Maris Cakars

Who was Maris Cakars?

Maris Cakars is best known as having served as editor of WIN Magazine, a bi-weekly journal of the nonviolent anti-Vietnam War movement, from 1970 to 1976.

During his leadership at WIN, authors such as Grace Paley, Barbara Deming, Andrea Dworkin, Abbie Hoffman, and many others from the nonviolent Left appeared in its pages. It also published excerpts from secret files stolen by persons unknown from the FBI offices in Media, Pennsylvania. The files were described by the New York Times as "a virtually complete collection of political materials" from the FBI's regional offices, dealing with secret FBI surveillance of student, civil rights and anti-war groups.

According to Tad Richards:

As part of his work with Win, the War Resisters League and the Committee for Non-Violent Action, Cakars helped organize demonstrations at the Pentagon and in New York, including a demonstration at a Manhattan military induction center where Dr. Benjamin Spock was arrested. Cakars managed to get himself arrested by both superpowers in the '70s, and for the same reasons. He was arrested in Moscow by the KGB for passing out anti-war leaflets in Red Square.