John Seidler

Youth at a Leftist and Rightist Political Rally: Reasons for Participating

Abstract This paper investigates the degree of uniqueness of the contribution of youth to an anti-war rally of 1970. It contrasts that contribution to the part played by youth at a pro-war rally of the same year. Both rallies took place near the Washington Monument in Washington, D. C. Data collection consisted of on-the-spot interviews of a sample of participants at both rallies. The focus of the interview was on reasons expressed by participants for their attendance at the rally. The data support the following hypotheses: that youth at the anti-war rally were more highly oriented towards specific objectives and general objectives than were older participants at that rally or youthful ones at the pro-war rally; that youth at the anti-war rally were less highly oriented towards personal reasons than older participants at that rally or younger ones at the pro-war rally. Generally reasons for participating were found to be influenced by the interaction of age cohort and ideological thrust of the rally. The ...