Moratorium Action!

The Vietnam Moratorium campaigns were a result of a conference held in Canberra in November 1969 to plan a series of protests based on the American Moratorium model. There were three Moratorium campaigns in Australia in 1970 and 1971. The Moratorium was the first truly mass movement of the protest against the Vietnam War. Until 1969 the protest had been uncoordinated in a national sense and rallies had been reasonably small in size, whereas the Moratorium mobilised the support of hundreds of thousands. It also succeeded in gaining more publicity in its first six months than had been achieved by the protest movement between 1965 and 1969. The aims of the first campaign were the immediate withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam and repeal of the National Service Act. The Moratorium stated that all actions taken by its members and supporters should be of a non-violent nature and this philosophy was extended throughout Australia through various state committees and others.

This poster was published in 1970 by the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign (VMC) to promote the program of speakers and other action for the second Australian Vietnam Moratorium - the main event of which occurred on 18 September. Of note is the event planned for 20 September: "Australian Labour Party Moratorium Public meeting (sic)" at the Sydney Town Hall, which included speakers Gough Whitlam, Dr Jim Cairns, and Bob Hawke.

This poster follows a very common theme among Vietnam Moratorium posters: it uses bold colours and attention-grabbing titling to draw in an audience, expressing a powerful, albeit simple message. The Moratorium symbol appears in the lower left of the poster.