch of guys, it seems to me, it seems to me, because I just saw a

bunch of cops down the street here, dressed in paratrooper boots, and

really, they looked like airborne troops, but they were police officers.

And I guarantee you, nine out of ten of them are Korean vets, probably some of

the leaders of World War II vets, you see.

Now, they're not relating the same way we are to America today. You see, they

fought in a...

We'll call it a just war, you know. I mean, atrocities were being committed,

then whatever.

Anyway, that's the way they feel about it. They really fought for America, you

see. And they feel that what we're doing is somehow against America.

We've got a reason with them, somehow.

Listen, do you think if Jane Fonda had gone down to Wall Street and asked the

guys to go out on strike that they would have beat her up? I don't think so. They

apparently were beating up many girls.

No, what does that mean?

Well, because, no, it's what you said. I mean...

You alienate those guys.

I'll tell you something. If they were listening to Jane Fonda instead of

beating up Harry and Dan, I'd rather have them snare at Jane Fonda because

maybe she'll get one little point across.

Maybe. Then maybe next week another point.

Yeah. Well, what's so threatening about Harry and Dan?

Like, what threatens... No, not to you, but to the construction workers.

What is so threatening about this whole scene?

What... They've got everything they want. Nothing changes for them.

What do they care?

They've got, you know, all their material things.

They aren't fighting in Vietnam. Their kids are, but, you know, where are their

heads at? We are threatening their world, man, because we are saying to

them, no matter how nicely we say it, Harvey, no matter we come and be real

gentle and be Quakers, we are still saying to them, very basically, Hey,

man. From the time you started to think about where you were at, you're wrong,

man. You were wrong fighting in that war. You're wrong believing what you

believe about communists. You're wrong in what you want for your kids. You're

just wrong, man. There's another way and a better way. And no matter how sweet

and soft you make that, they're going to hate your guts.