This is a Special Edition, but first a short announcement: For those who wish to help the Nader-Gonzalez '08 Campaign we've assembled specific information about five concrete steps you can take to make a positive contribution to the future of the USA and the world. We'll keep updating this document as we gather more details. If you have specific tips please send them our way.
Over two months ago, Peter Byrne came up with the idea of a special issue on the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and the vicious police riots that ensued. Peter coordinated the entire issue from his Lecce residence in Italy. Peter was also instrumental in having Art Shay, the preeminent American photojournalist of the past 60-plus years, contribute his recollection of these fateful days with the likes of Jean Genet, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, William Styron, Norman Mailer, etc., and generously allow us to publish some of his famous photographs. A retrospective of Shay's work was exhibited in Paris last month. Karen Moller went to its opening and sent us a report as well as pictures. Peter Byrne uses his literary brush to paint the historical tableau of the political machine in Chicago, the means used by Mayor Daley to orchestrate the police riots, and what happened at the Convention. Far from that epicenter, in London, dissent was expressed through the theatre. Former drama critic Irving Wardle talks about the production of The Chicago Conspiracy (the Convention, the demos, the Chicago Eight) and Charles Marowitz's master-stroke in casting William Burroughs as Judge Hoffman at The Open Space Theatre. Charles goes behind the scene to reveal the nuts and bolts of the play and how humor served the purpose of demonstrating the travesty of justice and the ludicrousness of those events.
Speaking of the Chicago Eight, Louis Proyect looks into the respective trajectories of Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin, and Abbie Hoffman -- only Abbie is worthy of respect -- and the corrosive power of American capitalism. Michael Doliner, who was in Chicago, offers three vignettes of his experience during those tumultuous times. Carol Warner Christen was not there but her transformative experiences in 1968, as you'll see, have served her well, even though many were not so pleasant. As to Norman Mailer, one can imagine Gore Vidal taking some pleasure at the reading of Peter Byrne's essay. Mailer appears rather aloof -- a navel-gazing non-reporter -- and a mostly confused man as he participates in and writes about those days.
Guido Monte, Gilles d'Aymery, and Martin Murie were not in Chicago, but Monte translated a short excerpt of Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1968 poem to young communist students, which reflects his sentiments in regard to the Italian riots in that year. Nostalgia about 1968 abounds, but Gilles d'Aymery does not fall for it as he places these events in a larger context and expresses simmering contempt for daddy's rebellious children and the legacy of the baby boomers. Martin Murie ends with a look toward the future, which appropriately ties in neatly with the first paragraph of these notes. Your letters conclude this issue, with Michael DeLang's thoughtful response to misguided accusations...and more.
As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes) know about Swans. It's your voice that makes ours grow.
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Gilles d'Aymery & Jan Baughman: How To Help The Nader-Gonzalez '08 Campaign
A compendium of the many ways to support the Ralph Nader-Matt Gonzalez 2008 presidential campaign, including contact information for the media, who need to be pressured to give equal time to Nader. More...
Art Shay: The Democratic Convention -- Chicago 1968
The legendary American photojournalist Art Shay shares his perspective on and photographs from the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, where all the world was watching the violence against the antiwar marchers. More...
Karen Moller: Art Shay's Traces Of A Bygone America
Karen Moller reviews Art Shay's photography exhibit, Traces of a Bygone America, which appeared at the Albert Loeb Gallery in Paris, France, April-May 2008. More...
Peter Byrne: Big Dumpling's Shock And Awe: Mayor Daley's Chicago
A chronicle of Richard J. Daley's Chicago politics -- the backdrop for the peaceful antiwar protests, police Gestapo tactics, and the Chicago 7 show trial surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention. More...
Irving Wardle: The Chicago Conspiracy
Irving Wardle's introduction to Charles Marowitz's play The Chicago Conspiracy, based on the trial of the Chicago Eight and the Democratic Convention of 1968. More...
Charles Marowitz: Expats' Chicago: London, 1968
Theatre works such as Charles Marowitz's The Chicago Conspiracy can have a profound impact in times of peril and turbulence, whether 1968 or 2008, when they escape the traditional environment and enter the real world. More...
Louis Proyect: Whatever Became Of What's-His-Name, The Radical?
A look back at the political events of 1968 and some of the characters involved -- Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin, and Abbie Hoffman -- reveals the corrosive power of American capitalism, though unlike Davis and Rubin, Hoffman remained true to his ideals until his death. More...
Michael Doliner: Three Memories of Chicago 1968
The author's personal account of the events surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention gives insight into the divisiveness of the time. More...
Carol Warner Christen: My Mere View Of The Year 1968
Carol Warner Christen describes the profound influences on her life in the 1960s, from the challenges of raising 6 children on a tight budget while working and attending college, to undergoing a political transformation away from her strict Catholic, old-school Republican upbringing to becoming the president of Women For Peace, and more. More...
Peter Byrne: Norman Mailer, A Noncombatant At The Siege
With forty years passed since the 1968 Democratic Convention and Norman Mailer's Miami and the Siege of Chicago, Peter Byrne considers the contemporary relevance of the book, its author, and the 1960s politics. More...
Pier Paolo Pasolini: Fragments Of 1968
Guido Monte translates an excerpt of a 1968 poem to young Communist students, Il PCI ai giovani, by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the famous Italian poet, writer, and director. More...
Gilles d'Aymery: Exercises In Nostalgia -- 1968
The protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago paled in comparison to liberation movements around the world. It's time to put the baby boomers' nostalgia and ruinous legacy to bed and move forward for change. More...
Martin Murie: Then, Now, And Tomorrow
Thoughts on war, activism, and the contrasts and parallels between 1968 and 2008 as the Democratic Convention approaches. More...
Answering hatred carefully and sticking up for Bruce Anderson; unprecedented support for the Nader-Gonzalez campaign and breaking the corrupt duopoly; clinging to the Ron Paul rEVOLution; the top 10 winners of the Iraq War; and the death of folk singer Utah Phillips. More...
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