1968 DNC protests, 50 years later: Organizers recall coalition building & running pig for president

“Rioting is not going to get it. What you have to do is get organized.”

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SOURCEDemocracy Now!

We revisit the 1968 DNC protests in Chicago, where Yippies Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin nominated a pig named “Pigasus the Immortal” to compete with candidates Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon. They hoped to In-Hog-Ur-Ate Pigasus instead. His platform was to be a pile of garbage – ”just like the platform of all the other parties.” They demanded Pigasus be taken to the White House for a foreign policy briefing and given a Secret Service detail. Pigasus was later arrested along with many others, who were charged with disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and bringing a pig to Chicago. Defense attorney William Kunstler later accused the Democratic Party of the same charges. We continue our conversation with Black Panther Bobby Seale, arrested for inciting a riot and gagged during the Chicago 8 trial stemming from his speech at the protest, and SDS activists and organizers Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers.

Guests

  • Bernardine Dohrn longtime activist for peace, racial justice and children’s rights. She is a former law professor at Northwestern Law School.
  • Bill Ayers longtime activist, retired education professor and author of many books, including Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom and Fugitive Days: A Memoir. His latest is titled Demand the Impossible! A Radical Manifesto.
  • Bobby Seale the original 1966 founding chairman and national organizer of the Black Panther Party.

FALL FUNDRAISER

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