Useful links from the 1960s and Beyond --constructed by Lori Price, TA for Michael Rectenwald's class, "Radicalism and Reaction" at Carnegie Mellon University, fall 2003

Miles from Port Huron: By 1970, the Vietnam War, military draft, Kennedy asssassinations, and Kent State and Orangeburg State Massacres emboldened the Left to strive toward revolution.

Read passages from handouts in class: The Strawberry Statement: Notes of a College Revolutionary --by James Simon Kunen (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mdr2/classes/76_101A_Fall_03/readings/the_strawberry_statement_kunen_081203.html); I Ain't Marchin' Anymore --by Dotson Rader (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mdr2/classes/76_101A_Fall_03/readings/i_aint_marchin_anymore_rader_081303.html); and Revolution for the Hell of It --by Free [Abbie Hoffman] (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mdr2/classes/76_101A_Fall_03/readings/revolution_for_the_hell_of_it_free_081303.html)

Read revolutionary rock lyrics of that era, detailing radicalism of the Left, from handout it class: Revolutionary rock lyrics (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mdr2/classes/76_101A_Fall_03/revolutionary_rock_lyrics_081303.html)

"Yippie Manifesto" --by Jerry Rubin, from Do It!,1969 (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mdr2/classes/76_101A_Fall_03/readings/yippie_manifesto_rubin_082203.html)

On the threshold of revolution? Read "New Morning -- Changing Weather" by Bernadine Dohrn. The most radical elements of the 1960's antiwar movement begin to plan a revolution. Taking a cue from Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/subterranean.html) from the 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home, "You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows", the extreme Left from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) form the Weathermen in 1969.

Discuss in class, tactics and tone of the above commentators of the Columbia campus uprisings and Bernadine Dohrn's statement -- the demands for immediate social change with SDS's Port Huron Statement by Tom Hayden (http://www.identitytheory.com/business/porthuron.html) from June 15, 1962.

Read "A Doctor's Letter to His Son", by Dr. Paul Willliamson, detailing the animosity between the Right and Left in that era, evident in the 'generation gap', from handout in class: "A Doctor's Letter to His Son" (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mdr2/classes/76_101A_Fall_03/readings/doctors_letter_082103.html)

Read Vice President Spiro T. Agnew's interpretation of campus uprisings (http://chnm.gmu.edu/hardhats/kent.html). Agnew's statement was reported by Time magazine only days before the Kent State massacre, on May 4, 1970.

Speeches by Spiro T. Agnew -- denounces student political movements (http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_4.html)

Kennan, George F., “Rebels Without a Program”, The New York Times Magazine, January 21, 1968.

Discuss in class, the notion that the antiwar movement began as a rebellion consisting mostly of middle-class and upper-class students -- rather than the proletariat -- doom the 'revolution' to failure?

*****

2000 Presidential 'Election' and the rise of the Pro-Democracy movement: In response to what some viewed as a presidential 's-election' by a partisan Supreme Court, an citizens pro-democracy movement was born on the Internet and continues through 2003. The Pro-Democracy movement was founded by Greg Palast, "The Silence of the Media Lambs", The Best Money Democracy Can Buy; Michael Rectenwald, Founder/Chair Citizens for Legitimate Government, http://www.legitgov.org; Louis Posner, Esq. Founder/Director votermarch.org, http://www.votermarch.org, and Bob Fertik and David Lytell, co-founders of democrats.com, http://www.democrats.com.

Read handouts in class and discuss theme and tactics of the Pro-Democracy movement, comparing and contrasting to the American Left movement in the 1960's.

Readings:
"Silence of the Media Lambs: The Election Story Never Told" --by Greg Palast (http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=33&row=1) May 24, 2001
"Theft of the Presidency" BBC-TV Newsnight interview with Greg Palast (http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=29&row=1) February 15, 2001
"Not My President (Not anyone's)" --by Michael Rectenwald (http://www.legitgov.org/mikesPDspeach.html) speech in Manhattan "Not My President's Day Rally", February 18, 2001
"'Election' 2000, in Historical Context" --by Michael Rectenwald (http://legitgov.org/library_dcm19_mr.html) speech by Michael Rectenwald, read on the west steps of the Capitol, May 19, 2001
"March 30 Anti-W-ar Rally Pittsburgh Speech" --by Michael Rectenwald (http://legitgov.org/mike_march_30_anti_w_ar_rally_pittsburgh_speech_033003.html) speech in Pittsburgh, March 30, 2003
"The obscure goat story of 9-11" -- editorial, lawgiver.org (http://ecclesia.org/lawgiver/911.asp)
"F-U Nation -- I am not for US, I am against US." --by Laurence Littleby (http://adbusters.org/magazine/42/articles/f_u_nation.html) July, 2002
"Welcome to the Machine -- Glitch Wins by a Landslide" --by Ben Tripp (http://www.counterpunch.org/tripp02202003.html) February 20, 2003

In response: "The Left Dumbs Down" --by Nicholas D. Kristof (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00B17FD395A0C768CDDA80994DA404482) (The New York Times) November 5, 2002
"Now, This Is War: A Refrain, In Thomas Carlyle Fashion, by the so-called 'Dumbed-down Left'" (Was "America, The Hopeless") -- by Michael Rectenwald (http://legitgov.org/mike_essay_this_IS_war_110602.html)

CLG Index