Excerpt:
Stew Albert – Stewart “Stew” Albert was a member of the Yippies (Youth International Party) in the 1970s and co-author of “The Sixties Papers” anthology with his wife, Judy Gumbo Albert. His memoir, Who the Hell is Stew Albert?, was published by Red Hen Press in 2005. He ran the Yippie Reading Room until he died of liver cancer in January 2006.
Tariq Ali –Tariq Ali is a political activist, author, editor, filmmaker, and historian. As a college student in his native Pakistan, he organized rallies against the country’s military dictatorship. Moving to England, he studied at Oxford and became a nationally renowned antiwar activist, publicly debating Henry Kissinger and British Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart. A longtime member of the editorial board of The New Left Review, Ali contributes regularly to The Guardian, Counterpunch and The London Review of Books. His publications include Clash of Fundamentalisms, The Nehrus and the Gandhis: An Indian Dynasty, Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties, and the satiric play Ugly Rumors.
http://yippiegirl.com/the-more-things-change.html
Excerpts:
1)
Judy Gumbo was an original Yippie. She is the author of Yippie Girl™, a memoir in progress about love and conflict among the Yippies and other romantic revolutionaries of the late 1960s. With her late husband Stew Albert, Judy co-authored The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade (1984). In her later life, Judy was an award winning fundraiser for Planned Parenthood. She now lives in Berkeley, California with her husband, David Dobkin. Contact Judy.
2) Bill bends down and, with his long arms and large fingers, reaches far up under the Volvo’s rear bumper. He grunts, pulls out a 6” by 4” black box, with two intact batteries and the ubiquitous wire hanging down. Bill places the device in his kitchen freezer, which, he says will cut off its capacity to transmit. Then, always a Yippie, Bill contacts the press.
Over the years, I’ve often wondered who of us were the bigger schmucks -- Stew and I, who gave the FBI access to our car by consigning it to the street, or the Keystone Cop FBI agents who installed a second, new and completely functioning homing device.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stew_Albert
Excerpt:
Stewart Edward "Stew" Albert (December 4, 1939 – January 30, 2006) was an early member of the Yippies, an anti-Vietnam War political activist, and an important figure in the New Left movement of the 1960s.
Born in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, NY to a New York City employee, he had a relatively conventional political life in his youth, though he was among those who protested the execution of Caryl Chessman. He graduated from Pace University, where he majored in politics and philosophy, and worked for a while for the City of New York welfare department.
In 1965, he left New York to go to San Francisco where he met the poet Allen Ginsberg at the City Lights Bookstore. Within a few days he was volunteering at the Vietnam Day Committee in Berkeley, California. It was there he met Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, with whom he co-founded the Youth International Party or Yippies. He also met Bobby Seale and other Black Panther Party members there and became a full-time political activist. Rubin once said that Albert was a better educator than most of the professors.
http://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/thirdpage/postreatment.html
Excerpt:
STEW LIVES! by Michael Simmons
Stew Albert
1939-2006
"My politics have not changed."
So read the simple blog entry by Stew Albert on January 28, 2006. Two days later, he died in his sleep at his home in Portland, Oregon, surrounded by his wife Judy Albert, daughter Jessica and friends. Suffering from cancer and unable to write at length, he was clearly determined to make a statement -- a last stand -- that blended the legendary Yippie's defiance and wit. As if his politics would ever change!
For the Yippies - the Youth International Party -- the word "party"meant both political group and outrageously good time. The Yippies merged left-wing activism and freak culture in the late 1960s. One of the "non-leaders" along with Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Paul Krassner was another party animal -- equally irresponsible for the chaos and comedy: Stew Albert, a fierce soldier for justice as well as subversive prankster.
Born on December 4, 1939 in Brooklyn to a working-class family, Stew was genetically nonconformist - a natural blonde Jew. In 1960, he visited the young, idealistic revolutionary Cuba and it derailed his plans for civil servitude. "I saw people living exciting, meaningful lives not based on self-promotion or small-time ideology," he later wrote. After a failed attempt at reintegrating into normalcy, he got bit by wanderlust and ended up in Berkeley, California working for the anti-war Vietnam Day Committee whose most effective founding member was Jerry Rubin. Soon, Stew and Jerry were best friends and Stew was in the thick of Berkeley's cannabinoided counter-culture. Despite his "growing rage" at America's war on Vietnam, his "private joy was complete." In 1966, his pal Rubin ran for Mayor of Berkeley and Stew became campaign manager and created a campaign that advocated social justice, an end to war and racism as well as the legalization of marijuana - a brave, new demand - and he laid out the campaign pamphlet in a decidedly psychedelic style. The same year, Rubin was called before the commie-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee and he showed up wearing a Revolutionary War costume. These examples of performance politics successfully blew the minds of the congressional creeps and thrilled young anti-war activists by establishing a new tactic - capture their imaginations and their hearts will follow.
In preparation for a march on the Pentagon, Stew and Jerry flew to New York City in the summer of 1967 and befriended a fellow longhaired, wisecracking troublemaker named Abbie Hoffman. Stew, Jerry, Abbie, Jim Fouratt, and others descended on the visitor's gallery of the New York Stock Exchange and showered 500 one-dollar bills onto the floor below. For the first time in Wall Street's history, trading stopped on the floor while the greedheads went grabby ga-ga for the green. This merry band had pulled down the curtain on the wizards of capitalism and the media lapped up the story.
In October of that year, Stew helped organize the massive March on the Pentagon. Stew, Jerry, Abbie, along with Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg of the Fugs and others, announced that they were going to exorcise the Pentagon of evil spirits and levitate it. Again, the story made for thrilling press. By the end of 1967, these characters, along with Paul Krassner, Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, Bob Fass, Anita Hoffman, Nancy Kurshan, Kate Coleman, Keith and Judy Lampe, and others, signed a unified statement of purpose and announced themselves as Yippie, a name thought up by Krassner.
The Yippies began planning a Festival of Life for the Democratic Convention in August of 1968. The idea was to present a counterpoint to the Convention of Death hosted by the politicians whoêd brought us the war in Vietnam. That year marked another watershed event in Stew's life when he met fellow traveler Judy Clavir in Berkeley, a love story that lasted his entire life. Judy, later dubbed "Gumbo" by Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver, became his mate and a renowned activist in her own right.
Stew contributed Pigasus to The Festival of Life, an actual pig that he and Jerry announced was the Yippie candidate for president. The pig was later detained by the police and squealed in custody. The counter-convention devolved into a police riot where thousands of demonstrators - including Stew -- were savagely beaten in what was dubbed "a police riot" by a federal commission. Undeterred by the facts, the government prosecuted a group of the organizers for conspiracy to riot in what became known as the Chicago 8 (later 7) trial. Abbie and Jerry were two of the indictees and Stew was named an unindicted co-conspirator (evidently two Yippies were sufficient). The Chicago Conspiracy Trial became known as "The Trial Of The Century" and eventually all charges were dropped.
Stew cut a swath across the planet. He ended up in London on the David Frost Show (along with limey accomplices including writer/rocker Mick Farren) where he actually made a history book for being The First Person To Say 'Cunt' On British Television. He traveled to Algeria to facilitate escaped fugitive Timothy Leary's exile, where Leary stayed with another exile, Eldridge Cleaver. (Of all the Yippies, Stew was the closest to the Black Panthers, particularly Cleaver.) He enlisted John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a "Beatle/Yippie pact" that resulted in Lennon's radicalization and near-deportation.
Beyond YIP, he ran for Sheriff of Alameda County (and lost, but carried Berkeley), where he'd earlier done months of jail time for general agitation. With compadre and folksinger Phil Ochs, he traveled to Chile before the CIA-backed coup. When he implemented DIY egalitarianism by helping create People's Park in Berkeley, then-Governor Ronald Reagan responded to the unsanctioned green space by bringing in the National Guard and turning the streets into a war zone.
While living in the Catskills, Judy discovered a tracking device connected to their car, placed by the FBI. She and Stew eventually sued the FBI for illegal surveillance -- and won (proving there's a damn good reason the feds need judicial warrants). In 1977, their daughter Jessica Pearl Albert was born. Stew went on to become a private eye and reconnected with his Jewish roots. He was played by actor Donal Logue in the Abbie biopic Steal This Movie in 2000.
Through the years, Stew never stopped thirsting for peace and justice. He became a mentor and friend to younger activists, from the L.A. Cacophony Society to myriad anarchists. Young people from all over the world corresponded with Stew, asking about Yippie and seeking advice on contemporary shit-stirring. He continued to write extensively, publishing The Sixties Papers with Judy and his autobiography Who The Hell Is Stew Albert?
After being diagnosed with Hepatitis C, he spent the last year enduring chemotherapy. Just as he completed his treatment and was given a clean bill of health, he was diagnosed with liver cancer last December. It was a cruel twist, but in an e-mail to friends he was determined to confront it head-on and with humor. "I am still a Yippie," he noted. A week before his death, he gave a two hour plus interview to a film crew making a documentary about the Yippies and although he was clearly tired and in pain, he remained powerful, insightful, unrepentant, and funny as hell. As he wrote in his autobiography, he had "an uncontainable need to test my bravery," something he did until the end. And as the man said, his politics never changed. __ Michael Simmons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_International_Party
Excerpt:
The Youth International Party, whose members were commonly called Yippies, was a radically youth-oriented and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the 1960s. It was founded on Dec. 31, 1967.[1][2] They employed theatrical gestures, such as advancing a pig ("Pigasus the Immortal") as a candidate for President in 1968, to mock the social status quo.[3] They have been described as a highly theatrical, anti-authoritarian and anarchist[4] youth movement of "symbolic politics".[5]
Since they were well known for street theater and politically-themed pranks, many of the "old school" political left either ignored or denounced them. According to ABC News, "The group was known for street theater pranks and was once referred to as the 'Groucho Marxists'."[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Ali
Excerpt:
Career
His public profile began to grow during the Vietnam War, when he engaged in debates against the war with such figures as Henry Kissinger and Michael Stewart. He testified at the Russell Tribunal over US involvement in Vietnam. As time passed, Ali became increasingly critical of American and Israeli foreign policies. He is also well known for his satirical work. He was also a vigorous opponent of American relations with Pakistan that tended to back military dictatorships over democracy. He was one of the marchers on the American embassy in London in 1968 in a demonstration against the Vietnam war.[7]
Tariq Ali - Obama, Pakistan and the US empire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oYdvQZVvrU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_Party
Excerpts:
1) Some members of the Rhino party would call themselves Marxist-Lennonist, a parody of the factional split between the Communist Party of Canada and the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), although the Rhinoceros Party meant the term in reference to Groucho Marx and John Lennon.[6]
2) The Rhinoceros Party (French: Parti Rhinocéros) is a Canadian federal political party. Referred to in English Canada as the Second Rhinoceros Party. It was known as neorhino.ca until 2010, when the party changed names and registered a new party logo. Created in Montreal on May 21, 2006, and recognized by Elections Canada as being eligible for registration on August 16, 2007, and an official political party on August 23, 2007.[2] It is the successor to the Rhinoceros Party of Canada.
The party was founded by François "Yo" Gourd, who was involved with the original incarnation of the First Rhinoceros Party. He stated he named the new party (then under the name neorhino) for the Rhinoceros Party and for Neo, the Matrix character. The party is currently led by François Gourd.
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=66328
Excerpt:
Neorhino Party Promise Marijuana and Orgasms for Everyone
The Rhinoceros is back, after a 14-year absence from Canadian politics, and this time, they are promising weekly orgasms, marijuana in every pot, making Spanish Canada's official language, and forcing current Prime Minister Stephen Harper to diet.The neorhinos describe themselves as Marxist-Lennonists, basing their platforms upon the philosophies of Groucho Marx & John Lennon. The party was founded on the principle that people have become too disenfranchised with politics.
Almost 40% of Canadians do not vote. The Neorhinos hope that everyone who does not vote, voted for them, they would have a chance at winning a majority government. In 1980, the Rhinos captured just over 1% of the popular vote.
________________________________
Some of the Rhinos' Previous Promises:
Repealing the law of gravity;
Paving Manitoba to create the world's largest parking lot;
Providing higher education by building taller schools;
Instituting English, French and illiteracy as Canada's three official languages;
Tearing down the Rocky Mountains so that Albertans could see the Pacific sunset;
Making Montreal the Venice of North America by damming the St. Lawrence River;
Abolishing the environment because it's too hard to keep clean and it takes up so much space;
Annexing the United States, which would take its place as the third territory, after the Yukon and the Northwest Territories (Nunavut did not yet exist) in Canada's backyard, in order to eliminate foreign control of Canada's natural resources;
Ending crime by abolishing all laws;
Paving the Bay of Fundy to create more parking in the Maritimes;
Turning Montreal's Saint Catherine Street into the world's longest bowling alley;
Adopting the British system of driving on the left; this was to be gradually phased in over five years with large trucks and tractors first, then buses, eventually including small cars and bicycles last;
Selling the Canadian Senate at an antique auction in California;
Putting the national debt on Visa;
Declaring war on Belgium because a Belgian cartoon character, Tintin, killed a rhinoceros in one of the cartoons;
Offering to call off the proposed Belgium-Canada war if Belgium delivered a case of mussels and a case of Belgian beer to Rhinoceros "Hindquarters" in Montréal (the Belgian Embassy in Ottawa did, in fact, do this);
Painting Canada's coastal sea limits in watercolour so that Canadian fish would know where they were at all times;
Banning guns and butter, since both kill;
Banning lousy Canadian winters;
Renaming the country Nantucket;
Donate a free rhinoceros to every aspiring artist in Canada
http://stewalbert.com/sixtiespage.html
Excerpt:
These days The Sixties Papers is widely used as a college text in history and sociology classes. It's strange to think that what was once so new and revolutionary has become the stuff of history. But in The Sixties Papers you won't have to settle for boring second-hand analysis. My co-editor wife and I were full time activists and the documents that we reprint were written or spoken or drawn during the Sixties. We know first hand that these documents had a major influence on that passionate and rebellious era. Featuring documents by participants such as Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, H. Rap Brown, Abbie Hoffman, Paul Krassner, Jerry Rubin, Stew Albert, and Robin Morgan, this volume brings together a wide range of material on one of the most turbulent decades in American history. The contributors are divided into five sections covering ideas influential on the early New Left: the anti-war movement, SDS and Weathermen, the counterculture, Yippies, and the women's movement. - Stew
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