I apologize for the length of this piece, but I wanted to include all of the necessary background information on what I think is an interesting and somewhat worrisome parallel between the elections of 1968 and 2016, and the importance of looking to history for lessons as we on the Left move forward as a community and a movement.
In many respects, 1968 represented a crisis point for America, but also probably the greatest ebb of power for the Left in America (not necessarily in terms of electoral politics, but in terms of power as a movement in the streets). Martin Luther King was assassinated in April. Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June. Malcolm X had been assassinated just three years prior, and President Kennedy two years before that. The United States was stuck in an intractable war in Vietnam, with no end in sight. And President Johnson, in major part due to that deeply unpopular war, had decided not to seek reelection. Riots and uprisings hit American cities, often due to a deep frustration with racist law enforcement, economic inequality, and lack of opportunities for the poor, and for people of color.
In spite of this chaos and sadness, or perhaps as a result of it, the Far Left in the United States was more organized and more active than it had been since the days of Eugene Debs. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) were building chapters on campuses throughout the country. The Black Panther Party (BPP) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) were building power in African-American neighborhoods, building upon the previous efforts of the Civil Rights movement to take on a more radical vision for black liberation. The Young Lords took on a similar role in the Puerto Rican community, as did the Brown Berets among California’s Mexican-American population. And then you had groups like the Yippies (aka the Youth International Party), doing all kinds of weirdo hippie shit (I say this lovingly), but with an overall political goal of bringing about power to the youth of America and adding an anarchist influence to the scene.
Coalitions had been formed between previously disparate organizations, around a wide variety of issues – most notably the Vietnam War. I offer all of this background information for those of you who, like me, were born way after the 60s (1982 in my case), and to bring up the quintessential moment of 1968, in which the entire power dynamic seems to have changed – the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In spite of the existing crises – the assassinations, the rampant inequality, the war – the Left was on the upswing. Organizations of different schools of thought and different demographics were building successful coalitions (in spite of real disagreements at times) to protest and push for change. In addition to Bobby Kennedy, the Democrats had another prominent progressive candidate – Eugene McCarthy, who took on the anti-war mantle of the party, and became its progressive standard-bearer, particularly after Kennedy’s murder.
In spite of the groundswell of support for McCarthy, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey won the Democratic nomination for President, and was to receive that nomination, with Sen. Edmund Muskie as his running mate, at the Chicago Convention. Seeing Humphrey as a continuation of the Johnson administration’s pro-war policies and generally a moderate (by the standards of the late 1960s), a wide range of groups – the Panthers, SDS, the Yippies, and many others – coalesced outside the Convention to protest. The protest was large and somewhat chaotic, but the police response was unquestionably heavy-handed and brutal, with this brutality openly encouraged by Chicago’s then-Mayor Richard Daley.
The protests, and the resulting “police riot” was broadcast on national tv, and beamed into the homes of millions of Americans. And strangely enough, just like that, the violence in the streets of Chicago, and the chaos inside the convention center (where progressives loudly condemned Daley and his ilk for their authoritarianism) shattered the dreams of the left – in a sad mix of blood, broken glass and bones, and tear gas.
While protestors chanted “The whole world is watching,” as they were beaten by Chicago PD and National Guard troops called in by Daley, families in suburban homes throughout the country looked on in shock. By the time the smoke cleared, hundreds were injured, many more arrested, including several prominent young leaders among the left, including Bobby Seale of the BPP, Tom Hayden, and Rennie Davis of SDS, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman of the Yippies, activist/students John Froines and Lee Weiner, and elder statesman David Dellinger, among others. But the arrest and trials of the Chicago Eight were the tip of the iceberg.
Humphrey, who was a well-meaning but average establishment candidate to begin with, lost the election to Republican Richard Nixon, even with the radical right-wing George Wallace taking a sizeable chunk of electoral votes in the South, and the GOP essentially took power over the United States for the next 24 years (with a brief break during the moderate, one-term Carter administration), reaching its apex during the dark days of the Reagan Era.
But why did this happen? Why this collapse of the American Left, from its strongest days to its arguable low-point? Was it the rise of Nixon’s so-called “silent majority”? Was it that Americans watching the crackdown on the protests in Chicago identified more with the police swinging truncheons than the young protestors being beaten in the street? Or was it the absolute demoralization and disengagement of large chunks of the left post-Chicago? While it was likely the result of a combination of these factors, I think the last one listed is in many ways the saddest of all. The revolutionaries became disillusioned or disorganized, or simply exhausted enough to be taken down, and the movement fell apart.
Not only did we witness 20+ years of conservative Republican presidents post-1968, but we saw the rapid decimation of many of our greatest left-wing organizations. Fred Hampton was murdered by Police in 1969, along with fellow Black Panther Mark Clark, and Bunchy Carter was murdered by the rival US Organization of Ron Karenga. BPP leaders Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver had a falling out, and the organization fractured. Cleaver fled to Algeria. SDS fell apart as well, with some members developing into the smaller, more militant Weather Underground organization.
Throughout the 70s, these smaller, highly-radicalized organizations engaged in militant activities, but struggled to remain relevant, as their leaders died, went to prison, fought amongst themselves or simply disengaged. And at least in part, the public seemed to stop caring. Protesters were shot and killed by the authorities at Kent State University in 1970, and Jackson State University 11 days after. And most of all, we witnessed a generation or more of disengagement among the left, and the rise of the backlash generation on the right, the effects of which reverberate to this day.
This was far from the intent of the protest movement of the late 1960s – but in part, it may be the unintended result of some of the movement’s lack of planning, and lack of historical examples to look to when considering potential consequences and reactions.
I’m bringing this up, at least in part, because I’m trying to figure out how the Left sustains itself during and following our current crisis point. Since Spring and Summer of 2014, we have witnessed a rash of police killings, disproportionately of black and brown men and women. While this has been occurring for years, this is the year during which the levee seemingly broke, and a rapidly growing movement coalesced around the issue, and the broader issue of racial justice, on a national scale. At the same time, we are seeing the early stages of the 2016 Democratic primary, with all of the excitement and ugliness that political campaigns entail, particularly in this day and age.
We’ve recently seen protestors representing the Black Lives Matter campaign (a movement I support) stage protests at political rallies for progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders (a candidate I support), and there’s been debates around the wisdom or the effectiveness of protesting arguably the most sympathetic candidate in the field. My feelings on this are nuanced, and I’m not hear to get into a debate on these protests in particular. But I do have concerns about the reactions of individuals in the different camps – both the BLM movement and those who are do-or-die Bernie supporters, as well as others watching from the sidelines (be they Hillary supporters or anything else).
The politics of today are nowhere near as radical as in 1968, and the movements are nowhere near as militant or fractured at this point. But my biggest concern is that this ugliness, the sniping on social media, etc., could lead to the disengagement of a large chunk of the electorate, and the Left, from the political process. I hear people who would likely identify with the left discussing the possibility of not voting, or simply being alienated from all candidates, due to what they see as a lack of understanding of the issues that affect them. I see people who are supportive of a particular candidate angry at their brethren on the Left and talking about refusing to vote or work on behalf of their preferred person, should he or she lose during the primary. And I see others who are just so disgusted with the whole thing that they are dropping out of politics and these overlapping movements entirely.
Basically, this ship needs to hold if we are going to survive, not just today or tomorrow, but into the future. With the groundswell of grassroots efforts that the left has seen in the past couple of years – around racial justice, economic justice, rights for LGBT people, and so much more - we have seen great success, and we are at the precipice of far more. We're at a critical point as a community, and we must stop and consider how we can effectively move forward together. Because I don’t want to see this as our 1968 moment, where due to whatever reason, we fall apart. This time, it may not be about the state destroying our movement – but about us destroying ourselves. And we can’t let that happen. The stakes are too high for all of us.
So let's talk about how to do it.
Your happy warrior for social democracy,
Justin