Its objective was to stop the civil war in Spain before Hitler and Mussolini provided enough support for Franco to defeat the elected socialist government. While she wanted the strike to pressure FDR into negotiating an end to the war, she also wanted to crucify him for staying out of it. But Fannie couldn't be laughed off. Unlike the American Student Union, whose members were liberal socialists like me, Fannie's Young Communist League wasn't content to talk about a peace strike. She moved, she acted, she got a permit from the dean allowing the YCL to hold a rally on campus.
Timing is all.
The demand for peace in Spain began to thunder on campuses all across the country, becoming so popular that the conservative Cornell Student Council roused itself to get in on the act and, droit du seigneur, take over. Fannie was shrewd. I loved the power of a go-between. She assessed the size of the turnout student council sponsorship would guarantee and her eyes glowed in anticipation of a captive audience for her beliefs. Two sticking points on which she would not budge were where I was of some use.