Jerry Rubin Signed 1st Ed Growing (Up) at 37 Yippie Chicago Seven Radical 1976

Description

This is a rare, internally signed and inscribed first edition of Growing (Up) at 37 by the legendary social activist and counterculture icon Jerry Rubin . Published in 1976, this memoir captures Rubin’s transition from a radical street leader of the 1960s to a seeker of the "New Consciousness" movements of the 1970s. The Inscription The book features a warm, personalized inscription on the front free endpaper (ffep) in Rubin's hand: "May 3, Detroit. To Jennifer! Thank you for a probing, sensitive interview. The truth works. Jerry Rubin" Transcribed Text from the Dust Jacket & Interior Front Cover: GROWING (UP) AT 37 JERRY RUBIN Spine: GROWING (UP) AT 37 JERRY RUBIN M. EVANS Back Cover: [Full portrait of Jerry Rubin by Robert Altman] Front Flap: "Jerry Ru bin, co-founder of the Yippie movement and a member of the Chicago Seven, traces his personal odyssey from radical activist of the ’60’s to a practitioner in the growth potential movements of the ’70’s.. . how the originator of the slogan 'Kill Your Parents!' finally learned to love his own parents." Back Flap: "GROWING (UP) AT THIRTY-SEVEN is a sensitive psychological self-evaluation... Jacket by Frances Elfenbein. Photograph © 1975 by Robert Altman." Copyright Page: Copyright © 1976 by Jerry Rubin. M. Evans and Company, Inc. New York. ISBN 0-87131-189-5. Historical Context & Biographies Jerry Rubin (1938–1994): A titan of the 1960s anti-war movement, Rubin was a co-founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies) alongside Abbie Hoffman. He was one of the Chicago Seven , famously prosecuted for inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. This book is a vital historical document of the "Me Decade," as Rubin explored est, rolfing, and acupuncture, eventually transitioning into a successful businessman—the "Yippie to Yuppie" pipeline. The Photographer: Robert Altman (1944–2017): The back cover photo was taken by Robert Altman (not the film director), a renowned photojournalist for Rolling Stone magazine. Altman was the preeminent visual chronicler of the San Francisco hippie scene and 1960s radicalism. Condition Report Binding: Hardcover with original dust jacket. Jacket: Good/Very Good. Edgeworn with some darkening to the spine and a small repaired tear in the fold. Now protected in a removable Mylar cover . Pages: Clean and tight. Minimal edgewear to the boards. Provenance: This copy was inscribed following an interview in Detroit, adding unique historical value for collectors of media and political history. ... Chicago 8, Abbie Hoffman, Counterculture, 1960s, Vietnam War, Anti-war, New Age, Self-Help, Signed Autobiography, Collectible. _______________ Jerry Clyde Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was an American social activist, anti-war leader, and counterculture icon during the 1960s and early 1970s. Despite being known for holding radical views when he was a political activist, he ceased holding his more extreme views at some point in the 1970s and instead opted for a successful career as a businessman.[1][2][3] In the 1960s,[4] during his political activism heyday, he was known for being one of the co-founders of the Youth International Party (YIP) whose members were referred to as Yippies, and standing trial in the Chicago Seven case. Early life and education Rubin was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Esther (Katz), a homemaker, and Robert Rubin, a trucker who later became a Teamsters' union official.[5][6] Rubin attended Cincinnati's Walnut Hills High School, co-editing the school newspaper, The Chatterbox and graduating in 1956. While in high school Rubin began to write for The Cincinnati Post, compiling sports scores from high school games. He attended Oberlin College, and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and later went on to graduate from the University of Cincinnati, receiving a degree in history.[7] Rubin attended the University of California, Berkeley in 1964 but dropped out to focus on social activism.[8] Rubin's parents died within ten months of each other, leaving Rubin to take care of his younger brother, Gil, who was 13 at the time. Jerry wanted to teach Gil about the world and planned to take him to India. When relatives threatened to sue to obtain custody of Gil, Jerry decided to take his brother to Israel instead, settling in Tel Aviv. There, Rubin worked on a kibbutz,[2] and studied sociology while his brother, who had learned Hebrew, decided to stay in Israel and moved permanently to a kibbutz. Before returning to social and political activism, Rubin made a visit to Havana, to learn first-hand about the Cuban revolution.[2] Social activism Rubin began to demonstrate on behalf of various left-wing causes after dropping out of UC Berkeley. Rubin also ran for mayor of Berkeley, on a platform opposing the Vietnam War, and supporting Black power and the legalization of marijuana,[9] receiving over 20 percent of the vote. Rubin turned his attention to political protest, his first in Berkeley, protesting against the refusal of a local grocer to hire African Americans. Soon Rubin was leading protests of his own. Rubin organized the Vietnam Day Committee, that led some of the first big protests against the Vietnam War. He took part in planning the world's largest teach-in against the war, organized rallies and demonstrations that attempted to stop a train transporting troops to the Oakland Army Base, as well as trucks carrying napalm.[10]: 4 The Vietnam Day Committee was a unique early antiwar organization in that it enjoyed large local participation and is believed to be a forerunner to the national movement against the war in Vietnam.[11] Rubin was one of the founding members of the Youth International Party (YIP) or Yippies, along with social and political activist Abbie Hoffman and satirist Paul Krassner.[12] The Yippies were not a formal organization with a membership list or a direct relationship with constituency but played upon the media's appetite for anything new and different. They were influenced by Marshall McLuhan's ideas on the importance of electronic communication and believed that if radical events were made more entertaining the media, especially television would give them greater coverage. As Rubin recollected: ... [T]he more visual and surreal the stunts we could cook up, the easier it would be to get on the news, and the more weird and whimsical and provocative the theater, the better it would play.[13] Rubin's appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings is a good example of the Yippies’ emphasis on conducting political protest as theater, and drawing as much attention as possible to their dissent by turning it into a spectacle. Rubin was subpoenaed by HUAC in Washington but instead of pleading the Fifth Amendment as was common, he entered the room dressed in a rented 18th-century American Revolutionary War uniform, proudly claiming to be a descendant of Jefferson and Paine. "Nothing is more American than revolution," he told the committee.[14] Rubin, showing a total lack of concern or worries, lightheartedly blew soap bubbles as members of Congress questioned his Communist affiliations. He subsequently appeared before the HUAC as a bare-chested guerrilla in Viet Cong pajamas, with war paint and carrying a toy M-16 rifle, and later as Santa Claus.[15][16] As Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain remark in their book Acid Dreams: It was a political ploy designed to make a mockery of the HUAC proceedings; the congressmen were caught off guard, and Rubin's stunt became page-one news throughout the country.[17] Another media stunt that gave the Yippies free publicity, not only in the United States but all over the world, was when Rubin, Hoffman and others brought the New York Stock Exchange to a halt by tossing money into the air and watched gleefully as stockbrokers scrambled to collect bills.[13] Yet another successful act in Yippies "guerrilla theater" was when during the Democratic National Convention of 1968 the Youth International Party nominated their own candidate for the presidency. The nominee was Pigasus the Immortal, a 145-pound (66 kg) pig that they felt was an appropriate alternative to Richard Nixon, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Alabama governor George Wallace. At the official introductions at Pigasus' first press conference, Rubin, while holding the candidate in his arms, demanded he be given Secret Service protection and be brought to the White House for a foreign policy briefing. He also promised, on behalf of Pigasus, a fair election campaign and if Pigasus won the election he would be eaten. This would, maintained Rubin, reverse the usual democratic process in which the pig is elected "and proceeds to eat the people."[18] In his book DO IT!: Scenarios of the Revolution Rubin says "media does not report "news," it creates it. An event happens when it goes on TV and becomes a myth."[19] He goes on to say: TV time goes to those with the most guts and imagination. I never understood the radical who comes on TV in a suit and tie. Turn off the sound and he could be the mayor! The words may be radical, but the television is a non-verbal instrument! The way to understand TV is to shut off the sound. No one remembers any words they hear; the mind is a technicolor movie of images, not words. I've never seen "bad" coverage of a demonstration. It makes no difference what they say about us. The picture is the story.[20] Rubin (far right) at an anti-war press conference, August 1967 In October 1967, David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam asked Rubin to help mobilize and direct a March on the Pentagon.[21] The protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial as Dellinger and Dr. Benjamin Spock gave speeches to the mass of people.[22] From there, the group marched towards the Pentagon. As the protesters neared the Pentagon, they were met by soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division.[22] who formed a human barricade blocking the Pentagon steps.[21] Not to be dissuaded, Hoffman vowed to levitate the Pentagon[22] while Allen Ginsberg led Tibetan chants to assist.[22] Eventually, things turned ugly. By the time the group's 48-hour permit expired, approximately 680 protesters had been jailed and 50 hospitalized.[22] As one member of the march recalled: Then someone in authority decided that the Pentagon steps had to be cleared. Rifle butts came down on people's heads with dull, ugly, wet-sounding thumps. Blood splashed on to the steps. There were shouts of "Link arms! Link arms!", mixed with screams of pain and curses. People were dragged off and arrested. The brutality was appalling and the people standing on the steps began throwing debris at the soldiers. I saw a garbage can sail over my head. I feared people might be trampled in panic as they tried to escape from the clubs and rifle butts.[23] In spite of the brutality of the police, the spirits of the demonstrators were not dampened. Many were exhilarated by what had transpired and some felt it was an event that would mark a turning point. "It made me see we could build a movement by knocking off American symbols," said Rubin.[24] He added: We had symbolically destroyed the Pentagon, the symbol of the war machine, by throwing blood on it, by pissing on it, dancing on it ... painting 'Che lives' on it. It was a total cultural attack on the Pentagon. The media had communicated this all over the country and lots of people identified with us, the besiegers.[24] Rubin later played an instrumental role in the anti-war demonstration that accompanied the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago by helping to organize the Yippie "Festival of Life" in Lincoln Park. He spoke along with Hoffman at an anti-war rally at the Grant Park bandshell on August 28, 1968, and instructed demonstrators to resist if a riot broke out. The extent of violence between Chicago police and demonstrators (which an official government report called a "police riot") was not anticipated by the Yippie leaders. Some 1,500 people were injured.[10]: 11 The arrest and trial of the Yippie leaders (known later as the Chicago Conspiracy Trial) which began on September 24, 1969, eventually led to the trial of Rubin and seven others on charges of incitement to riot,[10]: 10 including Hoffman, Rennie Davis, John Froines, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, Tom Hayden, and Bobby Seale.[25] The defendants were commonly referred to as the "Chicago Eight". Seale's trial was severed from the others after he demanded the right to serve as his own lawyer and was sentenced to four years in prison for contempt of court, making the Chicago Eight the Chicago Seven. The trial developed into a quiet spectacle, or "hippie-guerillas theater" as Rubin described it. Rubin, Hoffman and other defendants made a mockery of the court, widely covered by the press, with The New York Times and The Washington Post reporting on it. Rubin, who had declared the trial to be "the Academy Award of protest"[26] at one point paraded back and forth in front of Judge Julius Hoffman (no relation to defendant Hoffman), thrusting his arm in a Nazi salute and shouting "Heil Hitler!"[27] Another time he and Hoffman wore judge's robes to court. Judge Hoffman ordered both men to remove the robes. They did – but underneath they wore blue Chicago police shirts.[8] "The day Abbie and I came in wearing judges' robes was a stoned idea," Rubin said later. "It was a turning point in the trial in terms of theatrics, and it just went on from there."[28] In spite of the danger of being busted, Rubin smoked marijuana before the trial. "I got stoned a lot for the trial because it was such complete theater – a front-row seat to history – and marijuana intensifies every experience."[29] Judge Hoffman added to the spectacle. Among other things, Judge Hoffman ordered for Black Panther leader Bobby Seale to be bound, gagged, and chained to his chair for a sizable portion of the trial.[30] Rubin, along with the six other defendants, was found not guilty on the charge of conspiracy but guilty (with four other defendants) on the charge of incitement. He was also sentenced by the judge to more than three years in prison for contempt of court. All of the convictions for incitement were later overturned by an appeals court, who cited judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. The contempt of court citations were also overturned on appeal.[31] The contempt charges were re-tried in 1972 however the U.S. Justice Department declined to retry any of the defendants for either conspiracy or incitement.[10]: 12 The Vietnam War politicized marijuana, turning it from a sign of an immoral or corrupt person, suffering from amotivational syndrome (psychological condition associated with diminished inspiration to participate in social activities) into deliberate, calculated civil disobedience. Jerry Rubin remarked in 1970: Smoking pot makes you a criminal and a revolutionary. As soon as you take your first puff, you are an enemy of society.[32] Rubin protesting during the 1972 Republican convention In 1972, Rubin continued his activism, this time in Miami Beach to organize protests for both the Republican and Democratic Conventions. This time, the local community knew the Yippies were coming and they organized behind a Rubin of their own, Ellis Rubin, a well-known attorney. On June 4, 1972, the Rubins debated at the Unitarian Church in Miami, in front of 500 highly charged churchgoers on both sides of the issue, only divided by a church aisle. Jerry began the debate by thanking "Uncle Ellis" for the invitation to debate. Ellis, who was not related to Jerry, feigned disgust at the association and the event was "on". After barbs in both directions, it ended abruptly when Jerry famously dropped an "F-bomb" and Ellis took leave to lead the locals out in a protest of their own.[33] Rubin was also interviewed on television by journalist Dorothy Fuldheim about his book Do It. In the interview, Rubin started to quiz Fuldheim, asking her if she drank. He then referred to the police as "pigs," which offended Fuldheim, who replied, "I've got a shock for you. I'm very friendly with policemen." Rubin responded "Well, I've got a shock for you. I'm very friendly with the Black Panther Party." At this, Fuldheim threw her book and kicked Rubin off the set saying "Out! Stop the interview" as the cameras rolled.[34] Post-activism Rubin held a post-election party at his home in New York in January 1973, attended by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, after Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern had lost to Republican incumbent President Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election. Soon after, Rubin retired from politics entirely, becoming an entrepreneur and businessman. In the 1980s, Rubin was now more known for being a Yuppie capitalist.[35] Despite no longer maintaining the more radical counterculture views he once held and being regarded as a sellout by some of his former 1960s associates, it has been acknowledged that Rubin sought to use his business investments to promote social awareness.[36] He embarked on a debating tour with Abbie Hoffman titled "Yippie versus Yuppie". Rubin's argument in the debates was that activism was hard work and that the abuse of drugs, sex, and private property had made the counterculture "a scary society in itself." He maintained that: Wealth creation is the real American revolution. What we need is an infusion of capital into the depressed areas of our country. — Jerry Rubin A later political cartoon portrayed Rubin as half-guerrilla and half-businessman.[37] Rubin's differences with Hoffman were on principle rather than completely personal. However, it was acknowledged that his evolving views did not sit well with Hoffman.[38] When Hoffman died by suicide in 1989, Rubin attended his funeral.[39] In his memoir Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven Rubin emphasizes the importance of uniting the personal and the political. He writes: Friends ask me, "Isn't your inward growth trip an escape from social reality?" Yes, it's a far cry from leading a march on the Pentagon to sitting cross-legged, counting my breaths. But there is no contradiction. We activists in the 1960s eventually lost touch with ourselves. Arica, est, bioenergetics, and other growth trips are to creating a centered individual who moves politically from a deep place. Dissatisfaction is not the only source for political action; people can be political from a personally satisfied place ... We have an opportunity to transform the planet, but first we need to free ourselves from the conditioning of the past and find our natural internal harmony; to lower our defenses and establish our common humanity.[40]: 197, 199 Other appearances Jerry Rubin appeared posthumously in the 2002 British documentary by Adam Curtis, The Century of the Self. He appears in episode part 3 of 4.[41] This segment of the documentary discusses the Erhard Seminars Training, also known as The est Training, of which Rubin was a graduate. In his autobiography Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven Rubin dedicates a chapter on his experience of taking the est Training. He explains why est appealed to him, even though he had initially resisted it: Something theatrically revolutionary was happening at est. In the 1960s we had used political guerrilla theater to get people to see beyond their roles. Now Werner was creating a psychological theater provoking people into self-confrontation. Whenever people discover themselves, they grow and learn − and that has to be revolutionary. (My act is liking something only if I can call it "revolutionary".)[42] Rubin also appeared on Saturday Night Live's second episode of its first season. He was announced as "Jerry Rubin, Leader of the Yippie Movement." The sketch is a fake commercial for wallpaper featuring famous protest slogans from the 1960s and 1970s (e.g., "Make Love, Not War", "Off The Pig!", "Give Peace A Chance", "Hell No, We Won't Go!", etc.). He ends the sketch by parodying a famous radical slogan as "Up against the wall-paper, posters!" (with the last word bleeped out in a reference to Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers).[43][44] Author Rubin's anti-establishment beliefs were put down in writing in his 1970 book, DO IT!: Scenarios of the Revolution, with an introduction by Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and unconventional design by Quentin Fiore. In 1971, his journal, written while incarcerated in the Cook County Jail, was published under the title We are Everywhere. The book includes an inside view of the trial of the Chicago Seven, but otherwise focuses on the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, LSD, women's liberation and his view of a coming revolution. In 1976, Rubin wrote the book Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven, which contained a chapter about his experience at an Erhard Seminars Training (EST) session, later included in the book American Spiritualities: A Reader (2001) edited by Catherine L. Albanese.[45] In Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven, Rubin claims a rational society cannot be built by people who are out of touch with themselves and can't even run their own lives rationally. Real political change will not happen unless people transform their own personal reality, and their own relationships. Much like Arthur Koestler in his collections of essays The Yogi and the Commissar, Rubin argues that political work and self-development has to go hand in hand. It was important, he said, that people lived the society they hoped to create. As explained in Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven Rubin experimented with many self-improvement techniques to overcome his own personal defects, everything from the est training, hypnotism, meditation and yoga to rolfing, acupuncture, the Arica School, Gestalt therapy and the bioenergetic analysis of Wilhelm Reich's pupil Alexander Lowen. In a review of the book Derek VanPelt comments on Rubin's self quest: Rubin, though a crude writer, takes it all in from a fairly skeptical viewpoint and reports in entertaining, thoughtful, and sometimes funny prose. The depth and sincerity of his search is apparent, and his call for a cooperative relationship between new consciousness and new politics is one of the more promising prospects of the seventies.[46] In 1980, Rubin authored a self-help book with his wife, Mimi Leonard, entitled The War Between the Sheets: What's Happening with Men in Bed and What Men and Women Are Doing About It.[47] It was not well received.[47] Business Sometime in the mid-1970s, Rubin reinvented himself as a businessman. Friend and fellow Yippie Stew Albert claimed Rubin's new ambition was giving capitalists a social consciousness. In 1980 he began a new career on Wall Street as stockbroker with the brokerage firm John Muir & Co. "I know that I can be more effective today wearing a suit and tie and working on Wall Street than I can be dancing outside the walls of power,"[8] he said. In the 1980s, he became known for his promotion of business networking, having created Business Networking Salons, Inc., a company that organized parties at the Studio 54 and Palladium nightclubs in Manhattan, where thousands of young professionals and entrepreneurs met and shared ideas. Near the end of his life, Rubin became interested in the science of life extension and was heavily involved in multi-level marketing of health foods and nutritional supplements.[48] “In 1991, he and his family moved to Los Angeles,” according to an Observer.com profile of him,[49] “where he became a successful independent marketer for a Dallas-based firm that sold a nutritional drink called Wow!, made with kelp, ginseng, and bee pollen. Ironically, Bobby Seale became one of his salesmen.”[50] Death On November 14, 1994, Rubin was struck by a motorist as he attempted to cross Wilshire Boulevard, in front of his penthouse apartment[8] in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, California. It was a Monday evening and weekday traffic was heavy, with three lanes moving in each direction. One motorist swerved to avoid Rubin, but a second driver, immediately behind the first, struck him. He was taken to the UCLA Medical Center, where he died of a heart attack two weeks later. He is interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. State Senator Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), Rubin's fellow Chicago Seven member, said after the latter's death: He was a great life force, full of spunk, courage and wit. I think his willingness to defy authority for constructive purposes will be missed. Up to the end, he was defying authority.[51] The Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded on December 31, 1967.[1][2] They employed theatrical gestures to mock the social status quo, such as advancing a pig called "Pigasus the Immortal" as a candidate for President of the United States in 1968.[3] They have been described as a highly theatrical, anti-authoritarian, and anarchist youth movement of "symbolic politics".[4][5] Since they were well known for street theater, protesting against the criminalization of cannabis in the United States with smoke-ins, and politically themed pranks, they were either ignored or denounced by many of the Old Left. According to ABC News, "The group was known for street theater pranks and was once referred to as the 'Groucho Marxists'."[6] Background The Yippies had no formal membership or hierarchy. The organization was founded by Abbie and Anita Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Nancy Kurshan, and Paul Krassner, at a meeting in the Hoffmans' New York apartment on December 31, 1967.[7] According to his own account, Krassner coined the name. "If the press had created 'hippie,' could not we five hatch the 'yippie'?" Abbie Hoffman wrote.[4][8] Other activists associated with the Yippies include Stew Albert,[9] Judy Gumbo,[10] Ed Sanders,[11] Robin Morgan,[12] Phil Ochs, Robert M. Ockene, William Kunstler, Jonah Raskin, Wavy Gravy,[13][14] Steve Conliff, Jerome Washington,[15] John Sinclair, Jim Retherford,[16][17] Dana Beal,[18][19] Betty (Zaria) Andrew,[20][21] Joanee Freedom, Danny Boyle,[22] Ben Masel,[23][24] Tom Forcade,[25][26] Paul Watson,[27] David Peel,[28] Bill Weinberg,[29] Aron Kay,[30][31] Tuli Kupferberg,[32] Jill Johnston,[33] Daisy Deadhead,[34][35] Leatrice Urbanowicz,[36][37] Bob Fass,[38][39] Mayer Vishner,[40][41] Alice Torbush,[42][43] Patrick K. Kroupa, Judy Lampe,[44] Steve DeAngelo,[45] Dean Tuckerman,[42][46] Dennis Peron,[47] Jim Fouratt,[48] Steve Wessing,[24] John Penley,[49] Pete Wagner and Brenton Lengel.[50][51] A Yippie flag was often seen at anti-war demonstrations. The flag had a black background with a five-pointed red star in the center, and a green cannabis leaf superimposed over it. When asked about the Yippie flag, an anonymous Yippie identified only as "Jung" told The New York Times that "The black is for anarchy. The red star is for our five point program. And the leaf is for marijuana, which is for getting ecologically stoned without polluting the environment."[52] This flag is also mentioned in Hoffman's Steal This Book.[53] Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin became the most famous Yippies—and bestselling authors—in part due to publicity surrounding the five-month Chicago Seven Conspiracy trial of 1969. They both used the phrase "ideology is a brain disease" to separate the Yippies from mainstream political parties that played the game by the rules. Hoffman and Rubin were arguably the most colorful of the seven defendants accused of criminal conspiracy and inciting to riot at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention. Hoffman and Rubin used the trial as a platform for Yippie antics—at one point, they showed up in court attired in judicial robes.[54] Origins YIP poster advertising the 1968 Festival of Life. The term Yippie was invented by Krassner, as well as Abbie and Anita Hoffman, on New Year's Eve 1967. Paul Krassner wrote in a January 2007 article in the Los Angeles Times: We needed a name to signify the radicalization of hippies, and I came up with Yippie as a label for a phenomenon that already existed, an organic coalition of psychedelic hippies and political activists. In the process of cross-fertilization at antiwar demonstrations, we had come to share an awareness that there was a linear connection between putting kids in prison for smoking pot in this country and burning them to death with napalm on the other side of the planet.[55] Anita Hoffman liked the word, but felt that The New York Times and other "strait-laced types" needed a more formal name to take the movement seriously. That same night she came up with Youth International Party, because it symbolized the movement and made for a good play on words.[56] Along with the name Youth International Party, the organization was also simply called Yippie!, as in a shout for joy (with an exclamation mark to express exhilaration).[57] "What does Yippie! mean?" Abbie Hoffman wrote. "Energy – fun – fierceness – exclamation point!"[58] First press conference The Yippies held their first press conference in New York at the Americana Hotel March 17, 1968, five months before the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Judy Collins sang at the press conference.[1][59][60] The Chicago Sun-Times reported it with an article titled: "Yipes! The Yippies Are Coming!"[55] The New Nation concept This article is part of a series on Anarchism in the United States Ideologies History People Active organizations Defunct organizations Media Literature Related topics flag Anarchism portal diagram Libertarianism portal flag United States portal vte Part of a series on Socialism in the United States Ideologies History Activists Commentators Intellectuals Politicians Parties Organizations Media Literature Related topics icon Socialism portal flag United States portal vte The Yippie "New Nation" concept called for the creation of alternative, counterculture institutions: food co-ops; underground newspapers and zines; free clinics and support groups; artist collectives; potlatches, "swap-meets" and free stores; organic farming/permaculture; pirate radio, bootleg recording and public-access television; squatting; free schools; etc. Yippies believed these cooperative institutions and a radicalized hippie culture would spread until they supplanted the existing system. Many of these ideas/practices came from other (overlapping and intermingling) counter-cultural groups such as the Diggers,[61][62] the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Merry Pranksters/Deadheads,[63][64][65] the Hog Farm,[66] the Rainbow Family,[67] the Esalen Institute,[68] the Peace and Freedom Party, the White Panther Party and The Farm. There was much overlap, social interaction and cross-pollination within these groups and the Yippies, so there was much crossover membership,[69] as well as similar influences and intentions.[70][71] "We are a people. We are a new nation," YIP's New Nation Statement said of the burgeoning hippie movement. "We want everyone to control their own life and to care for one another ... We cannot tolerate attitudes, institutions, and machines whose purpose is the destruction of life, the accumulation of profit."[72] The goal was a decentralized, collective, anarchistic nation rooted in the borderless hippie counterculture and its communal ethos. Abbie Hoffman wrote: We shall not defeat Amerika by organizing a political party. We shall do it by building a new nation—a nation as rugged as the marijuana leaf.[73][74] The flag for the "new nation" consisted of a black background with a red five pointed star in the center and a green marijuana leaf superimposed over it (same as the YIP flag).[75] The Chicago History Museum shows a different flag for the new nation.[76] It is not the marijuana leaf. It has the word NOW under what looks like the all-seeing eye on a pyramid seen on the back of a dollar bill. Culture and activism See also: Counterculture of the 1960s The Yippies often paid tribute to rock 'n' roll and irreverent pop-culture figures such as the Marx Brothers, James Dean and Lenny Bruce. Many Yippies used nicknames which contained Baby Boomer television or pop references, such as Pogo or Gumby. (Pogo was notable for creating the famous slogan: "We have met the enemy and he is us"—first used on a 1970 Earth Day poster.) The Yippies' love of pop-culture was one way to differentiate the Old and New Left, as Jesse Walker writes in Reason magazine: Forty years ago, the yippies seemed unusual because they fused the political radicalism of the New Left with the long-haired, grass-smoking lifestyle of the counterculture. Today that combination is so familiar that many people don't even realize that the protesters and the hippies initially distrusted each other. What seems most curious about the yippies today is the way they mixed hard left politics with a deep appreciation for pop culture. Abbie Hoffman announced that he wanted to combine the styles of Andy Warhol and Fidel Castro. Jerry Rubin dedicated Do it! not just to his girlfriend but to "Dope, Color TV, and Violent Revolution." Even when praising a form of mass culture that had earned some grudging respect from the late-'60s left—rock 'n' roll—Rubin's list of musicians who "gave us the life/beat and set us free" included not just raucous originals like Jerry Lee Lewis and Bo Diddley but Fabian and Frankie Avalon, commercial confections that most lefty rock intellectuals disdained as insufficiently authentic. In one chapter, Rubin complained that if "the white ideological left" took over, "Rock dancing would be taboo, and miniskirts, Hollywood movies and comic books would be illegal." All this from a self-proclaimed communist whose heroes included Castro, Chairman Mao, and Ho Chi Minh. It's not that the yippies swallowed pop culture uncritically. (Hoffman kept a sign attached to the bottom of his TV that said "bullshit.") It's that they saw the mass media's dream-world as another terrain to fight in.[77] At demonstrations and parades, Yippies often wore face paint or colorful bandannas to keep from being identified in photographs. Other Yippies reveled in the spotlight, allowing their stealthier comrades the anonymity they needed for their pranks.[78][79][80] One cultural intervention that misfired was at Woodstock, with Abbie Hoffman interrupting a performance by The Who, trying to speak against the incarceration of John Sinclair, sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1969 after giving two joints to an undercover narcotics officer. Guitarist Pete Townshend used his guitar to bat Hoffman off the stage.[81] The Yippies were the first on the New Left to make a point of exploiting mass media.[82] Colorful, theatrical Yippie actions were tailored to attract media coverage and also to provide a stage where people could express the "repressed" Yippie inside them.[83] "We believe every nonyippie is a repressed yippie," Jerry Rubin wrote in Do it! "We try to bring out the yippie in everybody."[83] Early Yippie actions A "Yippie!" button on display at the Chicago History Museum Yippies were famous for their sense of humor.[84] Many direct actions were often satirical and elaborate pranks or put-ons.[85] An application to levitate The Pentagon[86][87] during the October 1967 March on the Pentagon, and a mass protest/mock levitation at the building organized by Rubin, Hoffman and company at the event, helped to set the tone for Yippie when it was established a couple of months later.[88] Another famous prank just before the term "Yippie" was coined was a guerrilla theater event in New York City on August 24, 1967. Abbie Hoffman and a group of future Yippies managed to get into a tour of the New York Stock Exchange, where they threw fistfuls of real and fake US$ from the balcony of the visitors' gallery down to the traders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could.[89] The visitors' gallery was closed until a glass barrier could be installed, to prevent similar incidents. On the 40th anniversary of the NYSE event, CNN Money editor James Ledbetter described the now-famous incident: [The] group of pranksters began throwing handfuls of one-dollar bills over the railing, laughing the entire time. (The exact number of bills is a matter of dispute; Hoffman later wrote that it was 300, while others said no more than 30 or 40 were thrown.) Some of the brokers, clerks and stock runners below laughed and waved; others jeered angrily and shook their fists. The bills barely had time to land on the ground before guards began removing the group from the building, but news photos had been taken and the Stock Exchange "happening" quickly slid into iconic status. Once outside, the activists formed a circle, holding hands and chanting "Free! Free!" At one point, Hoffman stood in the center of the circle and lit the edge of a $5 bill while grinning madly, but an NYSE runner grabbed it from him, stamped on it, and said: "You're disgusting." If the prank accomplished nothing else, it helped cement Hoffman's reputation as one of America's most outlandish and creative protestors ... the "Yippie" movement quickly became a prominent part of America's counterculture.[90] There was a clash with police on March 22, 1968, where a large group of countercultural youths led by the Yippies descended into Grand Central Station for a "Yip-In".[91][92] The night erupted into a violent clash with police that Don McNeill of The Village Voice called a "pointless confrontation in a box canyon".[93][94] A month later, Yippies organized a "Yip-Out," a be-in style event in Central Park that went off peacefully and drew 20,000 people.[95] In his book A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Media in America, author David Armstrong points out that the Yippie hybrid of performance art, Guerilla theater and political irreverence was often in direct conflict with the sensibility of the 60s American Left/peace movement: The Yippies' unorthodox approach to revolution, which emphasized spontaneity over structure, and media blitz over community organizing, put them almost as much at odds with the rest of the left as with mainstream culture. Wrote (Jerry) Rubin in the Berkeley Barb, "The worst thing you can say about a demonstration is that it is boring, and one of the reasons that the peace movement has not grown into a mass movement is that the peace movement—its literature and its events—is a bore. Good theatre is needed to communicate revolutionary content."[96] House Un-American Activities Committee The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) subpoenaed Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman of the Yippies in 1967, and again in the aftermath of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The Yippies used media attention to make a mockery of the proceedings: Rubin came to one session dressed as an American Revolutionary War soldier, and passed out copies of the United States Declaration of Independence to people in attendance.[97] On another occasion, police stopped Hoffman at the building entrance and arrested him for wearing an American flag. Hoffman quipped for the press, "I regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country", paraphrasing the last words of revolutionary patriot Nathan Hale; meanwhile Rubin, who was wearing a matching Viet Cong flag, shouted that the police were Communists for not arresting him also.[98] According to The Harvard Crimson: In the fifties, the most effective sanction was terror. Almost any publicity from HUAC meant the 'blacklist.' Without a chance to clear his name, a witness would suddenly find himself without friends and without a job. But it is not easy to see how in 1969 a HUAC blacklist could terrorize an SDS activist. Witnesses like Jerry Rubin have openly boasted of their contempt for American institutions. A subpoena from HUAC would be unlikely to scandalize Abbie Hoffman or his friends.[99] Chicago '68 See also: 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity Duration: 5 minutes and 36 seconds.5:36 Anti-war demonstrators in Lincoln Park, Chicago, attending a Yippie organized event, approximately five miles north of the convention center. The band MC5 can be seen playing. Yippie theatrics culminated at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. YIP planned a six-day Festival of Life – a celebration of the counterculture and a protest against the state of the nation.[100] This was supposed to counter the "Convention of Death." This promised to be "the blending of pot and politics into a political grass leaves movement – a cross-fertilization of the hippie and New Left philosophies."[101] Yippies' sensational statements before the convention were part of the theatrics, including a tongue-in-cheek threat to put LSD in Chicago's water supply. "We will fuck on the beaches! ... We demand the Politics of Ecstasy! ... Abandon the Creeping Meatball! ... And all the time 'Yippie! Chicago – August 25–30.'" First on a list of Yippie demands: "An immediate end to the war in Vietnam."[102][103] Yippie organizers hoped that well-known musicians would participate in the Festival of Life and draw a crowd of tens if not hundreds of thousands from across the country. The city of Chicago refused to issue any permits for the festival and most musicians withdrew from the project. Of the rock bands who had agreed to perform, only the MC5 came to Chicago to play and their set was cut short by a clash between the audience of a couple thousand and police. Phil Ochs and several other singer-songwriters also performed during the festival.[104] In response to the Festival of Life and other anti-war demonstrations during the Democratic convention, Chicago police repeatedly clashed with protesters, as many millions of viewers watched the extensive TV coverage of the events. On the evening of August 28 the police attacked the protesters in front of the Conrad Hilton hotel as the demonstrators chanted "The whole world is watching".[105] This was a "police riot," concluded the US National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence,[106] stating: "On the part of the police there was enough wild club swinging, enough cries of hatred, enough gratuitous beating to make the conclusion inescapable that individual policemen, and lots of them, committed violent acts far in excess of the requisite force for crowd dispersal or arrest."[106] The conspiracy trial See also: Chicago Seven Following the convention, eight protesters were charged with conspiracy to incite the riots. Their trial, which lasted five months, was heavily publicized. The Chicago Seven represented a cross-section of the New Left, including Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.[107][108][109] In his book, American Fun: Four Centuries of Joyous Revolt, John Beckman writes: Never mind Hair, the so-called Chicago Eight (then Seven) trial was the countercultural performance of the sixties. Guerrilla theater stared down courtroom farce to decide the civil dispute of the era: the Movement vs. the Establishment. The eight defendants seemed finically chosen to represent the world of dissent: SDS leaders Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden (who had authored "The Port Huron Statement"); graduate students Lee Weiner and John Froines; portly fifty-four-year-old Christian socialist David Dellinger; Yippies Rubin and Hoffman; and—briefly--Black Panther Bobby Seale. "Conspire, hell," Hoffman quipped. "We couldn't agree on lunch."[110] Several other Yippies – including Stew Albert, Wolfe Lowenthal, Brad Fox and Robin Palmer – were among another 18 activists named as "unindicted co-conspirators" in the case.[111] While five of the defendants were initially convicted of crossing state lines to incite a riot, all convictions were soon reversed in appeal court. Defendants Hoffman and Rubin became popular authors and public speakers, spreading Yippie militancy and comedy wherever they appeared. When Hoffman appeared on The Merv Griffin Show, for example, he wore a shirt with an American flag design, prompting CBS to black out his image when the show aired.[112] The Yippie movement The Youth International Party quickly spread beyond Rubin, Hoffman and the other founders. YIP had chapters all over the US and in other countries, with particularly active groups in New York City, Vancouver, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Tucson, Houston, Austin, Columbus, Dayton, Chicago, Berkeley, San Francisco and Madison.[113] There were YIP conferences through the 1970s, beginning with a "New Nation Conference" in Madison, Wisconsin in 1971.[114] On the final day of the Madison conference, April 4, 1971, hundreds of riot police broke up a block party organized by local Yippies to cap the event, resulting in a street clash between Yippies and police.[115] Street protests During an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C., on November 15, 1969, East Coast Yippies led thousands of youths in the storming of the Justice Department building.[116] On August 6, 1970, L.A. Yippies invaded Disneyland, hoisting the New Nation flag at City Hall and taking over Tom Sawyer's Island. While riot police confronted the Yippies, the theme park was closed early for only the second time in the park's history (the first being shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy.[117]). As many as 23 of the 200 Yippies attending were arrested.[118] Vancouver Yippies invaded the US border town of Blaine, Washington, on May 9, 1970, to protest Richard Nixon's invasion of Cambodia and the shooting of students at Kent State.[119] Columbus Yippies were charged with inciting the rioting that occurred in the city on May 11, 1972, in response to Nixon's mining of North Vietnam's Haiphong harbor.[120] They were acquitted. YIP was a member of the coalition of anti-Vietnam War activists[103] who, over several days in early May 1971, tried to shut down the US government by occupying intersections and bridges in Washington, D.C. The May Day protests resulted in the largest mass arrest in American history.[121][122] A frequent 'national' complaint among Yippies was that the New York 'central HQ' chapter acted as if other chapters did not exist and kept them out of the decision-making process. At one point, at a YIP conference in Ohio in 1972, Yippies voted to 'exclude' Abbie and Jerry as official spokespersons from the party, since they had become too famous and rich.[123] In 1972, Yippies and Zippies (a younger YIP radical breakaway faction whose "guiding spirit" was Tom Forcade)[124][125][126] staged protests at the Republican and Democratic Conventions in Miami Beach.[18][127][128] Some of the Miami protests were larger and more militant than the ones in Chicago in 1968. After Miami, the Zippies evolved back into Yippies.[129] Poster advertising Yippie-sponsored Smoke-In at Ohio State University, April 29, 1978. In 1973, Yippies marched on the Manhattan home of Watergate conspirator John Mitchell: ... five hundred die-hard Yippies staged one last march on the Mitchell home, no longer the Watergate but a grand apartment building on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. "Free Martha Mitchell!" they chanted. "Fuck John!" When the Mitchells finally appeared at the window to see what all the commotion was about, the stoners cherished their last "eye-to-eyeball confrontation with Mr. Law 'n' Order." To commemorate the moment, they placed a giant marijuana joint on the Mitchells' doorstep.[130] Yippies regularly protested at US presidential inaugurations,[131][132][133] with a particularly strong presence at the 1973 inauguration of Richard Nixon.[131] Yippies also demonstrated at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit,[35][134] as well as the subsequent 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas,[135][136] where 99 Yippies were arrested: DALLAS, Aug 22 — Ninety-nine demonstrators were arrested today outside the Republican National Convention after a Corporate War Chest Tour through the downtown area in which they intimidated shoppers, splattered paint and burned an American flag. The demonstrators, members of the Youth International Party, or Yippies, completed the spree through downtown by jumping into the reflecting pool at City Hall in the sweltering Dallas heat.[137] Smoke-ins Further information: Smoke-in Poster advertising Yippie-sponsored Pittsburgh Smoke-In, Schenley Park, July 2, 1977 Yippies organized marijuana "smoke-ins" across North America through the 1970s and into the 1980s. The first YIP smoke-in was attended by 25,000 in Washington, D.C. on July 4, 1970.[19][138] There was a culture clash when many of the hippie protesters strolled en masse into the nearby "Honor America Day" festivities with Billy Graham and Bob Hope.[139] On August 7, 1971, a Yippie smoke-in in Vancouver was attacked by police, resulting in the Gastown Riot, one of the most famous protests in Canadian history.[140] The annual July 4 Yippie smoke-in in Washington, D.C., became a counterculture tradition.[45][141][142][143] Yippie banner displayed at Washington, D.C. Smoke-In, July 4, 1977. Yippie van makes a few passes by the July 4th Smoke-In, Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C., 1977. Alternative culture Yippies organized alternative institutions in their counterculture communities. In Tucson, Yippies operated a free store;[144] in Vancouver, Yippies established the People's Defense Fund to provide legal help for the often-harassed hippie community; in Milwaukee, Yippies helped launch the city's first food co-op.[145] Many Yippies were involved in the underground press. Some were the editors of major underground newspapers or alternative magazines, including Yippies Abe Peck (Chicago Seed),[146] Jeff Shero Nightbyrd (New York's Rat and Austin Sun),[147] Paul Krassner (The Realist),[1][148] Robin Morgan (Ms. magazine),[149] Steve Conliff (Purple Berries, Sour Grapes[150] and Columbus Free Press),[151] Bob Mercer (The Georgia Straight and Yellow Journal),[152] Henry Weissborn (ULTRA),[153] James Retherford (The Rag), Mayer Vishner (LA Weekly),[40][154][155] Matthew Landy Steen and Stew Albert (Berkeley Barb and Berkeley Tribe),[156][157] Tom Forcade (Underground Press Syndicate and High Times)[158] and Gabrielle Schang (Alternative Media).[159] New York Yippie Coca Crystal hosted the popular cable TV program If I Can't Dance You Can Keep Your Revolution.[160] Yippies were active in alternative music and movies. Singer-songwriters Phil Ochs and David Peel were Yippies. "I helped design the party, formulate the idea of what Yippie was going to be, in the early part of 1968," Ochs testified at the Chicago Eight trial.[161] The strange, legendary cult film Medicine Ball Caravan (partly financed by Tom Forcade),[162] chronicled Yippie drop-outs and a variety of other fascinating and dynamic characters of the era.[163][164] The movie title was later controversially changed to "We Have Come for your Daughters".[165] Radical musicians usually found enthusiastic audiences at Yippie-sponsored events and frequently offered to play. YIP-affiliated John Sinclair managed Detroit's proto-punk band the MC5,[166][167][168] who played in Lincoln Park during protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In 1970, Pete Seeger played a Vancouver Yippie rally against construction of a highway through Jericho Beach Park.[169] The first-ever concert by the influential and iconic proto-punk band the New York Dolls, was a Yippie benefit to raise funds to pay legal fees for one of Dana Beal's marijuana arrests in the 1970s.[170] The Youth International Party founded the US branch of the Rock Against Racism movement in 1979.[171][172][173][174][175][176][29] Rock Against Racism USA later morphed into the critically acclaimed, Yippie-organized, widely recognized national Rock Against Reagan tour in 1983.[177][178][179] Well-known bands on the tour included Michelle Shocked,[180] the Dead Kennedys,[181] the Crucifucks, MDC,[182] Cause for Alarm, Toxic Reasons and Static Disruptors.[183][184] A young Whoopi Goldberg performed stand-up comedy (as did Will Durst) at the San Francisco R-A-R show.[185] Leaflet advertising Yippie-sponsored Rock Against Racism concert in Lincoln Park, Chicago, June 9, 1979 Vancouver Yippies Ken Lester and David Spaner were the managers of Canada's two most notorious political punk bands, D.O.A. (Lester) and The Subhumans (Spaner).[186][187][188] New York Yippie/High Times publisher Tom Forcade financed one of the first movies about punk rock, D.O.A., featuring footage of the Sex Pistols' 1978 tour of America.[189][190][191] Infamous Baltimore Yippie John Waters became a renowned independent filmmaker (Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Hairspray), once claiming in an interview that the Yippies influenced his irreverent sense of style: "I was a Yippie agitator, and I wanted to look like Little Richard. I dressed like a hippie pimp back then, because punk wasn't around yet."[192] Pranking the system Yippies mocked the system and its authority. The Youth International Party, having nominated a pig (Pigasus) for US president in 1968, famously ran Nobody for President as its 'official' candidate in 1976.[193][194][195] Vancouver Yippie Betty "Zaria" Andrew ran as the Youth International Party's candidate for mayor in 1970.[21] One of her campaign promises was to repeal every law, including the law of gravity so that everyone could get high.[20] That same year, Berkeley Yippie Stew Albert ran for sheriff of Alameda County, challenging the incumbent sheriff to a high-noon duel and receiving 65,000 votes.[196] In 1970, Detroit Yippies went to city hall and applied for a permit to blow up the General Motors building. After the permit was denied, the Yippies said that it just goes to show you can't work within the system to change the system. "This destroys my last hope for legal channels," said Detroit Yippie Jumpin' Jack Flash.[197] Some Yippies, including Robin Morgan, Nancy Kurshan, Sharon Krebs and Judy Gumbo, were active in the Guerilla theatre feminist group W.I.T.C.H. (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell), which combined "theatricality, humor, and activism."[198][199] On November 7, 1970, Jerry Rubin and London Yippies took over The Frost Programme when he was the guest on the popular British host's TV program. In all the chaos, a Yippie fired a water pistol into host David Frost's open mouth, the broadcaster called for a commercial break and the show was over. The Daily Mirror's banner headline: "THE FROST FREAKOUT."[200] Pie-throwing Pie-throwing as a political act was invented by Yippies.[201] The first political pie throwing was carried out in Bloomington, Indiana, October 14, 1969, when Jim Retherford, former underground newspaper editor and ghost writer of Jerry Rubin's Do It!, landed a cream pie in the face of former UC Berkeley president Clark Kerr.[202] Retherford was also the first to be arrested. The next pie was thrown by Tom Forcade, who nailed a member of the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography in 1970.[203] Columbus Yippie Steve Conliff pied Ohio Governor James Rhodes in 1977 to protest the Kent State shootings.[204][205] Aron "The Pieman" Kay became the best-known Yippie pie-thrower.[30][206] Kay's many targets included Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan,[207] New York City Mayor Abe Beame,[208] conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly,[209] Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis,[210] ex-CIA head William Colby, National Review publisher/editor William F. Buckley,[211] and the owner of disco Studio 54, Steve Rubell.[212] Nobody for President and "None of the Above" See also: Nobody for President and None of the above Perhaps one of the swan songs of Yippies was a groundbreaking effort to place a new voting option, "None of the Above", on the election ballot in Santa Barbara County, in California, by the Isla Vista Municipal Advisory Council in 1976. This represented an incipient libertarian impulse of Yippies and the first example in the United States of this election ballot alternative, in what one of the resolution's two co-sponsors, Matthew Steen, described as an "anti-institutional Yippie up-yours." Years earlier Steen had been a Yippie activist with Stew Albert, as a reporter with the Berkeley Tribe. This novel motion was adopted unanimously by the council, having a ripple effect across the country, with voters in Nevada approving this option in a change to state election laws in 1986.[213] In 1976, national Yippies took a cue from Isla Vistans, backing Nobody for President, a campaign that took on a life of its own in the post-Watergate malaise of the mid-70s.[193][194][195] The Yippie campaign slogan: "Nobody's perfect."[214] (Meanwhile, in a strange twist of Yippie fate, Matthew Steen had become treasurer of a student-led campaign to elect Jerry Brown for president, competing against both "Nobody for President" and Jimmy Carter during the presidential primary campaign of that year.) From the experimental combination of Isla Vista local politics, presidential campaigns and the Yippies, the name and spirit of this unexpected ballot initiative spread quickly—in the form of None of the Above music festivals, radio and television shows, rock bands, T-shirts, buttons, (decades later) countless websites and other related social phenomena. The die-hard dedication to the 'option' of Nobody for President and None of the Above has not abated since the counter-cultural 70s, but has only grown, unexpectedly taking the Yippie legacy into a new century and succeeding generations.[215][216] Banner at Halloween Yippie Smoke-In, Columbus, Ohio, 1978 Writings "An exegesis on women's liberation" by the Women's Caucus within the Youth International Party was included in the 1970 anthology Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From The Women's Liberation Movement, edited by Robin Morgan.[198] In June 1971, Abbie Hoffman and Al Bell started the pioneer phreak magazine The Youth International Party Line (YIPL). Later, the name was changed to TAP for Technological American Party or Technological Assistance Program.[217] Milwaukee Yippies published Street Sheet, the first of the anarchist zines later to become so popular in many cities.[218] The Open Road, an internationally known journal of the anti-authoritarian left, was founded by a core of Vancouver Yippies.[219][220][221] The semi-official Yippie house organ, The Yipster Times, was founded by Dana Beal in 1972 and published in New York City;[222][223] the name was changed to Overthrow in 1979.[224] The mercurial Yippie-turned-Zippie Tom Forcade founded the very-successful High Times magazine in 1974.[225] So many writers for Yipster Times would go on to write for High Times, it was often referred to as the farm team.[125] The most famous writing to come out of the Yippie movement is Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book, which is considered to be a guidebook in causing general mischief and capturing the spirit of the Yippie movement. Hoffman is also the author of Revolution for the Hell of It which has been called the original Yippie book. This book claims that there were no actual yippies, and that the name was just a term used to create a myth.[226] Jerry Rubin published his account of the Yippie movement in his book Do IT!: Scenarios of Revolution.[227] Books on Yippie by Yippies include Woodstock Nation and Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture (Abbie Hoffman), We Are Everywhere (Jerry Rubin), Trashing (Anita Hoffman), Who the Hell is Stew Albert? (Stew Albert), Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut (Paul Krassner) and Shards of God: A Novel of the Yippies (Ed Sanders).[228] Some other books about that era: Woodstock Census: The Nationwide Survey of the Sixties Generation (Deanne Stillman and Rex Weiner),[229] The Panama Hat Trail (Tom Miller),[230][231]Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000 (Martin Torgoff),[232] Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion (Aniko Bodroghkozy),[233] and The Ballad of Ken and Emily: or, Tales from the Counterculture (Ken Wachsberger).[113] Buy This Book, written and illustrated by political cartoonist and post-1960s Yippie activist Pete Wagner,[234] who distributed copies of the Yipster Times on the University of Minnesota campus in the mid-1970s, was promoted by Hoffman, who said the book "manages to reach to the limits of bad taste."[234] Buy This Too recounts efforts by a guerrilla street theater gang named the 1985 Brain Trust to "fight the New Right with Yippie-like myth-making tactics." The Brain Trust was inspired by a series of meetings and interviews between Wagner and Paul Krassner in Minneapolis during May 1981, as Krassner performed stand-up comedy at Dudley Riggs' Instant Theater Company.[235] In 1983, a group of Yippies published Blacklisted News: Secret Histories from Chicago '68, to 1984 (Bleecker Publishing), a large, 'phone-book sized anthology' (733 pages) of Yippie history, including journalistic accounts from both alternative and mainstream media, as well as many personal stories and essays. Includes countless photographs, old leaflets and posters, 'underground' comics, newspaper clippings, and various other historical ephemera. The editors (often doubling as authors) officially called themselves "The New Yippie Book Collective"; which included Steve Conliff (who wrote over half the volume), Dana Beal (head archivist), Grace Nichols, Daisy Deadhead, Ben Masel, Alice Torbush, Karen Wachsman, and Aron Kay.[236] It is still in print. Later years HBO docudrama film Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 was first broadcast in 1987. In 1989, Abbie Hoffman, who had been suffering intermittent bouts of depression, committed suicide with alcohol and about 150 phenobarbital pills.[237] By contrast, Jerry Rubin became a fast-talking (and by all accounts, fairly successful) stockbroker and showed no regrets.[238] In 1994 he was fatally injured by a car while jaywalking.[239] By the age of 50, Rubin had broken with many of his previous countercultural views; he was interviewed by The New York Times, which described him as a "yippie-turned-conspicuous-yuppie." In the interview, he stated that "Until me, nobody had really taken off their clothes and screamed out loud, 'It's O.K. to make money!'"[240] In 2000, a Hollywood film based on the life of Abbie Hoffman, titled Steal This Movie (spoofing the title of his book, Steal This Book), was released to mixed reviews, with Vincent D'Onofrio in the title role.[241] Noted film critic Roger Ebert gave the movie a positive review,[242] remarking that although it is often difficult to credibly bring historic events to life, he believed the movie succeeded:[242] Abbie Hoffman is seen wearing an American flag shirt and getting in trouble for desecrating it; the movie cuts to footage of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans yodeling while wearing their flag shirts. Hoffman insisted that the flag represented all Americans, including those opposed to the war; he resisted efforts of the Right to annex it as their exclusive ideological banner. Vincent D'Onofrio has an interesting task, playing the role, since Hoffman seems on autopilot much of the time. He is charismatic and has an instinctive grasp of the dramatic gesture, but can be infuriating on a one-to-one level ...[242] The Yippies continued as a small movement into the early 2000s.[243][244][245] The New York chapter was known for their annual marches for decades in New York City to legalize marijuana;[139][246][247] NYC Yippie Dana Beal started the Global Marijuana March in 1999.[19][248] Beal also continued to crusade for the use of Ibogaine[249][250] to treat heroin addicts.[251][252] Another Yippie, A.J. Weberman, continued the deconstruction of the poetry of Bob Dylan and speculation about tramps on the Grassy Knoll through various websites. Weberman has for a long time been active in the Jewish Defense Organization. Throughout this decade, NYC Yippies frequently joined in local anti-gentrification protests over the continuing transformation of New York's Lower East Side.[253][49][254] In 2008, there was a very public feud between A.J. Weberman and fellow founding-Yippie, popular New York radio host Bob Fass of WBAI. Related incidents briefly brought the Yippies back into the media,[255] particularly since they coincided with the public release of new movie. Chicago 10 was an animated movie about the Chicago riots that drew national attention.[256] The film, which featured Hank Azaria as Abbie Hoffman and Mark Ruffalo as Jerry Rubin,[257] attracted interest in the topic from a new generation. In October 2008, it appeared nationally on PBS. Vancouver Yippie Bob Sarti's play Yippies in Love, premiered in June 2011.[258][259] Yippie Museum and Cafe In 2004, the Yippies, along with the National AIDS Brigade, purchased the long-time Yippie "headquarters" (which had initially been acquired by squatting[22]) at 9 Bleecker Street in New York City [260] for $1.2 million.[261] After official purchase, it was converted into the "Yippie Museum/Café and Gift Shop",[262][263] housing a multitude of counter-cultural and leftist memorabilia from all over the world, as well as providing an independently operated café that featured live music on scheduled nights.[264][265] The cafe closed in summer 2011 and reopened in December the same year with a renovated basement.[266] The museum was chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.[267] According to the original curator's message, the museum was founded "to preserve the history of the Youth International Party and all of its offshoots." The Board of Directors: Dana Beal,[268] Aron Kay, David Peel, William Propp, Paul DeRienzo, and A. J. Weberman.[269] George Martinez was a semi-frequent speaker at the Yippies' Open-Mic, known as "Occupational Hazards/The People's Soapbox."[50] In Summer 2013, The Yippie Cafe officially closed.[270][271] At the beginning of 2014, the Yippie building (Museum) at 9 Bleecker Street was sold, closed and permanently cleaned out;[272] most of the memorabilia and historic materials dispersed among the remaining New York Yippies.[43] In July 2014, the Yippie building at 9 Bleecker Street was transformed into a Bowery-area Boxing club called "Overthrow", deliberately retaining much of its original Yippie/60s-revolutionary decor.[273] The boxing club would remain in the location for about a decade, until closing in November 2024 due to financial difficulties.[274] The Trial of the Chicago 7 Main article: The Trial of the Chicago 7 In 2020, one of the most widely popular pieces of media about the Yippie Movement and particularly the infamous trial was released on Netflix. The film was called “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and received an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes,[275] which reflected the audience's wide praise for the movie. It essentially depicts the peaceful protest that turned into the violent clash that will stamp Yippie history forever, as well as the notorious trial that followed. The film follows this entire scenario, with an in-depth back story for all the characters and scenes that depict the atrocity and excitement of the situation. It follows the film's two main characters and founders of the Youth International party, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, as well as the other 5 activists that stood trial. There is truly a star-studded cast, with Sacha Baron Cohen playing Hoffman and Jeremy Strong playing Rubin, while another prominent actor Eddie Redmayne plays activist Tom Hayden. The film was directed by Aaron Sorkin and won a variety of awards, including the “Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture” and the “Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay”. The movie was originally intended to be released in theaters, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to the distribution rights being sold to Netflix. Netflix bought the rights to the film for a sum of 56 million, while the production of the film cost around $35 million.[276] 81 year old Judy Gumbo was a member of the original Yippie movement and had nothing but positive affirmations for the film. After watching “The Trial of the Chicago 7” she states “it’s a positive and affirming movie. It brings up things, like racism and that Bobby Seale was targeted. I think the people who are unhappy with it are uber-idealistic and who don’t get, as I, a Yippie, does, the effect I believe it will have on the majority of Americans who watch it.”[277] She believes that the issues discussed in the movie are as relevant now as they were in the 1960’s, which is why the film is so important and impactful. See also 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity 1971 May Day protests Cannabis political parties of the United States Freak scene Gastown riots Hippie Human Be-In July 4th Smoke-In at Washington DC (1977) The Annual July 4 Smoke-In at Washington DC - film by Howard Lotsof and the Yippies - 26 minutes. List of anti-war organizations List of incidents at Disneyland Resort List of peace activists Medium Cool – Haskell Wexler's groundbreaking, fictional cinéma vérité account of Chicago during the '68 convention, using actual riot footage as backdrop for the actors and (improvised) events. Nobody for President None of the Above Pigasus Protests of 1968 Summer of Love Yuppie, a term coined in 1980 and popularized by a 1983 newspaper column about Jerry Rubin written by Bob Greene, "From Yippie to Yuppie" Zenger The Chicago Seven, originally the Chicago Eight and also known as the Conspiracy Eight or Conspiracy Seven, were seven defendants – Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Lee Weiner – charged by the United States Department of Justice with conspiracy, crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot, and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War and 1960s counterculture protests in Chicago, Illinois, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The Chicago Eight became the Chicago Seven after the case against codefendant Bobby Seale was declared a mistrial. All of the defendants were charged with and acquitted of conspiracy; Davis, Dellinger, Hayden, Hoffman, and Rubin were charged with and convicted of crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot; Froines and Weiner were charged with teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices and acquitted of those charges. All of the convictions were later reversed on appeal, and the government declined to retry the case. While the jury deliberated, Judge Julius Hoffman convicted the defendants and their attorneys of contempt of court and sentenced them to jail sentences ranging from less than three months to more than four years. The contempt convictions were also appealed, and some were retried before a different judge. Since the beginning of the trial in 1969, the defendants and their attorneys have been depicted in a variety of art forms, including film, music, and theater. Background Planning for the 1968 DNC protests In the fall of 1967, David Dellinger was the director of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (the Mobe), and planning began during Mobe meetings for an anti-war demonstration at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.[1]: 1 [2] A similar plan was created by SDS Vice President Vernon T. Grizzard titled "Summer 1968: Possibilities for New Local Organizing".[3] In early 1968, the Tet Offensive against American forces in Vietnam started, and in February, Walter Cronkite said the war was "lost."[4] In March, Johnson ended his campaign for the nomination.[1]: 1 Protests against the war continued,[5] and Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden became directors of the Mobe office in Chicago.[1]: 1–2 A counterculture group known as Yippies, including Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, also planned a "Festival of Life", announced at a press conference on March 17,[6] as a response to what they described as the Democratic "Convention of Death".[1]: 2 [5] In January, the Yippies had issued a statement that included: "Join us in Chicago in August for an international festival of youth music and theater ... Come all you rebels, youth spirits, rock minstrels, truth seekers, peacock freaks, poets, barricade jumpers, dancers, lovers and artists ... We are there! There are 500,000 of us dancing in the streets, throbbing with amplifiers and harmony. We are making love in the parks ..."[5][2] In a March meeting at Lake Villa, Illinois, coordination of demonstrations was discussed by representatives from various groups; Hayden and Davis drafted a proposal that included "the campaign should not plan violence and disruption against the Democratic National Convention. It should be nonviolent and legal."[1]: 2 [2] Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968, there were riots in Chicago and other cities.[1]: 1 [5] In June 1968, Robert Kennedy was assassinated.[1]: 1 Most of the permits applied for by the Mobe and the Yippies for protest-related activities were denied.[1]: 2 Rennie Davis sought help from the Justice Department, and argued permits would lower the risk of violence between protesters and police, but was unsuccessful.[7] A week before the start of the convention, Mobe organizers sued in federal court to obtain permits to use the parks, but were denied on August 23.[7][2] The 1968 DNC protests Further information: 1968 Democratic National Convention protests A variety of groups convened in Chicago to protest during the convention week, including the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (the Mobe) and the Yippies. The Black Panther Party and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference also sent representatives to protest racism.[2] On Friday, August 23, the Yippies nominated their own candidate for president: a 145-pound pig they called Pigasus, who according to Frank Kusch, was "released to the public" at the Civic Center Plaza and promptly "arrested" by police as he was "interviewed" by journalists.[7] Five Yippies were taken to jail, including Jerry Rubin and Phil Ochs, while Pigasus was released to the Chicago Humane Society, and the Yippies were released after they each posted a $25 bond.[7] By the weekend before the convention, about 2,000 demonstrators had set up camp in Lincoln Park.[8] On Saturday, August 24, Lincoln Park was cleared almost without incident, with Allen Ginsberg leading many protesters out of the park before the 11 p.m. curfew.[5][7] According to Frank Kusch, police cleared the park and arrested eleven people for failing to disperse, while a crowd outside of the park suddenly ran toward the main street in Old Town yelling "Peace now! Peace now! Peace now!" and then marched for ten blocks before police arrived and the demonstrators quickly blended into the regular crowds on the sidewalks.[7] For the convention, the 11,900 members of the Chicago Police Department were put on twelve-hour shifts, and nearly 6,000 members of the National Guard were sent to the city,[8][1]: 2 with an additional 5,000 National Guard on alert, and approximately 1,000 FBI and military intelligence officers,[7] and 1,000 Secret Service agents were in the city.[9] The 4,865 city firefighters were ordered to work extra shifts beginning on the Sunday before the convention, and the Chicago Police Department placed 1,500 uniformed officers outside the International Amphitheatre, where the Democratic convention was held, including snipers.[7] The number of demonstrators in Chicago was estimated to be about 10,000.[1]: 2 [7] From inside the International Amphitheatre, CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite reported: "The Democratic convention is about to begin in a police state. There just doesn't seem to be any other way to say it."[8] On Sunday, August 25, protest leaders allegedly told people to "test the curfew", while there were several thousand people in Lincoln Park, around bonfires, beating drums, and chanting.[5][2] When the park was officially closed at 11 p.m., Chicago police used tear gas and moved in with billy-clubs to forcibly remove them from the park.[9][2] Police formed a skirmish line and cleared the park, ending up on Stockton Drive, with about 200 police facing about 2,000 protesters.[5] Protesters, journalists, photographers, and bystanders were clubbed and beaten by the police.[5][10][9] On August 26, demonstrators gathered in Grant Park and climbed on a statue of General Logan on a horse, which led to violent skirmishes with police.[8] Police hauled a young man down and arrested him, breaking his arm in the process.[5] The only permit granted to the Mobe for the convention week was for a rally at the Grant Park band shell for the afternoon of August 28, and it was granted on August 27, after the convention began.[7] David Dellinger told members of the media, "We'll march with or without a permit", and that Grant Park was only a "staging area for the march".[7] On the morning of August 28, Abbie Hoffman was arrested for writing the word "FUCK" on his forehead.[11][2] In the afternoon, Dellinger, Seale, Davis, and Hayden addressed thousands of demonstrators at the band shell in Grant Park.[2] After the rally at the Grant Park bandshell, several thousand protesters attempted to march to the International Amphitheatre,[5] but were stopped in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, where the presidential candidates and campaigns were headquartered, by what David Taylor and Sam Morris of The Guardian describe as "a phalanx of National Guard armed with M1 rifles, backed by machine guns and jeeps with cages on top and barbed wire frames in front."[8] In a sit down protest, the crowd chanted "the whole world is watching".[8] Film and videotape reports from "The Battle of Michigan Avenue", described by Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times as "a 17-minute melee in front of the Conrad Hilton", were broadcast on television, interrupting the live coverage of the third evening of the convention.[5] The police violence extended to protesters, bystanders, reporters and photographers, while tear gas reached Hubert Humphrey in his hotel suite.[12] Police pushed protesters through plate-glass windows, then pursued them inside and beat them as they sprawled on the broken glass.[5] 100 protesters and 119 police officers were treated for injuries, and 600 protesters were arrested.[5] Police brutality and demonstrators chanting "The whole world is watching" were filmed by national news outlets and broadcast[12] on the same night that Humphrey won the presidential nomination.[1]: 3 Paul Cowan of The Village Voice reports that by Thursday, Tom Hayden was in disguise by Grant Park, Jerry Rubin was in jail, and Rennie Davis was recovering from a beating by the police. After a speech by Eugene McCarthy in Grant Park that afternoon, a march was joined by delegates and McCarthy supporters but was stopped at 18th Street and Michigan Avenue by the National Guard. Arrests were followed by tear gas and mace, while marchers chanted "The whole world is watching" and retreated to Grant Park. In the park, demonstrators sang "God Bless America", "This Land Is Your Land", and "The Star-Spangled Banner", and waved "V" signs above their heads, asking soldiers to join in. They never did. Phil Ochs sang "I Ain't Marchin' Any More", and demonstrators chanted "join us" softly. Five hours later, police officers raided a party organized by McCarthy workers in the Hilton hotel, and beat them viciously. According to the McCarthy workers, all telephones on their floor had been disconnected a half hour before, and they had no way to call for help.[13] Investigation of the violence Investigations were conducted by the City of Chicago, the U.S. Department of Justice, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.[1]: 3 On September 6, 1968, the Daley administration issued a report that focused on "outside agitators" with an "avowed purpose of a hostile confrontation with law enforcement."[1]: 3 [14][15] Bruce Ragsdale writes that the HUAC chair, Richard Ichord, "suspected communist involvement in the demonstrations", but the hearings "devolved into a bizarre preview of the conspiracy trial when a shirtless, barefooted Jerry Rubin burst into the hearing room with a bandolier of bullets and a toy gun."[1]: 3 In October 1968, Abbie Hoffman was arrested for wearing an American flag shirt[16] while trying to attend a HUAC meeting[17] after being subpoenaed to appear.[18] Tom Hayden also testified during the hearings.[19] On September 4, 1968, Milton Eisenhower, chair of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, announced the commission would investigate and report its findings to President Lyndon Johnson.[20][21] Supervised by Daniel Walker, more than 200 investigators conducted interviews of more than 1,400 witnesses and reviewed FBI reports and film.[21] The Walker Report was released on December 1, 1968, and described the violence as a "police riot". The report summary included: That some policemen lost control of themselves under exceedingly provocative circumstances can perhaps be understood; but not condoned. If no action is taken against them, the effect can only be to discourage the majority of policemen who acted responsibly, and further weaken the bond between police and community.[21] The Walker Report also acknowledged provocation and violence by some protesters and stated the "vast majority of the demonstrators were intent on expressing by peaceful means their dissent."[1]: 3 The Department of Justice investigation did not support prosecution of demonstrators.[1]: 3 Attorney General Ramsey Clark asked the U.S. attorney in Chicago to investigate the Chicago police.[1]: 3 Grand jury and indictment On September 9, 1968, a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois began to investigate demonstration organizers for federal law violations and police officers for civil rights violations.[1]: 3 On March 20, 1969, the grand jury indictments of eight demonstrators and eight police officers were publicly announced.[22] Seven police officers were charged with assault and one police officer was charged with perjury.[1]: 4 In addition, Enid Roth, an NBC News producer, was indicted on two counts of electronic eavesdropping, which were related to hidden microphones found in closed meetings of the Democratic party platform committee.[23][24] The charges against the demonstrators were the first prosecutions under the anti-riot provisions of Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.[1]: 4 All were charged with conspiring to use interstate commerce with intent to incite a riot. David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale were also charged with crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot. John Froines and Lee Weiner were charged with teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices that would be used in civil disturbances.[1]: 4 Eighteen others were named by the grand jury as alleged co-conspirators, but not indicted: Wolfe B. Lowenthal, Stewart E. Albert, Sidney M. Peck, Kathy Boudin, Corina F. Fales, Benjamin Radford, Thomas W. Neumann, Craig Shimabukuro, Bo Taylor, David A. Baker, Richard Bosciano, Terry Gross, Donna Gripe, Benjamin Ortiz, Joseph Toornabene, Sara C. Brown, Bradford Fox, and Richard Palmer.[25] Trial The original eight defendants were Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. The defense attorneys were William Kunstler, Leonard Weinglass of the Center for Constitutional Rights, as well as Michael Kennedy, Michael Tigar, Charles Garry, Gerald Lefcourt, and Dennis Roberts. The presiding judge was Julius Hoffman (no relation to Abbie), and the prosecutors were Richard Schultz and Tom Foran. Trial begins The trial began on September 24, 1969.[1]: 11–12 In his opening statement, when prosecutor Richard Schultz mentioned Abbie Hoffman, Abbie Hoffman stood up and blew the jury a kiss, and the judge said, "The jury is directed to disregard the kiss from Mr. Hoffman."[26] The government called 53 witnesses, including undercover police officer Robert Pierson, who worked as a bodyguard for Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, and testified that on October 8, 1969, he heard Abbie Hoffman say "If they push us out of the park tonight, we're going to break windows", and about statements made by Rubin, Seale, and Davis.[1]: 6 [27] Police officer William Frapolly testified about his undercover work, which included joining Students for a Democratic Society and the National Mobilization Committee.[1]: 6 Frapolly testified he heard most of the defendants say they intended to incite police confrontations and other disturbances; he also testified that Weiner and Froines discussed incendiary devices and chemical bombs.[1]: 6 [28] Bobby Seale Seale was initially represented by Charles Garry, who appeared at the April 9 arraignment.[29][26] Before the trial began, Seale had been indicted in Connecticut on charges of conspiracy to murder a suspected police informant and was therefore denied bail during the trial.[29] Garry became unable to travel due to his need to recover from a surgery, and Judge Hoffman denied the request to postpone the trial start date.[29][26] The judge also refused to allow Seale to represent himself, in part because Kunstler had signed an appearance for Seale on September 24 to be able to visit him in jail, so Kunstler's request to withdraw as Seale's attorney was an "absolutely discretionary" decision by the judge, and Judge Hoffman decided Seale was represented by Kunstler.[26][30] Seale protested the judge's actions, arguing that they were not only illegal, but also racist, telling the court on September 26, "If I am consistently denied this right of legal defense counsel of my choice, who is effective, by the judge of this court, then I can only see the judge as a blatant racist of the United States court."[26] Seale had been in Chicago for less than 24 hours over two days of the convention week[26] and had been invited shortly before the convention began as a substitute for Eldridge Cleaver, so the evidence against him was testimony from undercover police officer Robert Pierson, about a speech by Seale in Lincoln Park, where according to Pierson, Seale had urged his audience to "barbecue some pork", and Judge Hoffman, over the objection of the defense, allowed Pierson to give his opinion that this meant "to burn some pigs", i.e., police officers.[30][27] Bobby Seale as depicted by Franklin McMahon at the trial On the morning of October 29, after Seale called Judge Hoffman a "rotten racist pig, fascist liar", the judge responded: "Let the record show the tone of Mr. Seale's voice was one of shrieking and pounding on the table and shouting",[31] and Seale replied, "If a witness is on the stand and testifies against me and I stand up and speak out in behalf of my right to have my lawyer and to defend myself and you deny me that, I have a right to make those requests. I have a right to make those demands on my constitutional rights. I have a constitutional right to speak, and if you try to suppress my constitutional right to speak out in behalf of my constitutional rights, then I can only see you as a bigot, a racist, and a fascist, and I have said before and clearly indicated on the record."[30] In the afternoon session of October 29, Judge Hoffman ordered Seale to be bound, gagged, and chained to a chair.[30] According to John Schultz, when the jury was allowed into the courtroom, juror Jean Fritz began weeping, and other jurors "squirmed hard in their seats at the sight."[32] On three days,[31] Seale appeared in court bound and gagged before the jury,[33] struggling to get free, and at times managing to loudly insist on his right to defend himself.[30] On October 30, in open court, Kunstler declared, "This is no longer a court of order, your Honor; this is a medieval torture chamber."[30] On November 5, the judge declared a mistrial for Seale,[29][30] and the Chicago Eight became the Chicago Seven, with Seale's case severed for a later trial that never occurred.[34] A political trial On October 15, when the first Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam was observed across the country, the defendants attempted to place American and South Vietnamese flags on the defense table, but Judge Hoffman demanded them removed, stating, "Whatever decoration there is the courtroom will be furnished by the government and I think things look alright in this courtroom."[31] On November 15, the second day of the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, Abbie Hoffman brought a Viet Cong flag into the courtroom and then wrestled over it with deputy marshal Ronald Dobroski.[35] Abbie Hoffman[36] and Rennie Davis[37] testified at the trial.[1]: 6 On December 29, when asked about his arrest on August 28 for writing "FUCK" on his forehead, Abbie Hoffman testified, "I put it on for a couple of reasons, one was that I was tired of seeing my picture in the paper and having newsmen come around, and I know if you got that word on your forehead they ain't going to print your picture in the paper. Secondly, it sort of summed up my attitude about the whole thing—what was going on in Chicago."[36] When asked whether he entered into an agreement with Dellinger, Froines, Hayden, Rubin, Weiner or Davis, to come to Chicago for the purpose of encouraging and promoting violence during the Convention week, Abbie Hoffman replied, "We couldn't agree on lunch."[36] When asked by the prosecution about whether it was "a fact that one of the reasons why you came to Chicago was simply to wreck American society", he replied: My feeling at the time, and still is, that society is going to wreck itself. I said that on a number of occasions, that our role is to survive while the society comes tumbling down around us; our role is to survive. We have to learn how to defend ourselves, given this type of society, because of the war in Vietnam, because of racism, because of the attack on the cultural revolution—in fact because of this trial.[36] The trial lasted for months, with more than 100 witnesses called by the defense, including singers Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, and Country Joe McDonald; comedian Dick Gregory; writers Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg; and activists Timothy Leary and Jesse Jackson.[38][1]: 6 Ochs, who had helped to organize some of the demonstrations, told the court he had acquired the pig, called Pigasus, to nominate as the Yippie presidential candidate before being arrested with Rubin and other participants.[39] Judy Collins attempted to sing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" during her testimony, before Judge Hoffman forbade it, so Collins recited the lyrics instead.[40] The judge also forbade Ochs from singing "I Ain't Marching Any More," Guthrie from singing "Alice's Restaurant", and McDonald from singing "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin-To-Die-Rag".[41] Ginsberg recited poetry and chants, including O-o-m-m-m-m-m, while providing testimony about his participation in the demonstrations.[42] On January 28, 1970, Ramsey Clark, the U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson during the 1968 Democratic Convention, was barred by the judge from testifying before the jury after Clark testified outside the presence of the jury.[31] Judge Hoffman upheld the prosecution's objections to 14 of Kunstler's 38 questions, but Clark did testify that he had told Foran to investigate through Justice Department lawyers "as is generally done in civil rights cases", rather than through a grand jury.[43] On February 5, Abbie Hoffman shouted, "Your idea of justice is the only obscenity in this court, Julie", at Judge Hoffman and then yelled shande fur de goyim at him, after Rubin told the judge, "Every kid in the world hates you because they know what you represent. You are synonymous with Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler equals Julius Hitler."[44] These insults had followed Judge Hoffman stating that he intended to continue using the revocation of bail in response to the use of "vile epithets" in the courtroom, while the defense attorneys were arguing against the revocation of Dellinger's bail the day before, after Dellinger shouted a "barnyard vulgarity" at a government witness.[44][45] On February 6, Abbie Hoffman and Rubin wore judicial robes to court,[46] then threw them down and stepped on them.[47] On February 14, the case went to the jury,[6] and the jury returned its verdict on February 18.[48] Contempt citations During the proceedings, all of the defendants and nearly all of their attorneys were cited for contempt of court by Judge Hoffman. Pre-trial Attorneys Michael Kennedy, Dennis Roberts, Michael Tigar, and Gerald Lefcourt assisted the defense with pretrial motions.[30][49] Before the trial began, Judge Hoffman held them all in contempt after they attempted to withdraw from the case, issued bench warrants for their arrest, and had Tigar and Lefcourt jailed.[30][49][26][1]: 5 After two of the warrants were invalidated by the United States District Court in San Francisco, and while the court was being picketed by protesting attorneys, Judge Hoffman permitted the withdrawal of the attorneys from the case.[30] Bobby Seale On November 5, 1969, after declaring a mistrial in the prosecution of Bobby Seale,[29] Judge Hoffman convicted Seale on 16 charges of contempt,[30] and sentenced Seale to three months in prison on each count—a total of four years, which may have been the longest contempt sentence in U.S. history at the time.[50] Post-trial Chicago Seven at a news conference, February 28, 1970 On February 14 and 15, 1970, while the jury deliberated on the verdict for the remaining defendants, Judge Hoffman convicted all the defendants—and their attorneys Kunstler and Weinglass—on a total of 159 counts of criminal contempt.[1]: 8 [51][52] The sentences for the defendants and their attorneys were as follows:[53] Dellinger: 29 months and 16 days on 32 counts Davis: 25 months and 14 days on 23 counts Froines: 5 months and 15 days on 10 counts Hayden: 14 months and 14 days for 11 counts Hoffman: 8 months for 24 counts Rubin: 25 months and 23 days for 16 counts Weiner: 2 months and 18 days on 7 counts Weinglass: 20 months and 16 days on 14 counts Kunstler: 48 months and 13 days on 24 counts Six of the seven defendants remanded to jail received haircuts in the Cook County Jail; John Kifner of The New York Times reports that David Dellinger did not, and the others were "shorn of their long hair for what jail officials announced were 'sanitary reasons'", while the lawyers' sentences were stayed until May 4, to allow them to work on the appeal.[54] After the haircuts, Cook County Sheriff Joseph I. Woods showed pictures of the defendants to an audience on February 23, 1970, that Kifner reports consisted of "about 100 laughing and applauding members of the Elk Grove Township Republican organization at a meeting in the suburban Mount Prospect Country Club."[54] The defendants were released from jail on February 28, 1970.[48] Verdict On February 18, 1970,[48] the jury acquitted all seven defendants of conspiracy and acquitted Froines and Weiner on all charges. The jury found Davis, Dellinger, Hayden, Hoffman, and Rubin guilty of traveling across state lines with intent to incite a riot.[1]: 8 In a separate trial, seven of the indicted police officers were acquitted by the jury, and the case against the eighth indicted police officer was dismissed by the prosecution.[1]: 8 Sentencing On February 20, 1970, in the sentencing phase of the trial, the defendants made statements,[55] including David Dellinger, who said: [W]hatever happens to us, however unjustified, will be slight compared to what has happened already to the Vietnamese people, to the black people in this country, to the criminals with whom we are now spending our days in the Cook County jail. I must have already lived longer than the normal life expectancy of a black person born when I was born, or born now. I must have already lived longer, 20 years longer, than the normal life expectancy in the underdeveloped countries which this country is trying to profiteer from and keep under its domain and control ... [S]ending us to prison, any punishment the Government can impose upon us, will not solve the problem of this country's rampant racism, will not solve the problem of economic injustice, it will not solve the problem of the foreign policy and the attacks upon the underdeveloped people of the world. The Government has misread the times in which we live, just like there was a time when it was possible to keep young people, women, black people, Mexican-American, anti-war people, people who believe in truth and justice and really believe in democracy, which it is going to be possible to keep them quiet or suppress them.[56] Rennie Davis told Judge Hoffman, "You represent all that is old, ugly, bigoted, and repressive in this country, and I will tell you that the spirit of this defense table will devour your sickness in the next generation."[57] The statement by Tom Hayden included: We have known all along what the intent of the Government has been. We knew that before we set foot in the streets of Chicago. We knew that before we set foot on the streets of Chicago. We knew that before the famous events of August 28, 1968. If those events didn't happen, the Government would have had to invent them as I think it did for much of its evidence in this case, but because they were bound to put us away. They have failed. Oh, they are going to get rid of us, but they made us in the first place. We would hardly be notorious characters if they had left us alone in the streets of Chicago last year, but instead we became the architects, the masterminds, and the geniuses of a conspiracy to overthrow the government. We were invented. We were chosen by the Government to serve as scape goats for all that they wanted to prevent happening in the 1970s.[55] The statement of Abbie Hoffman included a discussion of early American history, and: In 1861 Abraham Lincoln in his inaugural address said, and I quote "When the people shall grow weary of their constitutional right to amend the government, they shall exert their revolutionary right to dismember and overthrow that government." If Abraham Lincoln had given that speech in Lincoln Park, he would be on trial right here in this courtroom, because that is an inciteful speech. That is a speech intended to create a riot. I don't even know what a riot is. I thought a riot was fun. Riot means you laugh, ha, ha. That is a riot. They call it a riot. I didn't want to be that serious. I was supposed to be funny. I tried to be, I mean, but it was sad last night. I am not made to be a martyr. I tried to sign up a few years, but I went down there. They ran out of nails. What was I going to do? So I ended up being funny. It wasn't funny last night sitting in a prison cell, a 5 x 8 room, with no light in the room. I could have written a whole book last night. Nothing. No light in the room. Bedbugs all over. They bite. I haven't eaten in six days. I'm not on a hunger strike; you can call it that. It's just that the food stinks and I can't take it. Well, we said it was like Alice in Wonderland coming in, now I feel like Alice in 1984, because I have lived through the winter of injustice in this trial. And it's fitting that if you went to the South and fought for voter registration and got arrested and beaten eleven or twelve times on those dusty roads for no bread, it's only fitting that you be arrested and tried under the civil rights act. That's the way it works.[55] Judge Hoffman sentenced each convicted defendant to five years in prison,[1]: 8 as well as a $5,000 fine and costs of prosecution.[55] Appeal A United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit panel composed of Walter Cummings, Thomas Fairchild, and Wilbur Pell heard the appeals related to the criminal convictions and contempt convictions.[1]: 9 On May 11, 1972, the panel dismissed some contempt charges against the lawyers, and reversed all of the other contempt convictions for retrial with a different judge.[1]: 9 [58] Judge Edward Gignoux presided over the retrial and found Dellinger, Hoffman, Kunstler, and Rubin guilty of some of the charges but did not sentence any of them to jail or fines.[59] The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit dismissed four of the contempt convictions against Bobby Seale, remanded the other 12 for retrial before another judge, and the government declined to prosecute the remaining contempt charges.[29][60] On November 21, 1972, all of the criminal convictions were reversed by the panel. The majority opinion of the court unanimously found several errors by Judge Hoffman and censured Judge Hoffman and the prosecutors for their conduct during the trial.[1]: 9 [61] The court noted, "the demeanor of the judge and the prosecutors would require reversal even if errors did not."[47] Pell wrote a separate opinion concurring with the reversal of the convictions, and finding Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, known as the Anti-Riot Act, to be an unconstitutional infringement of freedom of speech; this was not part of the majority opinion and therefore did not invalidate the statute.[1]: 9 [62] The U.S. Department of Justice announced in January 1973 that it would not retry the defendants.[1]: 9 Cultural representations Art On September 25, 1969, Richard Avedon made his first wall-sized mural portrait of the Chicago Seven.[63][64][65] It was first exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in the summer of 1970 and has since been exhibited in museums around the world. Avedon called the group of defendants "heroic".[66] According to Froines and Weiner, an Avedon photo was used in thank you cards, holiday greetings, and fundraising requests sent to supporters.[67] During the trial, a poster created by Sharon Avery and featuring a photograph by Michael Abramson, that said "make a new year's revolution, kids! it'll bring you closer together"[68] depicting Lee Weiner and his girlfriend at the time, Sharon Avery, nude and with Christmas tree lights in their hair, was distributed "to the young people waiting out on the cold to sit in on our trial to thank them for supporting us", according to Weiner.[69][70] Robert Crumb drew the poster for The Conspiracy Stomp,[71] a benefit for the Chicago Eight held at the Aragon Ballroom on November 28, 1969.[72] David Hammons, in 'Injustice Case', depicted an African-American man bound to a chair and gagged that "[recalls] how Black Panther leader Bobby Seale was bound and gagged in a Chicago courtroom."[73][74] Film In Haskell Wexler's 1969 film Medium Cool, Vincent Canby of The New York Times writes that Wexler "uses some of the real events of [1968] ... as backgrounds that are extensions of the fictional characters."[75] The 1970 Kerry Feltham film Chicago 70 (also known as The Great Chicago Conspiracy Circus) was based on the stage play by the Toronto Workshop.[76][77][78] In 1970, the BBC produced The Chicago Conspiracy Trial, with Ronny Cox as Jerry Rubin, Cliff Gorman as Abbie Hoffman, and Al Freeman Jr. as Bobby Seale; the re-creation of the trial was aired in the US by PBS in July 1975.[79] In 1970, Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin, of the Dziga Vertov Group, made a parody film of the Chicago 8 trial called Vladimir and Rosa.[80] In the 1971 Peter Watkins film Punishment Park, fictional members of the counterculture are put on trial for similar "crimes".[81] In the 1971 film Bananas, Woody Allen makes a reference to the binding and gagging of Bobby Seale during the Chicago 8 trial.[82] Allen's character, Fielding Melish, is on trial and defending himself. The judge orders Melish bound and gagged. While bound and gagged, he cross-examines a prosecution witness.[83] The 1987 Jeremy Kagan made-for-HBO movie Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 was adapted from the Ron Sossi and Frank Condon play The Chicago Conspiracy Trial, is based on the courtroom transcripts, and includes brief interviews with participants in the trial.[57] The 2000 Robert Greenwald film Steal This Movie is mostly about Abbie Hoffman (played by Vincent D'Onofrio), and looks at the trial.[84] In the 2007 Brett Morgen film Chicago 10, archival footage, including Chicago in August 1968, is mixed with animated scenes based on the trial transcript.[85] The 2010 documentary Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune features interviews with a variety of Ochs' associates, including Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, and Abbie Hoffman.[86] Stephen Holden of The New York Times writes, "Ochs's involvement with the civil rights and antiwar movements and his presence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention make "There but for Fortune" not only a biography but also a running history of the period's left-wing activism, replete with film clips of that decade's tragic events".[87] The 2011 Pinchas Perry film The Chicago 8 includes dialogue from some of the trial transcripts.[57] The 2020 Aaron Sorkin film The Trial of the Chicago 7 was distributed by Netflix.[57] The cast features Sacha Baron Cohen, Daniel Flaherty, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Noah Robbins, Alex Sharp, and Jeremy Strong as the Chicago Seven with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, and Mark Rylance in other roles.[88] Music Phil Ochs released his 1969 album Rehearsals for Retirement with an image of his own tombstone on the cover, inscribed: "Born: El Paso, Texas 1940" and "Died: Chicago, Illinois 1968", which according to Ryan Smith of Chicago Reader, is an "obvious reference" to Ochs' role in the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests; the album also includes the song "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park", which describes Chicago during the convention.[72] During the convention protests, Ochs described playing his song "I Ain't Marching Anymore" at a demonstration in Grant Park as "the highlight of [his] career."[89] Ochs brought his guitar and was prepared to sing "I Ain't Marching Anymore" during his testimony at the trial of the Chicago Seven, but was denied the opportunity by the judge.[39] The 1969 song "Someday (August 29, 1968)" from the first Chicago (then Chicago Transit Authority) self-titled album. The 1970 song "Peace Frog" by the Doors includes the line "Blood in the streets/ in the town of Chicago".[90] The 1971 song "Chicago" by Graham Nash, on Nash's solo debut album, Songs for Beginners was inspired by the anti-Vietnam protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the trial of the Chicago Eight, and the song opens with a reference to Bobby Seale, who was gagged and chained in the courtroom.[91] Researcher Justin Brummer, founding editor of the Vietnam War Song Project has catalogued over 25 songs that reference the Chicago Seven/Eight and/or the demonstrations during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, including "Telling It Straight in '68" by country artist Jim Hartley, "Where Were You in Chicago" by Phil Ochs, "Circus '68 '69" (1970) by Charlie Haden, "Christmas in My Soul" (1970) by Laura Nyro, "Free Bobby Now" (1970) by Black Panther group The Lumpen (about Bobby Seale), "Chicago's 7" by Walt Wilder, "Chicago 7" by Warren Farren, "Chicago Seven" (1971) by blues artist Memphis Slim, and "The Chicago Conspiracy" (1972) by David Peel.[92] Theatre and plays The 1970 off-Broadway play The Chicago 70 was an improvised drama by the Toronto Workshop Company based on the Chicago Seven trial transcripts and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.[93][94] In 1972, playwright and screenwriter David Petersen's play Little Orphan Abbie based on the transcript of the trial, opened in Seattle, directed by Jody Briggs and starring Glenn Mazen.[95] It was slated for production in New York by director Joe Papp, but had to be postponed and finally cancelled due to extended runs of other plays. It was later produced in Los Angeles, first on stage at the Burbage Theater, directed by Ron Hunter. It was later shot for television by Telemedia Productions, directed by Dick Studebaker. The television version used stock footage of the events in the parks and on the streets of Chicago during the riots.[citation needed] In 1979, The Chicago Conspiracy Trial by Ron Sossi and Frank Condon was staged by the Odyssey Theater Ensemble and is based on the trial transcripts.[96] The 15th anniversary production by the Odyssey Theater Ensemble featured Allan Miller (William Kunstler), Albie Selznick (Leonard Weinglass), Paul Provenza (Abbie Hoffman) and George Murdock (Judge Hoffman).[97] The 1993 John Goodchild play The Chicago Conspiracy Trial is based on the trial transcripts and produced by L.A. Theatre Works, the BBC and WFMT. The cast included David Schwimmer (Abbie Hoffman), Tom Amandes (Richard Schultz), George Murdock (Judge Julius Hoffman), and Mike Nussbaum (William Kunstler).[98] Parodies A Far Side cartoon had a boy with seven captured insects looking out on his windowsill to see a bunch of insects marching and holding a sign reading "Free the Mayonnaise Jar Seven".[citation needed] A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior are opposed to those of the current mainstream society, and sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.[1][2] A countercultural movement expresses the ethos and aspirations of a specific population during a well-defined era. When oppositional forces reach critical mass, countercultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes. Prominent examples of countercultures in the Western world include the Levellers (1645–1650),[3] Bohemianism (1850–1910), the more fragmentary counterculture of the Beat Generation (1944–1964), and the globalized counterculture of the 1960s which in the United States consisted primarily of Hippies and Flower Children (c. 1965–1973, peaking in 1967–1970). Regarding this last group, when referring to themselves, counterculture will usually be capitalized and is often hyphenated as: Counter-Culture or Counter-culture.[4] Definition and characteristics John Milton Yinger originated the term "contraculture" in his 1960 article in American Sociological Review. Yinger suggested the use of the term contraculture "wherever the normative system of a group contains, as a primary element, a theme of conflict with the values of the total society, where personality variables are directly involved in the development and maintenance of the group's values, and wherever its norms can be understood only by reference to the relationships of the group to a surrounding dominant culture."[5] Some scholars have attributed the counterculture to Theodore Roszak,[4][6][7] author of The Making of a Counter Culture.[8] It became prominent in the news media amid the social revolution that swept the Americas, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand during the 1960s.[1][4][7] Scholars differ in the characteristics and specificity they attribute to "counterculture". "Mainstream" culture is also difficult to define, and in some ways becomes identified and understood through contrast with counterculture. Counterculture might oppose mass culture (or "media culture"),[9] or middle-class culture and values.[10] Counterculture is sometimes conceptualized in terms of generational conflict and rejection of older or adult values.[11] Counterculture may or may not be explicitly political. It typically involves criticism or rejection of currently powerful institutions, with accompanying hope for a better life or a new society.[12] It does not look favorably on party politics or authoritarianism.[13] Cultural development can also be affected by way of counterculture. Scholars such as Joanne Martin and Caren Siehl, deem counterculture and cultural development as "a balancing act, [that] some core values of a counterculture should present a direct challenge to the core values of a dominant culture". Therefore, a prevalent culture and a counterculture should coexist in an uneasy symbiosis, holding opposite positions on valuable issues that are essentially important to each of them. According to this theory, a counterculture can contribute a plethora of useful functions for the prevalent culture, such as "articulating the foundations between appropriate and inappropriate behavior and providing a safe haven for the development of innovative ideas".[14] During the late 1960s, hippies became the largest and most visible countercultural group in the United States.[15] According to Sheila Whiteley, "recent developments in sociological theory complicate and problematize theories developed in the 1960s, with digital technology, for example, providing an impetus for new understandings of counterculture".[16] Andy Bennett writes that "despite the theoretical arguments that can be raised against the sociological value of counterculture as a meaningful term for categorising social action, like subculture, the term lives on as a concept in social and cultural theory… [to] become part of a received, mediated memory". However, "this involved not simply the utopian but also the dystopian and that while festivals such as those held at Monterey and Woodstock might appear to embrace the former, the deaths of such iconic figures as Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, the nihilistic mayhem at Altamont, and the shadowy figure of Charles Manson cast a darker light on its underlying agenda, one that reminds us that 'pathological issues [are] still very much at large in today's world".[17] Literature The counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s generated its own unique brand of notable literature, including comics and cartoons, and sometimes referred to as the underground press. In the United States, this includes the work of Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, and includes Mr. Natural; Keep on Truckin'; Fritz the Cat; Fat Freddy's Cat; Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers; the album cover art for Cheap Thrills; and in several countries contributions to International Times, The Village Voice, and Oz magazine. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, these comics and magazines were available for purchase in head shops along with items like beads, incense, cigarette papers, tie-dye clothing, Day-Glo posters, books, etc. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of these shops selling hippie items also became cafés where hippies could hang out, chat, smoke cannabis, read books, etc., e.g. Gandalf's Garden in the King's Road, London, which also published a magazine of the same name.[18] Another such hippie/anarchist bookshop was Mushroom Books, tucked away in the Lace Market area of Nottingham.[19][20] Media Main articles: Beat Generation and Culture jamming Further information: Anarchism and the arts, Anti-art, Postmodernism, and Transgressive fiction Some genres tend to challenge societies with their content that is meant to outright question the norms within cultures and even create change usually towards a more modern way of thought. More often than not, sources of these controversies can be found in art such as Marcel Duchamp whose piece Fountain was meant to be "a calculated attack on the most basic conventions of art"[21] in 1917. Contentious artists like Banksy base most of their works off of mainstream media and culture to bring pieces that usually shock viewers into thinking about their piece in more detail and the themes behind them. A great example can be found in Dismaland, the biggest project of "anarchism" to be organised and exhibited which showcases multiple works such as an "iconic Disney princess's horse-drawn pumpkin carriage, [appearing] to re-enact the death of Princess Diana".[22] Music Counterculture is very much evident in music particularly on the basis of the separation of genres into those considered acceptable and within the status quo and those not. Since many minority groups are already considered countercultural, the music they create and produce may reflect their sociopolitical realities and their musical culture may be adopted as a social expression of their counterculture. This is reflected in dancehall with the concept of base frequencies and base culture in Julian Henriques's "Sonic diaspora", where he expounds that "base denotes crude, debased, unrefined, vulgar, and even animal" for the Jamaican middle class and is associated with the "bottom-end, low frequencies…basic lower frequencies and embodied resonances distinctly inferior to the higher notes" that appear in dancehall.[23] According to Henriques, "base culture is bottom-up popular, street culture, generated by an urban underclass surviving almost entirely outside the formal economy".[23] That the music is low frequency sonically and regarded as reflective of a lower culture shows the influential connection between counterculture and the music produced. Assimilation Many of these artists though once being taboo, have been assimilated into culture and are no longer a source of moral panic since they do not cross overtly controversial topics or challenge staples of current culture.[24][25] Instead of being a topic to fear, they have initiated subtle trends that other artists and sources of media may follow.[24] Digital counterculture Definition and theory Digital countercultures are online communities, and patterns of tech usage, that significantly deviate from mainstream culture. Lingel's classifications of mainstream approaches to digital discourse say that "online activity relates to (dis)embodiment, that the Internet is a platform for authenticity and experimentation, and that web-based interactions are placeless."[26] The basis for online disembodiment is that, contrary to the corporeal nature of offline interactions, a user's physical being does not have any relevance to their online interactions. However, for users whose physical existence is marginalized or shaped by counterculture (ex: gender identities outside the binary, ethnic minorities, punk culture/fashion), their lived experiences build a subjectivity that carries over into their online interactions. As put by Shaka McGlotten: "[T]he fluidity and playfulness of cyberspace and the intimacies it was supposed to afford have been punctuated by corporeality."[27] Arguments that the Internet is a platform for authenticity and experimentation highlight its role in the creation or enhancement of identities. This approach asserts that norms of non-virtual social life restrict users' ability to express themselves fully in person, but online interactions eliminate these barriers and allow them to identify in new ways. One means by which this exploration takes place is online "identity tourism," which allows users to appropriate an identity without any of the offline, corporeal risks associated with that identity. A critique of this form of experimentation is that it gives the "tourist" a false impression that they understand the experiences and history of that identity, even if their Internet interactions are superficial.[28] Moreover, it is especially harmful when used as a means to deceptively masquerade oneself to appeal to digital counterculture communities. However, especially for countercultures that are marginalized or demonized, experimentation can allow users to embrace an identity that they align with, but hide offline out of fear, and engage with that culture. The final approach is on online communication as placeless, asserting that the consequences of geographic distance are rendered null and void by the Internet. Lingel argues that this approach is technologically determinist in its assumption that the placelessness provided by access to technology can single-handedly remedy structural inequality. Moreover, Mark Graham states that the persistence of spatial metaphors in describing the Internet's societal impact creates "a dualistic offline/online worldview [that] can depoliticize and mask the very real and uneven power relationships between different groups of people."[29] Subscribing to this perceived depoliticization prevents an understanding of digital countercultures. Socio-cultural, power hierarchies on the Internet shape the mainstream, and without these mainstreams as a point of comparison, there are no grounds to define digital counterculture. Examples Marginalized communities often struggle to meet their needs on mainstream media. Jessa Lingel, an associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, had conducted field research on examples of digital counterculture as part of her studies. In her book Digital Countercultures and the Struggle for Community, she focused on the Brooklyn Drag community and their battle for a Queerer Facebook to meet their specific needs of social media utilization. In the drag culture, there are many holiday and festivals such as Halloween, New Year's Eve, and Bushwig that they celebrate over a vibrant queer nightlife. While utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook to post and record their cultural events, the drag community has noticed the large schism between its "queerer and more countercultural community of drag queens" and Facebook's claimed global community. This gap is further realized through Facebook's change in the policy from "real-name" to "authentic-name" in 2015 when hundreds of drag queens' accounts were frozen and shut down because they had not registered with their legal names. Communities with "queerer culture" culture and "marginalized needs" continue to struggle to fulfill their social media needs while balancing their counterculture identity in today's social media landscape where the internet is largely monopolized by several big technology firms.[26] LGBTQ See also: Gay Shame, Gay skinhead, LGBTQ music, and Queercore Gay liberation (considered a precursor of various modern LGBTQ social movements) was known for its links to the counterculture of the time (e.g. groups like the Radical Faeries), and for the gay liberationists' intent to transform or abolish fundamental institutions of society such as gender and the nuclear family;[30] in general, the politics were radical, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist in nature.[31] In order to achieve such liberation, consciousness raising and direct action were employed.[30] At the outset of the 20th century, homosexual acts were punishable offenses in these countries.[32] The prevailing public attitude was that homosexuality was a moral failing that should be punished, as exemplified by Oscar Wilde's 1895 trial and imprisonment for "gross indecency". But even then, there were dissenting views. Sigmund Freud publicly expressed his opinion that homosexuality was "assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development".[33] According to Charles Kaiser's The Gay Metropolis, there were already semi-public gay-themed gatherings by the mid-1930s in the United States (such as the annual drag balls held during the Harlem Renaissance). There were also bars and bathhouses that catered to gay clientele and adopted warning procedures (similar to those used by Prohibition-era speakeasies) to warn customers of police raids. But homosexuality was typically subsumed into bohemian culture, and was not a significant movement in itself.[34] Eventually, a genuine gay culture began to take root, albeit very discreetly, with its own styles, attitudes and behaviors and industries began catering to this growing demographic group. For example, publishing houses cranked out pulp novels like The Velvet Underground that were targeted directly at gay people. By the early 1960s, openly gay political organizations such as the Mattachine Society were formally protesting abusive treatment toward gay people, challenging the entrenched idea that homosexuality was an aberrant condition, and calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Despite very limited sympathy, American society began at least to acknowledge the existence of a sizable population of gays. Disco music in large part rose out of the New York gay club scene of the early 1970s as a reaction to the stigmatization of gays and other outside groups such as blacks by the counterculture of that era.[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] By later in the decade, disco was dominating the pop charts.[43] The popular Village People and the critically acclaimed Sylvester had gay-themed lyrics and presentation.[44][45] Another element of LGBTQ counter-culture that began in the 1970s—and continues today—is the lesbian land, landdyke movement, or womyn's land movement.[46] Radical feminists inspired by the back-to-the-land initiative and migrated to rural areas to create communities that were often female-only and/or lesbian communes.[47] "Free Spaces" are defined by Sociologist Francesca Polletta as "small-scale settings within a community or movement that are removed from the direct control of dominant groups, are voluntarily participated in, and generate the cultural challenge that precedes or accompanies political mobilization.[48] Women came together in Free Spaces like music festivals, activist groups and collectives to share ideas with like-minded people and to explore the idea of the lesbian land movement. The movement is closely tied to eco-feminism.[49] The four tenets of the Landdyke Movement are relationship with the land, liberation and transformation, living the politics, and bodily Freedoms.[50] Most importantly, members of these communities seek to live outside of a patriarchal society that puts emphasis on "beauty ideals that discipline the female body, compulsive heterosexuality, competitiveness with other women, and dependence".[51] Instead of adhering typical female gender roles, the women of Landdyke communities value "self-sufficiency, bodily strength, autonomy from men and patriarchal systems, and the development of lesbian-centered community".[51] Members of the Landdyke movement enjoy bodily freedoms that have been deemed unacceptable in the modern Western world—such as the freedom to expose their breasts, or to go without any clothing at all.[52] An awareness of their impact on the Earth, and connection to nature is essential members of the Landdyke Movement's way of life.[53] The watershed event in the American gay rights movement was the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. Following this event, gays and lesbians began to adopt the militant protest tactics used by anti-war and black power radicals to confront anti-gay ideology. Another major turning point was the 1973 decision by the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the official list of mental disorders.[54] Although gay radicals used pressure to force the decision, Kaiser notes that this had been an issue of some debate for many years in the psychiatric community, and that one of the chief obstacles to normalizing homosexuality was that therapists were profiting from offering dubious, unproven "cures".[34] The AIDS epidemic was initially an unexpected blow to the movement, especially in North America. There was speculation that the disease would permanently drive gay life underground. Ironically, the tables were turned. Many of the early victims of the disease had been openly gay only within the confines of insular "gay ghettos" such as New York City's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's Castro; they remained closeted in their professional lives and to their families. Many heterosexuals who thought they did not know any gay people were confronted by friends and loved ones dying of "the gay plague" (which soon began to infect heterosexual people also). LGBTQ communities were increasingly seen not only as victims of a disease, but as victims of ostracism and hatred. Most importantly, the disease became a rallying point for a previously complacent gay community. AIDS invigorated the community politically to fight not only for a medical response to the disease, but also for wider acceptance of homosexuality in mainstream America. During the early 1980s what was dubbed "New Music", New wave, "New pop" popularized by MTV and associated with gender bending Second British Music Invasion stars such as Boy George and Annie Lennox became what was described by Newsweek at the time as an alternate mainstream to the traditional masculine/heterosexual rock music in the United States.[55][56][57] In 2003, the United States Supreme Court officially declared all sodomy laws unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas.[58] History Bill Osgerby argues that: the counterculture's various strands developed from earlier artistic and political movements. On both sides of the Atlantic the 1950s "Beat Generation" had fused existentialist philosophy with jazz, poetry, literature, Eastern mysticism, and drugs—themes that were all sustained in the 1960s counterculture.[59] United States Main articles: Counterculture of the 1960s and Timeline of 1960s counterculture Further information: Anti-nuclear movement, Opposition to the Vietnam War, and Sexual revolution Abbie Hoffman, leader of the countercultural protest group the Yippies In the United States, the counterculture of the 1960s became identified with the rejection of conventional social norms of the 1950s. Counterculture youth rejected the cultural standards of their parents, especially with respect to racial segregation and initial widespread support for the Vietnam War,[2][60] and, less directly, the Cold War—with many young people fearing that America's nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, coupled with its involvement in Vietnam, would lead to a nuclear holocaust. In the United States, widespread tensions developed in the 1960s in American society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the Vietnam War, race relations, sexual mores, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, and a materialist interpretation of the American Dream. White, middle class youth—who made up the bulk of the counterculture in Western countries—had sufficient leisure time, thanks to widespread economic prosperity, to turn their attention to social issues.[61] These social issues included support for civil rights, women's rights, and LGBTQ rights movements, and opposition to the Vietnam War. The counterculture also had access to a media which was eager to present their concerns to a wider public. Demonstrations for social justice created far-reaching changes affecting many aspects of society. Hippies became the largest countercultural group in the United States.[15] "The 60s were a leap in human consciousness. Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Che Guevara, Mother Teresa, they led a revolution of conscience. The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix created revolution and evolution themes. The music was like Dalí, with many colors and revolutionary ways. The youth of today must go there to find themselves." — Carlos Santana[62] Rejection of mainstream culture was best embodied in the new genres of psychedelic rock music, pop art, and new explorations in spirituality. Musicians who exemplified this era in the United Kingdom and United States included The Beatles, John Lennon, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joni Mitchell, The Kinks, Sly and the Family Stone[63] and, in their early years, Chicago. New forms of musical presentation also played a key role in spreading the counterculture, with large outdoor rock festivals being the most noteworthy. The climactic live statement on this occurred from August 15–18, 1969, with the Woodstock Music Festival held in Bethel, New York—with 32 of rock's and psychedelic rock's most popular acts performing live outdoors during the sometimes rainy weekend to an audience of half a million people. (Michael Lang stated 400,000 attended, half of which did not have a ticket.)[64] It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history—with Rolling Stone calling it one of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.[65] According to Bill Mankin, "It seems fitting… that one of the most enduring labels for the entire generation of that era was derived from a rock festival: the 'Woodstock Generation'."[66] Songs, movies, TV shows, and other entertainment media with socially-conscious themes—some allegorical, some literal—became very numerous and popular in the 1960s. Counterculture-specific sentiments expressed in song lyrics and popular sayings of the period included things such as "do your own thing", "turn on, tune in, drop out", "whatever turns you on", "eight miles high", "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll", and "light my fire". Spiritually, the counterculture included interest in astrology, the term "Age of Aquarius" and knowing people's astrological signs of the Zodiac. This led Theodore Roszak to state "A [sic] eclectic taste for mystic, occult, and magical phenomena has been a marked characteristic of our post-war youth culture since the days of the beatniks."[7] In the United States, even actor Charlton Heston contributed to the movement, with the statement "Don't trust anyone over thirty" (a saying coined in 1965 by activist Jack Weinberg) in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes; the same year, actress and social activist Jane Fonda starred in the sexually themed Barbarella. Both actors opposed the Vietnam War during its duration, and Fonda would eventually become controversially active in the peace movement. The counterculture in the United States has been interpreted as lasting roughly from 1964 to 1972[67]—coincident with America's involvement in Vietnam—and reached its peak in August 1969 at the Woodstock Festival, New York, characterized in part by the film Easy Rider (1969). Unconventional or psychedelic dress; political activism; public protests; campus uprisings; pacifist then loud, defiant music; recreational drugs; communitarian experiments, and sexual liberation were hallmarks of the sixties counterculture—most of whose members were young, White, and middle class.[68] Members of the military police keep back anti-Vietnam War protestors during their sit-in at the Pentagon in 1967 In the United States, the movement divided the population. To some Americans, these attributes reflected American ideals of free speech, social equality, world peace, and the pursuit of happiness; to others, they reflected a self-indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive assault on the country's traditional moral order. Authorities banned the psychedelic drug LSD, restricted political gatherings, and tried to enforce bans on what they considered obscenity in books, music, theater, and other media. The counterculture has been argued to have diminished in the early 1970s, and some have attributed two reasons for this. First, it has been suggested that the most popular of its political goals—civil rights, civil liberties, gender equality, environmentalism, and the end of the Vietnam War—were "accomplished" (to at least some degree); and also that its most popular social attributes—particularly a "live and let live" mentality in personal lifestyles (including, but not limited to the "sexual revolution")—were co-opted by mainstream society.[61][69] Second, a decline of idealism and hedonism occurred as many notable counterculture figures died, the rest settled into mainstream society and started their own families, and the "magic economy" of the 1960s gave way to the stagflation of the 1970s[61]—the latter costing many in the middle-classes the luxury of being able to live outside conventional social institutions. The counterculture, however, continues to influence social movements, art, music, and society in general, and the post-1973 mainstream society has been in many ways a hybrid of the 1960s establishment and counterculture.[69] The counterculture movement has been said to be rejuvenated in a way that maintains some similarities from the Counterculture of the 1960s, but it is different as well. Photographer Steve Schapiro investigated and documented these contemporary hippie communities from 2012 to 2014. He traveled the country with his son, attending festival after festival. These findings were compiled in Schapiro's book Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie. One of his most valued findings was that these "Neo Hippies" experience and encourage such a spiritual commitment to the community. Australia 1971 edition of the Australian underground press magazine Oz Australia's countercultural trend followed the one burgeoning in the US, and to a lesser extent than the one in Great Britain. Political scandals in the country, such as the disappearance of Harold Holt, and the 1975 constitutional crisis, as well as Australia's involvement in Vietnam War, led to a disillusionment or disengagement with political figures and the government. Large protests were held in the country's most populated cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, one prominent march was held in Sydney in 1971 on George Street. The photographer Roger Scott, who captured the protest in front of the Queen Victoria Building, remarked: "I knew I could make a point with my camera. It was exciting. The old conservative world was ending and a new Australia was beginning. The demonstration was almost silent. The atmosphere was electric. The protesters were committed to making their presence felt … It was clear they wanted to show the government that they were mighty unhappy".[70] Political upheaval made its way into art in the country: film, music and literature were shaped by the ongoing changes both within the country, the Southern Hemisphere and the rest of the world. Bands such as The Master's Apprentices, The Pink Finks and Normie Rowe & The Playboys, along with Sydney's The Easybeats, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs and The Missing Links began to emerge in the 1960s. One of Australia's most noted literary voices of the counter-culture movement was Frank Moorhouse, whose collection of short stories, Futility and Other Animals, was first published in Sydney 1969.[71] Its "discontinuous narrative" was said to reflect the "ambience of the counter-culture".[71] Helen Garner's Monkey Grip (1977), released eight years later, is considered a classic example of the contemporary Australian novel, and captured the thriving countercultural movement in Melbourne's inner-city in the mid 1970s, specifically open relationships and recreational drug use.[72][73] Years later, Garner revealed it was strongly autobiographical and based on her own diaries.[73] Additionally, from the 1960s, surf culture took rise in Australia given the abundance of beaches in the country, and this was reflected in art, from bands such as The Atlantics and novels like Puberty Blues as well as the film of the same name. Great Britain Starting in the late 1960s the counterculture movement spread quickly and pervasively from the US.[74] Britain did not experience the intense social turmoil produced in America by the Vietnam War and racial tensions. Nevertheless, British youth readily identified with their American counterparts' desire to cast off the older generation's social mores. The new music was a powerful weapon. Rock music, which had first been introduced from the US in the 1950s, became a key instrument in the social uprisings of the young generation and Britain soon became a groundswell of musical talent thanks to groups like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, Pink Floyd, and more in coming years.[75][76][77] The antiwar movement in Britain closely collaborated with their American counterparts, supporting peasant insurgents in the Asian jungles.[78] The "Ban the Bomb" protests centered around opposition to nuclear weaponry; the campaign gave birth to what was to become the peace symbol of the 1960s. Soviet Union Although not exactly equivalent to the English definition, the term Контркультура (Kontrkul'tura) became common in Soviet Union (Russian, Ukrainian underground and other) to define a 1990s cultural movement that promoted acting outside of cultural conventions: the use of explicit language; graphical descriptions of sex, violence and illicit activities; and uncopyrighted use of "safe" characters involved in such activities. During the early 1970s, the Soviet government rigidly promoted optimism in Russian culture. Divorce and alcohol abuse were viewed as taboo by the media. However, Russian society grew weary of the gap between real life and the creative world,[citation needed] and underground culture became "forbidden fruit". General satisfaction with the quality of existing works led to parody, such as how the Russian anecdotal joke tradition turned the setting of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy into a grotesque world of sexual excess. Another well-known example is black humor (mostly in the form of short poems) that dealt exclusively with funny deaths and/or other mishaps of small, innocent children. In the mid-1980s, the Glasnost policy permitted the production of less optimistic works. As a consequence, Soviet (and Russian) cinema during the late 1980s and the early 1990s manifested in action movies with explicit (but not necessarily graphic) scenes of ruthless violence and social dramas about drug abuse, prostitution and failing relationships. Although Russian movies of the time would be rated "R" in the United States due to violence, the use of explicit language was much milder than in American cinema. In the late 1990s, Soviet counterculture became increasingly popular on the Internet. Several websites appeared that posted user-created short stories dealing with sex, drugs and violence. The following features are considered the most popular topics in such works: Wide use of explicit language; Deliberate misspelling; Descriptions of drug use and consequences of abuse; Negative portrayals of alcohol use; Sex and violence: nothing is a taboo – in general, violence is rarely advocated, while all types of sex are considered good; Parody: media advertising, classic movies, pop culture and children's books are considered fair game; Non-conformance; and Politically incorrect topics, mostly racism, xenophobia and homophobia. A notable aspect of counterculture at the time was the influence of contra-cultural developments on Russian pop culture. In addition to traditional Russian styles of music, such as songs with jail-related lyrics, new music styles with explicit language were developed. Asia icon This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Sebastian Kappen, an Indian theologian, has tried to redefine counterculture in the Asian context. In March 1990, at a seminar in Bangalore, he presented his countercultural perspectives (chapter 4 in S. Kappen, Tradition, modernity, counterculture: an Asian perspective, Visthar, Bangalore, 1994). Kappen envisages counterculture as a new culture that has to negate the two opposing cultural phenomena in Asian countries: invasion by Western capitalist culture, and the emergence of revivalist movements. Kappen writes, "Were we to succumb to the first, we should be losing our identity; if to the second, ours would be a false, obsolete identity in a mental universe of dead symbols and delayed myths". The most important countercultural movement in India had taken place in the state of West Bengal during the 1960s by a group of poets and artists who called themselves Hungryalists. 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