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Published on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 by Politico.com
Anti-War Movement Wrestles with 1968
by Ryan Grimm
A coalition of anti-war groups is vowing to protest this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Denver under the rubric “Re-create ‘68,” prompting criticism from some on the left who are loath to revisit what they see as a disastrous time for both the anti-war movement and the Democratic Party.
Capping a year that saw the assassinations of both the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the 1968 Democratic National Convention erupted in violence as thousands of Chicago police officers, supported by U.S. Army troops and National Guardsmen, battled in the streets with activists protesting the Vietnam War. Inside the convention hall, the Democrats chose as their presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey, who went on to lose the general election to Richard Nixon.
Re-create ‘68?
“What’s the political calculation that speaks to them of the wisdom of civil disobedience - which means a massive media spectacle - on the brink of a Democratic campaign that could plausibly put a Democrat in the White House who’s committed to withdrawal from Iraq?” asked Todd Gitlin, an anti-Vietnam War activist who was at the Democratic National Convention in 1968. “If the objective is to put a belligerent Republican in the White House, they should keep up the good work.”
The “belligerent Republican” of whom Gitlin speaks will almost certainly be Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who spent the summer of 1968 as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Organizers acknowledge that their “Re-create ‘68″ moniker has been met with skepticism as they’ve toured the country to gin up support among fellow activists. “A lot of people of course associate it with the DNC of ‘68 and react negatively,” said organizer Mark Cohen. But the point, Cohen said, isn’t to reproduce the violence associated with the 1968 convention, just the strong sense of countercultural protest that coalesced against the Vietnam War. “We don’t call ourselves ‘Re-create Chicago ‘68,’” Cohen offered.
Leslie Cagan, head of United for Peace and Justice, an anti-war group that has organized large marches in the past, said her group has endorsed the planned demonstrations in Denver.
Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic congresswoman now running as a Green Party candidate for president, will be expressing herself at the demonstration, said organizers. They also plan to reach out to Ralph Nader, who is running as an independent, third-party candidate. The coalition is seeking the support of ANSWER, an anti-war organization with a more radical approach to street protest than UFPJ’s.
A major march against the war on the Sunday before the convention will be followed by a week of action, some of which will include nonviolent civil disobedience.
Organizer Barbara Cohen speculated that some of the reticence about the name comes from a misunderstanding of the Chicago ruckus. “First of all, it was a police riot, and people should remember that,” said Cohen, explaining that the group has no plans to become violent. “It’s the feeling and the ambience from ‘68 that we want to re-create now.”
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink, said her organization will participate in the demonstrations in order to focus attention on Democrats it believes haven’t done enough to stop the war in Iraq. “We’ll use it as a time to pressure leaders like Nancy Pelosi, who we feel talks a lot about opposing the war but maneuvers Congress to make sure it gets funded,” she said.
Michael Heaney, a Florida University political scientist who studies the anti-war movement, said he expects between 10,000 and 30,000 people to participate in the Denver protest, depending on which candidate seems headed for the Democratic nomination. Organizers said that, from a turnout standpoint, a victory by Hillary Rodham Clinton would be good for numbers - echoing sentiment on the right that Clinton is a boon to corralling outrage. “If Hillary gets the nomination, we’re going to have very large numbers - a solid 50,000 people at every event,” said organizer Glenn Spagnuolo, 37, who wasn’t yet born in 1968.
What about the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, where the GOP will nominate as its presidential candidate the Senate’s chief advocate of the “surge” in Iraq?
Organizers say that they’ll protest at the Republican convention, too, but that their focus will be on the Democrats in Denver. “I think it’s even more important to be in Denver at the DNC,” Cohen said. “Republicans aren’t going to listen, no matter what we say, but the Democrats might actually listen.”
Cohen was an activist with the radical Students for a Democratic Society in 1968, but she wasn’t at the Chicago convention. “Partly, my ride fell through, and something else came up that summer,” she said.
Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver, was only 11 in 1968, but she said that she’s flummoxed by the notion that anyone would want to re-create the dark days of that year. “I can’t figure out why, for the life of me, that somebody would want to re-create ‘68,” she said. “Is it the riots or tear gas - or perhaps the assassinations? Or maybe the election of a Republican president? I’m not sure the name was completely thought out.”
DeGette added, however, that her husband is a top official at the American Civil Liberties Union and that she is pushing for the demonstrators to have a “robust right” to speak their minds.
Gitlin, a former president of Students for a Democratic Society, fears that the protests in Denver will be too much about people speaking their minds and not enough about obtaining the results that they want.
“In the ’60s,” he said, “there were competing strains: the desire for results and the desire for self-expression. This seems to belong squarely in the self-expression camp.”
Gitlin said that trying to re-create the feeling of another era “makes about as much sense as throwing a costume party. It’s absurd to think you can re-create the culture of a moment. History is a succession of irreproducible moments
TM & © THE POLITICO & POLITICO.COM
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35 Comments so far
oregoncharles February 27th, 2008 12:18 pm
‘68 was the first year I could vote (21, in those days) and I’m going to tell you why Humphrey lost:
First, because he supported the war. Remember, in 1968 the Democrats were the war party. Despite all their rhetoric, their VOTES (including Obama’s) say they still are.
Second, because he spoke out in support of Chicago’s thugs and their police riot (my blood begins to boil as I write those words). Repeat for emphasis: those were not riotous protests, they were a police riot to suppress the protests.
Because of those things, and especially the latter, I could not vote for Humphrey, so I voted for Pigasus: the Yippies’ pig.
Wiredwilly, you’re absolutely wrong: it wasn’t the straight people voting against the Yippies who cost Humphrey the election (remember, the Yippies and the demonstrators were attacking him); it was Humphrey himself and Mayor Daley’s police, who convinced me and untold thousands of others that he was no better than Nixon (I remain convinced of that to this day; bad as Nixon was, there is no reason to think Humphrey would have been better - or gotten us out of Vietnam, as Nixon in fact did, however reluctantly.)
In subsequent years, Reagan made me a party-line Democrat and Clinton cured me. I hope the Democrats and the Denver police have learned the real lessons of Chicago ‘68; if they haven’t, McKinney, Nader, and the Greens, in some combination, will clean their clock in November.
Finally: why is it even conceivable that McCain could win this year? He’s supporting a hugely unpopular war and inheriting an economic disaster. Nader is right: the only way the Democrats can lose this year is deliberately.
hazmat February 27th, 2008 12:27 pm
allen ginsberg may have been a great poet, but he was less than politically astute in laying the blame for extending the vietnam war at the doorstep of the protesters.
never forget that the overall goal of the elite is to keep us in a permanent state of war, with profit the short term objective and societal subservience the long term aim.
since the war was brought to an end, i have to conclude that the protests were successful.
as to todd gitlin, he ceased to be a force for change (except in the obamian sense, meaning incremental and cosmetic) long ago.
militantliberal February 27th, 2008 12:32 pm
The antiwar movement ought to have an independent presence near the Democratic Convention, but surely they ought to focus more heavily on the Republicans, the primary authors of the Iraq War and promoters of Torture USA. It doesn’t matter that the Republican leaders won’t listen. They should be confronted as the monstrosities they are.
Paul Bramscher February 27th, 2008 1:05 pm
My own analysis is that protests simply don’t change policy. Only if a protest were in the magnitude of the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, with general civic unrest brewing in communities across the country, would policy change. And it’s not the result of protest, but the result of overall loss of ability to effectively govern. I don’t think these sublime shifts start with protests. Rather, protests are symptomatic.
Iraq is a boiling-of-the-frog (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog), fought with volunteers and mercenaries. It’ll slowly destroy the middle-class economically.
Vietnam, with a military draft, was a whole different ballgame. It would be interesting to go back into a time machine to 9/11/2001 and an alternate reality. Let’s say by late 2001 there was a draft lottery in place. Bush and his junta never relied on mercenaries, but instead we drafted 100,000+ young men (and women?). The number of combat casualties would be higher (it would include the unreported deaths of the mercenaries) What sort of anti-war movement would there be today?
Little Brother February 27th, 2008 3:40 pm
Yeah, if everyone had just stayed the hell at home and gone Clean for Gene, we wouldn’t be in the position we’re in today.
And of course, it’s those clueless dirty hippies’ fault that the corrupt and amoral power structures and the conformist, anti-intellectual yahoo masses combined to elect Tricky Dick.
You’d think by now that it would be obvious that the first principle of effective dissent is unimpeachable personal hygiene and good grooming.
JZman February 27th, 2008 4:39 pm
Check each organizer’s driver’s license to see if she/he is a republican (provocateur).
agitkid February 27th, 2008 5:14 pm
Every time I read a quote from Todd Gitlin, I cringe while my stomach churns and boils up to a near vomitous explosion.
Gitlin represents the worst in elitist liberal establishmentism. He pontificates behind his professorship, citing his SDS credentials and then denounces any politics that might challenge his world view; a world view that is based in cozying up to power and privilege.
These protesters have every right to bring the issue of war (and a near million dead in Iraq) to the feet of the Democrats, precisely the party that has voted for the war, funded the war, helped stripped habeous corpus, put impeachment off the table, allowed BUSH CO. to spy on us, complicit in torture (Mukasey), and has helped to squash civil liberties with the Military Commissions Act and HR-1955. So, Gitlin, what is the problem here for you?
To believe Obama on Iraq is to forget that his rhetoric is a pre-election strategy to corner Clinton. His Iran/Israel policy falls in line with the neo-conservatives. Granted, Obama is far better than Bush, but activists always have to hold those in power accountable. and pressure them always. and without rest. In fact, people in the streets allows Obama room to maneuver if he really is against the war.
From everything I have heard and seen from Gitlin, he is a coward, not to mention rather politically unsophisticated. One wonders what he might do if he lived in the shoes of those that suffer under the violence that his beloved Democrats have supported and enabled in their policies.
peachmcd February 27th, 2008 5:36 pm
Point taken that it was a police riot (as at the FTAA protests in Miami). Still, corporate media is about all mainstream America has got to convey any info about the world, and the slogan will be a major gift to Faux News and Bill OhReally?.
That said, the most important reasons to attend mass protests of this sort aren’t really about achieving a certain result. I know! Hear me out!
The powers-that-be have never been and never will be swayed to new behavior by the voices of the poor and disenfranchised. But even if the P-T-B don’t/won’t listen to protests, it’s worth showing up, because what mass protests accomplish (in my long experience) is twofold:
1) Folks who know (work with, go to church with) the protesters, and know them to be generally peaceable, sane persons, will see someone they know take a stand. They generally agree with that stand, and read all coverage of the protest through the lens of their admiration/compassion for that friend (fellow-parishioner, co-worker) who represents their position. Multiply by hundreds of thousands, and sea change can occur.
2) The people whose voices are stifled, ignored, and marginalized by the corporate media meet at these protests and are refreshed and renewed. It’s tough to go year in, year out, being told you are ‘idiots’ and ‘out there’ when you KNOW you’re not just correct, but in the majority. Being with ‘the tribe’ is both consoling and re-invigorating.
This second effect has a special impact upon first-time protesters. When first-timers see the breadth and diversity of the crowds, they have to re-think everything they’ve been told about the left and the peace movement (e.g., they’re usually surprised to see so many church groups after all the reference to ’secular liberalism’ in the media).
Will I be in Denver? I dunno. But I’m glad to know Code Pink will be there representing! And I know the gathering will not be in vain.
Pax,
Peach McD in Durham NC
NateW February 27th, 2008 6:50 pm
The Republicans who read of this must be besides themselves with joy as those who are their political opponents are forming themselves into a circular firing squad. Just as in 1968, this could very well play into the grubby hands of the Republicans (who, btw, are more worthy of protests, their president started it).
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
freethinker68 February 27th, 2008 6:54 pm
When will people stop seeking out Todd Gitlin’s opinions on activist actions? He seems to be this self-appointed expert on the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN of all people and activities on the ‘60. What an arrogant fuck! When his contemporaries were on the streets facing the cops and enduring FBI dirty tricks Todd was collecting a paycheck!
In my opinion he has done more to co-opt the left movement than many of his liberal peers of his day! Did anyone see him frothing at the mouth in the film “Weather Underground”? Or see him bash the character of Ralph Nader in “An Unreasonable Man”? Todd condems those who seek to express their values and ideals which appear to be more equality-driven and more nobel than to just go with moderate Democrat policies like that of Bill Clinton. With Dems like Clinton who needs Republicans?
No….Todd is just a misguided sell-out like Jerry Rubin!
I wish the media would stop seeking Todd’s “opinions”. What a joke.
Peace,
M
areader February 27th, 2008 7:57 pm
Peach McD -
I agree with all your points!
It is all part of an ongoing process. Unfortunatley it takes time. I learned that from the protestors who are even older than I!
People who are wondering to themselves see the vigils and protests and feel affirmed.
Our local paper and TV news media cover our vigils. (Good for them!)
It does change things - just not overnight.
There are a LOT of older people and church groups at peace rallies around here. Also veterans groups.
I see it as not the end-all, but as the least I can do.
ctrl-z February 27th, 2008 8:08 pm
I wonder if the Dems, like Bush, will set up “Free Speech” zones at the convention.
Caelidh February 27th, 2008 8:08 pm
Not a War Protest.. but a PEACE DEMONSTRATION.
djwolf February 27th, 2008 10:00 pm
A very short time ago no one dared to speak out against the war in Iraq… Bradley vehicles were racing across the desert and when a few people like the Dixie Chicks spoke out they were called ‘Un-American’ and belief in Bush was patriotism.
When you plot a graph from where things were to where things are now and then extrapolate into the future, the troops will come home.
However, nothing will change. Iraq will be left in ruins and become a magnet for anti-Americanism and what was never a threat will actually become one.
Whether the protests of the late 60’s were what brought the troops out of Vietnam or not - As Hitler and Napoleon discovered conquering a nation is a lot different to keeping it conquered and with insane battle planning from men who underestimated the Vietnamese that resulted in the North Vietnamese troops entering Saigon, perhaps that was what ended the war. But we didn’t learn.
The arms manufacturers in the 60s walked away with a bundle. No one was prosecuted for War Crimes and the planners were left to come up with another nation or people to destroy for profit.
So, the troops will come home from Iraq but justice will not have been served. Arrest those who planned the Iraq invasion for War Crimes. Arrest those who played a part in the patriot act - an act of treason against the American people. It’s time for a purge of those who support torture and kidnapping so that never again will Corporate interests endanger the freedoms of the people.
Clearly, “a long train of abuses and usurpations” has occurred as were present when the Declaration of Independence was written and you must “throw off such government” if you are to ever return America to the greatness it once had.
unionguy February 27th, 2008 10:06 pm
Unfortunately, the leadership of the “Peace Movement” in our nation have had the political foresight of a piece of firewood!
We have a situation in which 3/4 of the people of our nation oppose the war, think the money is being wasted and would be much better spent on people’s needs at home. Unlike the Vietnam period, the entire trade union movement is against the war. Furthermore, our country is falling into the greatest multi-faceted economic crisis we’ve had the Great Depression. A massive foreclosure crisis is now combined with crisises in auto, steel, in education. Our health care system is in near collapse.
Besides all this, it is the most important election of our lifetime. (I know, every election union folks and others say that. But, you what, it was true then, and its even more true now)! Young people are voting in record numbers. People are fleeing the party of George Bush, while that party has nominated an ancient warhorse who has already openly stated that “WE MAY NEED TO STAY IN IRAQ FOR 100 YEARS!!” In the Democratic primaries the debate is over who has the best plan to get us out of Iraq!
I’m not a Rhodes scholar, but I am a union steelworker who’s been in the movement for 40 years, and I can tell you that I have never seen the planets more aligned, the political situation in anything near what is, by far, the absolute best political situation for the peace movement that has EVER existed in our country!
So, in these magnificent political waters, what is the electoral policy of the peace movment? You don’t know either? That’s because, believe it or not, they don’t have one!
It is really ridiculous that the “leadership” of the existing old peace forces have chosen to the sit-out the elections, the time that the American people, totally disgusted with the war and economic policies of the Bush regime, are in open revolt, using the primaries to express their anger. Rather than developing a solid plan of trying to find ways of reaching the mainstream American people, who are overwhelmingly against the war, this group of “leaders” arrogantly separates the organized peace movement from the people. They refuse to dirty their hands with “unpure,” “imperfect” candidates.
This absurd arrogance must end, and soon! We have the opportunity to change the political balance of forces dramatically in favor of the peace and progressive forces. The people are demanding change NOW! The people have their own way to express their anger, and at this time it is in the Democratic primary. Political ships may only come in once in a lifetime, if that. If, for whatever reason, you/your movement missed it, that’s just it! No “do-overs” in reality! In this case it is our suffering people and the horribly suffering Iraqi people that will pay the price of arrogance by others.
We need the peace movement to get into the fight!
Right now, Union folks are mobilizing in Cleveland to help reelect Dennis Kucinich, who is being targeted by a campaign massively funded by AIPAC and big corporate money. Dennis is hero to much of the peace community. However, they don’t follow Dennis’ and they don’t help in his fight! Dennis represents the mainstream here. He won’t jump to a sect. He was raised a Democrat and he’s fighting for his place as a recognized leader of the people of Cleveland. Yet in this life or death political fight, it is the labor movement that is fighting for Dennis, with only a few of the best peace forces involved.
It’s true that if you get into a fight alongside the people you’ll have to get a little dirty and things won’t be “perfect.” But if you’re there, in the mix, the people will listen to you, also. Isn’t it time for the PEACE MOVEMENT TO DEVELOP A REAL ELECTORAL POLICY?
Come on! We need your help, not your advice!
heavyrunner February 27th, 2008 10:16 pm
I was on the streets of Chicago in August of 1968. I was 17 and I had hitch-hiked 350 miles from Michigan with my best friend who was 16. I think we had 10 cents or something when we left Michigan.
We were fairly clueless and expected things to be managed according to the Constitution and the government we had learned about in high school civics class.
We were against the war, and knew we would be expected to register for the draft soon, so we had good reason to be active.
There were about 3,000 demonstrators, 12,000 regular Chicago Police (the “pigs”), 12,000 National Guard troops and 27,000 regular Army troops, heavily armed, arrayed against us.
The event organizers from the Peace movement wanted to stage a Peace march down Michigan Avenue. Mayor Daley refused to issue a permit. The legal team of the demonstrators argued that the Constitution gave us the right to peaceably assemble to petition the government to redress our grievances about the war.
The argument was that it was the prohibition of the march that was un-American, not the march itself, and the leaders of the protest, later to face criminal charges as the Chicago Eight, decided to lead the demonstrators to march down Michigan Avenue despite the lack of permit.
The crowd of 3,000 or so Peace protesters in Grant Park began to spill out onto Michigan Avenue with the intent to march to the Convention some 22 blocks south. My friend Tim and I were in the edge of the crowd, not far from the Hilton Hotel. In those days TV cameras were huge behemoths that were put in place with a crane. The three network cameras were set up on a platform on the corner near the Hilton on Michigan. Sorry I forget the side street.
I will never forget what happened next. It was completely shocking. The pigs were aligned in rows, massed in all the side streets, blocking access to the Loop from Michigan. Suddenly, an order was given, and the cops rushed the TV camera platform and started beating the hell out of the cameramen and anyone else who didn’r run away. At the same time, they started beating the hell out of anyone with a camera or a notebook in sight. Then huge crowds of the cops with long batons began wading into the crowd, grabbing any demonstrator they could get their hands on, pinning them to the ground and with full swings, like a baseball player going for the long ball, beating people bloody and once someone was thoroughly beaten and injured, the gang of pigs, who were operating in groups of 5 or 6, would storm away and grab another victim. I distinctly remember the sound of the long wooden clubs and the screams and strange crunching sounds as they beat a young woman who was so close that her blood was splattering on me. I felt like our relative youth saved us. Several times we could have been grabbed, as the cops were all around and outnumbered the demonstrators three and four to one, but they always let us go and grabbed someone else nearby who was a little older. The tear gas was intense, and even the cops were feeling its effects. They had old, primitive equipment on, not much like the robocop outfits of today, just motorcycle helmets with face shields and no body armor.
We were so scared that when we got away we ran all the way to Indiana!
While the cops were grabbing everyone they could get their hands on and beating the hell out of them, the Army started screaming north in jeeps with big, rectangular wooden frames on the front that were wrapped with barbed wire and just plowing, full speed, into the crowd, crashing into and over people. I think the official reports at the time were that three people were killed or maybe even that no people were killed, but to us it looked like many, many people must have died, especially from the Army jeeps crashing into the crowd. Some people were pressed by the police riot back up against the Hilton and right through the giant 30 or 40 foot high plate glass windows and many people were cut by the flying glass.
I could write a lot more, but you get the idea. And the cops knew that the demonstrators were really not doing anything wrong that would hold up in court. They weren’t doing what they were doing to enforce the law or arrest people. They were there to beat the hell out of us and terrorize people and teach them a lesson about who was boss.
heavyrunner February 27th, 2008 10:29 pm
The picture accompanying this article was taken in Lincoln Park, probably the day before the police riot on Michigan Avenue, and it does not do justice to mad rage the police showed the following day.
They had been told we were “Commies,” and everyone knew in those days that Commies were not people and that “The only good Commie is a dead Commie.” There must have been some cops who were thinking individuals who did not buy that, but we didn’t see any of them. The pigs were roaming around the streets in groups of six and would, unprovoked, beat the hell out of anyone with long hair or a hippie looking dress. They didn’t care if you were a boy or a girl or anything else. We had to run away more than once when a gang of the roving thugs noticed us up in Old Town along Wells Street, which was the Haight_Ashbury of Chicago at the time and was where Tim and I learned what panhandling was and found a place to “crash.”
unionguy February 27th, 2008 10:50 pm
I remember that time, and the folks that were active knew that going to Chicago was suicide. I had just gotten involved in ‘the movement’ a year eariler and was pretty green, but I remember telling people that I wasn’t crazy. I’d actually gone on every peace march and helped out in the civil rts mvmt, up till then.
The really negative thing about that situation, politically, was that the leadership of the peace forces were the ‘nuts’ (Hoffman, etc). They were playing the thing up as some frolic in the park and anyone could see it was going to be a bloodbath. We ended up, after the dust settled, with Nixon/Agnew, continued war and a nearly smashed peace movement.
We can’t afford that kind of foolishness today. The stakes at way too high. We’ve already got Bush/Cheney!
matti February 27th, 2008 11:32 pm
Why protest?
Why not march in SUPPORT of those Democrats brave enough to stand for peace?
Why not march to ENCOURAGE the Democrats to call for real withdrawal and dismantling of the structures of Empire?
Why not march in SOLIDARITY with those parties such as the Greens who already stand for peace and call for withdrawal.
The mood of the General Citizenry is different than in ‘68.
There is a New Generation in leadership positions in the Movement, and the new “Youth Party” hears about ‘68 and says “My dad/uncle/grandpa told me all about it-those pigs went off, man.”
Confrontation works when the Cause is desperate, but the Cause is not desperate, the People are squarely against this War and for Peace and the dismantling of Empire as long as their safety is secure.
This Summer’s program should be a “Remember, the People want- and therefore it is Politically expedient to support- Real Peaceful Change, so have Courage Dems. -and remember, WE’RE WATCHING YOU.” for the Dems. and “We’re gonna exercise our Right to Speak in the Public Square, and you ain’t gonna stop us!” for the G.O.P.’ers.
What ever happens, we could use the energy of ‘68, but Boss Daley been wormfood for a long time, and like someone else wrote, the unions are in the game on our side.
Gonna get interesting, folks.
-matti
quousque February 27th, 2008 11:39 pm
wiredwilly February 27th, 2008 12:01 pm
As a drafted soldier overseas for most of 1968, I think you’re right. It wasn’t until we veterans started protesting that that war really started to end ……… and the same will probably be true of this one.
Today’s anti-war protests are pathetic, as also is the
Democratic Party.
usrcjp February 27th, 2008 11:54 pm
This country needs more ‘nuts’ like Abbie Hoffman. If this country had any integrity we would have a statue commemorating Hoffman in Washington or perhaps an airport named after him(as we do the war criminal Reagan).
Unfortunately, not many in this country have the moral courage and strong convictions of Hoffman. Instead we have frightened “liberals” quivering over the possibility of social unrest(which is something that results in substantial change).
BugsBBunny III February 28th, 2008 12:12 am
Sequels? Recreate 68? The republicans do the war and this protest focuses on whom? The democrats… because why? …”the republicans won’t listen to us”? Like the democrats wanted to in 68?
The truth in 68 seems forgotten. Two assassinations mattered. People saw that other citizens were right to protest and saw how they were treated and got angrier still because TRUTH was there to be seen. The police riot/response disturbed America and lots of people decided to support ‘those young people because the kids were right.’.
They would recreate what? The truth of 68? How so? The republicans did all this and yet they target the democrats. Huh?
Sequels seek to recreate. Well they do reuse the name of an original.
It’s a sequel …like some formula… but in 68 they targeted those who brought about the Vietnam war… the democrats. People saw the truth of it even if they weren’t so clear about their feelings like ‘those young people’.
The protest should recreate the seeking after truth which was the real motivator in 68. Instead they target the wrong side… ensuring that some level of confusion will follow their message not clarity.
You protest those responsible and the truth follows you.
Pigasus is not amused …I think he is confused.
In 68 we held those in our government responsible for what THEY had done and were doing.
It was the truth and in 68 … the real truth of things was made pretty damn clear. In 2008 spin infects even the best of us… and spin never makes thing clear but seeks to cause an effect.
I remember Pigasus …
His spirit will not be created this time… because if the spirit of Pigasus showed up… he’d go protest the republicans. They are the ones who did all this.
Thoughts_Into_Action February 28th, 2008 1:30 am
Lessons from this article:
1. Dress nicely.
2. Shut up (with apologies to Bill O’Reilly).
3. Stay home.
4. Vote for Democrats that don’t represent you.
Yeah, that’s the way toward change that the mainstream media can’t manipulate. That’s the fighting spirit!
I’m just awed by such political sophistication, … not. Actually, most people don’t dress like hippies these days, and they won’t in Denver. It’ll be no surprise if they aren’t ignored again, just like in all of the other antiwar rallies that have gone on before. However, playing nice is what all of the ass-sitting mainstream Democrats have done over the years, and look at the mess we’re in because of it. You vote for them, and they fund the wars.
mikepeters February 28th, 2008 8:09 am
Decisions are not made in Denver. Why not descend on DC, on Congress, on the White House?
Why not assail the structure itself.
Naahh… quibble, divide and bicker ‘progressives’
I/we demonstrated against the Viet-Nam War, against Nixon, against America bombing civilians.
AND WE WERE UNITED IN A COMMON SENSE OF OUR ENEMY.
Divided, infightng, arguing EGO’s; The Republican scum are unified. give them that. and this “recreate 68″ should send the message to dumb American voters that the Dem’s are divided losers-vote Republican….maybe Nader can help…what a ship of quibbling fools. But with every right, yes every right to vote, whine, bicker and divide like amoebas as they see fit.
Progress Right On Into Another Republican DeathFest-It is your right! (Just vote McCain)
pieman February 28th, 2008 9:58 am
we cant permit jerks to minimize 1968…1968 is a part of the history of fighting the good fight for peace and justice…i couldnt go to chicago due to an auto accident but i made up for it by going to miami for the 1972 democratic and republikkkan conventions….
i feel that the conventions should be used to educate the masses about the issues…what w/all the media on the scene, we will use the streets of denver and st.paul as a stage to relate to the people whether it be thru cnn, cbs, murdoch or whatever…chicago 1968 still echoes in my mind 40 years later as the time gets nearer for this years festivities…
the repugnicans and the dumbocrats each holding their orgies of affluence paid for by the pig corporations!!!
hey man i say go ape nonviolently to prove a point….the billion yippie march 2008…
hey if they play games, we can all march n aked to their conventions put them to shame
aron pieman kay
http://www.pieman.orgPaul Bramscher February 28th, 2008 12:51 pm
Protest Lesson #1:
Understand that there are provocateurs. The issue is with policymakers, warmongers, the M.I.C., etc. Cops don’t write policy, they don’t makes laws or even interpret them. Anyone who wants to drive a wedge between cops and protesters is reducing a structural, political and economic crisis into a “situational” crisis — and against an unrelated entity. Practice non-violence, observe decorum & dignity.
Protest Lesson #2:
Protests are symptomic of unrest, but perhaps not the best indicator today. They didn’t have the internet in ‘68. ‘68 wouldn’t have been the same ‘68 if an internet existed, people could organize online, communicate their ideas this way, etc.
Protest Lesson #3:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39439Karlin February 28th, 2008 1:24 pm
This is no time to be shallow and ‘lookist’ - we really have substantive issues here!!
A lot of thought is going in to “how they looked” - isn’t that just basic discrimination? “Presenting a good image” seems to have caught on in America, never mind what they are saying. Are YOU agent provocateurs for the RW, or maybe Moore Suits?
And ya, “the Republicans won’t listen anyhow” is true - undemocratic in so many ways!!
As for “Re-Create ‘68″, they missed it by one year - 1967 - “The Summer of LOVE” - might be most appropriate. It was more than just a rock concert. Maybe the rhyme was more important than the substance.
vaudree February 28th, 2008 1:44 pm
In 1968 there were no cell phones with cameras on them. Make sure you have the old fashion kind of recording devices around as well just in case someone wishes to disrupt cell phone signals.
RE: agent provocateurs
Karlin, seems like you were following the SPP conference in Montebello.
RE: - The arms manufacturers in the 60s walked away with a bundle. No one was prosecuted for War Crimes and the planners were left to come up with another nation or people to destroy for profit.
They still are - er - walking away with a bundle.
You heard of the Karlheinz Schreiber affair? You heard of the Chuck Cadman controversy?
I wonder how much the arms lobby put into making sure that people voted certain ways after 9-11 - or even during the Clinton-Reagan era.
Karlin February 28th, 2008 1:58 pm
vaudree - you must be Canadian, eh?
You nailed it - Montebello.
Weapons profits certainly do drive the politics and media, just as oil importers drives Global Warming denials and drug money drive the War on Drugs
.
unionguy February 28th, 2008 2:10 pm
Doesn’t anyone pay attention?
No, NO, No, No and NO— We do NOT need more Abbe Hoffmans. He was not a “leader” of any sort. What he did is play with our lives in ‘68, and it wasn’t a game!
NO, No, No and NO— We do NOT want/need to “recreate” 1968! I was there, and it wasn’t grand. Oh yes, we had some fun, etc. But the Democratic Convention protest was illconcieved and it played right into the hands of our enemies. What we ended up with was a shattered movement, more war and a public that turned even further away from us.
To those above that throw out sound bite cracks like “so you want to just vote for the worthless Democrats,” yes, that is a nice little soundbite. What it is not is a polititcal analysis. Yes, we should have an electoral policy for the peace movement. I am sick, disgusted and tired of brain-dead ultra-left nut cases running a “peace” movement, that believes it is OK to separate themselves from the people and arrogantly sit on a cloud above it all and throw out sound bites.
In answer— YES, we SHOULD vote for the Democrats. A massive sweep by the opposition would put us in a better political position to win peace, as well as gains for our people. That DOES NOT mean that it is ALL that we do. Organized labor is putting in place massive organization to fight for health care, peace, right to organize, green jobs, etc, AFTER the election. However, I would ask— do folks actually believe that we’d be better off with McCain, the ancient warhorse who is for staying in Iraq forever. The Democratic primary is debating who has the best/quickest program to get OUT of Iraq. 90% of the Democratic elected officials are opposed to the war, vote our way, but the 10% conservative Dems can vote with the GOP and stop any progress. An electoral program should mobilize to defeat our WORST enemy— Bush and the ultra-right, while, at the same time, bldg a massive movement to push the new administration to follow thru and get us out of Iraq.
Just a note— Unionists in Cleveland/N Ohio are working our asses off to defend Dennis Kucinich seat. He’s being attacked by a massively funded campaign. For all the crap I read on here about peace folks “loving” Dennis, I’ve seen only a couple at the mobilizations. I DO see alot of very bad advice from so-called peace folks, calling on Dennis to give up his seat and join some little sect. What I’d really like to see, for a change, are some boots on the ground from peace folks. Some actual work with real working folks instead fo just talk, sound bites.
We could really use your help, not your advice!!!
usrcjp February 29th, 2008 1:49 am
More Abbie Hoffmans!
Less useless political analysis and voting for do-nothing Democrats.
unionguy February 29th, 2008 10:34 am
usrcjp—
Wonderful!! Its all just a game!
Do you know (I’m sure you don’t) that stupid, adventurist and unrealistic actions cost the Indonesian left 1 1/2 million of their people slaughtered? How about the kind of adventurism that unrealistically thought taunting the KKK was a fun little game in the Carolina’s a few yrsa back— 5 demonstrators killed by gunfire, nobody ever brought to justice.
Meanwhile, a real movement of working people (CIO) in the ’30’s/40’s, allied with the (”do-nothing”) Democrats (FDR–New Deal, brought us social security, right to organize unions, public ed, unemployment compensation, first civil rts steps, jobs programs. The civil rights movement in the 60’s worked in coordination with the (”do-nothing”) Democratic LBJ administration to pass the civil rights legislation so important to our nation.
Today, a new administration, defeating the Bush/ultra-right, could open the path to major gains for our people, but, of course, only if allied with the massive labor-led people’s movement. On the agenda is natl health care, ending the war, creating green jobs, labor’s right to organize, funding people’s needs and ending the corporate attacks on our people. This ain’t a ‘game!’ It’s real life!
un-neocon February 29th, 2008 4:54 pm
I marched in D.C. several times in the early 70’s. I, too, began to feel that it was not really moving us closer to Peace because the media was so successful at marginalizing us. Because we did have a draft in those days, I think that the increasing number of draftees who were refusing to serve had a big impact on bringing the war to a close. Plus just the weariness the public felt about it all. Proving the American public has way too short a memory and was so eager to invade Iraq!!
I now live in Colorado and hope that any demonstrations don’t serve to make our incredible Governor and Denver’s Mayor look bad. They are both good Progressives we are proud to have after Republican hacks who have been running our state for too long!! Of course, we all have a Constitutional right to assemble and petition our gov’t for redress of grievances!! And thanks to Bush & Co., we have an unending supply of those!!
No matter how cynical we get, we can never keep up with this arrogant bunch of SOB’s!!!
claireryder March 2nd, 2008 2:48 pm
Incredible govenor and progressive mayor? Wow you must live in a different Denver, Colorado than I do. The mayor is doing everything he can to quash free speech,and increase the violent tactics the police will use against the peaceful protestors in Denver. Not to mention rounding up every homeless person, and getting them hidden away during the convention. Don’t believe it? Go on the denver dems web site, they are helping “count” the homeless. Guess they need a count before they ship them off somewhere. Not to mention the overprice, not needed new “justice center,” while not helping the people who are needlessly incarcerated in this city, many innocent or persons suffering from substance abuse or mental issues. Hick sure has succeeded in raising taxes though. And our good Catholic anti choice govenor who padners to the rich capitalists who got him elected. He is doing a good job raising taxes too. What about the dying and ill Rocky Flats workers? What about SCHP? Maybe you can wave to that GREAT mayor while you are locked in a protest pen after being stunned by one of the new weapons the Denver cops have. Wake up!
irishgawdess March 7th, 2008 12:16 pm
Just imagine that Denver hosts a Democratic Convention this summer, and no National Guardsmen are available for crowd control because they are all in Iraq. Groovy baby!
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