The bulk of materials document Cushway's activities at the University of Michigan during the early 1970s. The Series have been divided thus: Indochina Peace Campaign, Peoples Bicentennial Commission, Attica Brigade, Impeach Nixon Campaign, Radical Student Union, and Student Activities Committee.
Phil Cushway was a student activist at the University of Michigan in the early 1970s. His involvement in the various student protests (Vietnam War, Attica lockdown) of that time, as well as his work with the Michigan Daily, led to this collection of materials which document some of his activities during that time. Cushway was active in the Indochina Peace Campaign, and much of the collection is made up of materials from that organization.
As an anti-war and peace movement organization, the Indochina Peace Campaign operated in such cities as Boston, New York, Santa Clara, Calif., Detroit, and Ann Arbor from the years 1972 to 1975. Founded by social activist Tom Hayden, the Indochina Peace Campaign sought to end U.S. intervention in Indochina, honor the Peace Agreement, release political prisoners held by the Saigon government, and end aid to President Nguyen Van Thieu. In 1973 the IPC at Ann Arbor sponsored a rally led by Jane Fonda. Also present were Jean-Pierre Debris, a French school teacher who spent two years in a Saigon jail, and the folk singer Holly Near.
Cushway was also instrumental in starting a local chapter of the Peoples Bicentennial Commission, "a nationwide citizen organization dedicated to restoring the democratic principles that shaped the birth of this republic." The Peoples Bicentennial Commission (PBC) was a far-reaching national organization created by Jeremy Rifkin, a New Left activist, and John Rossen, a Communist Party member and former Abraham Lincoln Brigade participant. The PBC was under close scrutiny by the federal government and was considered a threat because of the numbers of people involved with that organization. Some of the activities of the PBC included sending cassette tapes to wives of corporate executives which told about "the recent wave of corporate scandals and criminal activity," in which their husbands might be involved. They also offered $25,000 rewards to any secretary who would provide information leading to the successful prosecution of her boss. PBC received grants from the NEH as well as private foundations.
Little information is available about PBC outside of the U.S. Government's hearings and investigations and PBC's own publications, therefore it is difficult to get objective information.
