The collection documents Don Behm's various activities, interests, and organizational involvements during the 1970's. Materials include correspondence, leaflets, broadsides, some organizational records, and subject files. The papers are divided into two series: ACTIVITY AND ORGANIZATION FILES and PERSONAL REFERENCE FILES.
The ACTIVITY AND ORGANIZATION FILES contain materials on six activities and organizations with which Behm was involved. Two files contain extensive research materials: the file on the case of Michael Cooper, 1971-1976, a University of Wisconsin student who, while absent without leave from the R.O.T.C. program, died while resisting arrest; and the file on the Progressive magazine case, 1979-1980, a controversy surrounding an article on the hydrogen bomb. Other files contain information on the James Rowen mayoral campaign in Madison; the Common Sense Coalition, a Madison political organization; the Peace and Jobs Referendum, which advocated that tax dollars not be used for military purposes; and the Mass Party Organizing Committee, a national organization. Files are organized alphabetically under the heading for each activity or organization.
The PERSONAL REFERENCE FILES contain information on various national and international social action concerns. The photographs also are considered part of this series. Topics include nuclear power, anti-militarism, and the Menominee Indians. The files on Africa, 1978-1980, include information on the Pan-African Congress; Rhodesian sanctions; a bibliography of newsletters, magazines, and information sources about the continent; and newsletters, leaflets, and articles on the revolution in Zimbabwe. The file titled “Audio Visual Resources” contains a list of anti-nuclear and anti-military slides and films, and background information on the film The War at Home. Materials on Big Business Day, April 17, 1980, document a day devoted to workshops and films on the policies and effects of multi-national corporations. The “Black Nationalist” file contains autobiographies of six Black Americans who hijacked an airplane in 1972, along with leaflets on several imprisoned Afro-American revolutionaries. Papers concerning the Oil Strike, 1980, provide information about a strike by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union for better wages and benefits. A folder of materials on Puerto Rico and Cuba, 1976-1977, contains information on Puerto Rico's independence movement, along with a leaflet on tours to Cuba. The file labeled “S1/S1437” concerns the proposed Criminal Justice Act of 1975, the Criminal Code Reform Act of 1977, and the expected impact of this legislation on civil liberties. Also included in this file is information on bills of a similar nature. Among the materials on the War Resisters League is a “War Resisters Organizing Manual” prepared by the League in 1977.
