1968/2008

AREA Chicago #7 Magazine Release Event: The Inheritance of Politics and The Politics of Inheritance
December 6th, 2008 1-4pm
at Jane Addams Hull House Museum, 800 S. Halsted Chicago IL

1pm-2pm Public release of new issue of AREA on the theme of the legacy of 1968 in Chicago,

2pm-4pm Performances, Films and Speaking by:
Nicole Garneau’s Uprising performance; Lucky Pierre performing songs for 1968/2008; James Tracy discusses researching the working class Left in Chicago; clips from Bernadine Mellis’ “Struggle Baby” in-progress film on children of the New Left, and more

With contributions by and about:
The Chicago Seed, Steve Macek, Alyssa Vincent, Bernie Faber, Abe Peck, Chicago Journalism Review, Cosmic Frog, Free Schools, Blackstone Rangers, Julie Glasier, Rising Up Angry, Euan Hague, Chicago Surrealist Group, Joey Pizzolato, The Woodlawn Organization, Carrie Breitbach, Kartemquin Films, Darcy Lydum, Chicago Area Draft Resisters, SDS, A.L. Gray, Amy Martin, Negro Digest/Black World, Chris Brancaccio, Harper Court, Andrea Baer, Conservative Vice Lords, Chicago Artist Boycott, Maggie Taft, JOIN Community Union, Lauren Cumbia, James Tracy, Amy Sonnie, Africobra, Black Arts Movement, Edna Togba, UIC SDS, Earl Silbar, Sylvia Fischer, Charles Nissim-Sabat, Marilyn Nissim-Sabat, Nelson Peery, Hymie Rochman, Penelope & Franklin Rosemont, Dr. Quentin Young, Aaron Sarver, Rainbow Coalition, Mike James, PLP, April 68 Oral History Project, Sam Barnett, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Monica Barra, Rebecca Zorach, White Privilege Concept, Mike Staudenmeir, Daniel Tucker, Non Profit Industrial Complex, Eric Tang, Eve Ewing, 68 in 08 Elections, Jerome Grand, Rick Perlstein, Daley, BLW, Vietnam, Iraq, Lucky Pierre, Ben Shepard, BLW, Re-enact 68, Bert Stabler, AJ Kane, Mark Tribe, Winter Soldier, Paige Sarlin, Laura Gluckman, Nicole Garneau, Young Lords, Frank Edwards, Sam Greenlee, Judy Hoffman, Tracye Matthews, Kevin Gosztola, Old Left, Eric Triantafillou, Generation X, Dan S. Wang, Theaster Gates, Bob and Margo Crawford, Lincoln Park, Pete Zelchenko, Mark Shipley, Michael Thompson, Cathleen Schandelmeier, Louise Lincoln, Lumpen, and more.

This event is the culmination of a six month long “Project in Residence” at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum organized by AREA Chicago.

Map out directions here.

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Come to a meeting about the 68/08 Issue of AREA Chicago at 2129 N Rockwell at 6pm on Tuesday June 24th, 2008. You must RSVP for this meeting at areachicago@gmail.com. Bring ideas for the issue and a willingness to contribute time and energy to this project.

The project description http://1968.areachicago.org/2008/04/03/new-project-description/

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This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education by Maurice Isserman deals mostly with the relationship between Michael Harrington and Tom Hayden. Harrington famously lambasted Hayden following the release of the “Port Huron Statement” which was an early document of the Students for a Democratic Society. The article also deals with the unintended consequences of Hayden’s open-ended enthusiasm for morally motivated street action - suggesting that it somehow paved the way for the Weather Underground. I find myself wondering how to fairly access “responsibility” for such unintended consequences. But this is a worthwhile read in that it eals with intergenerational dynamics and how those impact the political imagination.

Here is a quote from the second-to-last paragraph:

“When young people turn to radical doctrines and movements, whether in 1952, 1962, 1968, or 2008, they are apt to bring with them a mixed collection of motives and impulses: simultaneously craving autonomy and validation, guidance and self-definition. For their radicalism to be anything more than a youthful fling, they need to find within it both a meaningful sense of personal identity and a sustainable vision of how to bring about social change. They can learn from their elders, but they also need to bring a critical scrutiny to bear on received wisdom.”

Tags:   Mark Rudd · Michael Harrington · SDS · Tom Hayden · Weathermen1 Comment

Daniel Finkelstein in The Times Online discusses the role of the presidential candidates McCain and Obama in transforming the legacy of ‘68

Tags:   McCain · Nixon · ObamaNo Comments.

This was printed in this month’s In These Times.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3751/the_ambiguous_legacy_of_68/ 

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From Prospect Magazine.

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It started this week. Check it out here.

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http://www2.high.org/main.taf?p=3,1,1,6,2

Not sure if we can call this a like-minded effort per se, but it is about a more complex understanding of legacy - not just nostalgia.

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From Le Monde
In French - but translated from English, so I wonder if the original version is floating around somewhere.

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Tuesday, May 137:30 pm1968 REVISTED Liberation, Imagination & the Black Panther Party George Katsiaficas, Ashanti Alston Omowali & James PonceContinuing our year-long events series on the 40th anniversary of 1968, we will look at the impact of the Black Panther Party, which inspired thousands to join their movement to transform “the system.” Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party will offer a fresh and realistic recounting of the tumultuous history of what arguably became the most significant revolutionary organization in the US during the late 20th century.Ashanti Alston Omowali is an anarchist activist, speaker, and writer, and former member of the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army, and spent more than a decade in prison after government forces captured him and the official court system convicted him of armed robbery. Alston is the former northeast coordinator for Critical Resistance, a current co-chair of the National Jericho Movement (to free U.S. political prisoners), a member of pro-Zapatista people-of-color U.S.-based Estación Libre, and is on the board of the Institute for Anarchist Studies.George Katsiaficas has been active in social movements since 1969 when he participated in the anti-Vietnam movement. A target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program (Counterintelligence), he was honored to be classified “Priority 1 ADEX” meaning in the event of a national emergency, people like him were to be immediately arrested. After living in Berlin for 1 1/2 years and learning first-hand about the autonomous movement there, he wrote about that movement (The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life). He is the author of several other books including the classic: The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968.

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