NO HOLDS BARRED

The book in which I have a chapter is now available. It is called You Say You Want a Revolution. It was written by former members and supporters of the once-Maoist Progressive Labor Party, most of whom left in the 1960s and 70s. I left in 1970.

My chapter is about what happened at Columbia, and also somewhat about what happened in New York City and Harlem. There is no one analysis of what happened, just our own views and experiences.

Book events are being organized around the U.S. for early 2019. You can get it, among other places, on Amazon.

For those still using it, the book has its own Facebook page.

Here is the table of contents:

Introduction 4
1. Ellen S. Israel (CUNY)
Cuba Trips 1963-64 We Danced Everywhere 17
2 Dick J. Reavis (University of Texas at Austin)
A Revolutionary Journey 34
3 Paula Campbell Munro (University of Texas Austin)
My Sister, Lynn 47
4 Becky Brenner (University of Texas, Austin, Columbia University)
I was more Baptist Than John the Baptist 60
5 Eric A. Gordon (Tulane)My SDS Activist Years in New Orleans 80
6 John F. Levin (San Francisco State, Columbia)
“On Strike! Shut It Down!” 109
7 Margaret Leahy (San Francisco State University)
A New World Opens 128
8 Ernie Brill (San Francisco State University)
Memories 135
9 Anatole Anton (Stanford, San Francisco State University)
The Stakes Were Higher Than We Knew 152
10 Michael Balter (UCLA & U.S Army)
I Might Have To Kill Vietnamese People 168
11 Ed Morman (City University of New York, University of Washington)
PL and Me 182
12 Eddie Goldman (Columbia University)
PLP, the Struggle at Columbia, and the Road to Irrelevance 194
13 Susan Tarr (City University of New York, San Francisco)
The East Was Red 208
14 Steven Hiatt (University of Iowa)
The (Broken) Promise of the Worker/Student Alliance: Building a Base in Iowa 212
15 Joe Berry (University of Iowa-San Francisco State University)
Movement Learning: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 232
16 Joan Kramer (1947-2017) (UC Berkeley, WSA/SDS)
A Life on the Left 246
17 Barbara Selfridge (UC Berkeley)
The Spread of Maoism 256
18 Henri Picciotto (Princeton, UC Berkeley)
“Princeton’ll Straighten You Out!” 281
19 Frank Kashner (University of Wisconsin, Cambridge MA)
Growing up in the ‘60s: from Introvert to Organizer 287
20 Emily Berg (Harvard University)
PL Reconsidered 302
21 Debbie Levenson (University of Massachusetts in Boston)
Global Boston 308
22 Mary Summers (Harvard University)
The Harvard Strike of ’69 and What Happened Next 319
23 John Mitchell
(Harvard PL/SDS)
A Texas Republican's Path to SDS-WSA and PL 336

Labels: Eddie Goldman, No Holds Barred, PLP. Progressive Labor Party, SDS, You Say You Want a Revolution

This past week, from April 24 to April 27, 2008, many veterans of the spring 1968 strike and protests at Columbia University in New York returned to the campus for a conference to mark the 40th anniversary of that event. This gathering also served as a sort of reunion for those who were activists at Columbia and Barnard in those days, including, of course, many who remain active today in various political and social movements.

Back in 1968, I was a freshman at Columbia. Those events, which took place in the context of the growing Black liberation movement in the U.S. and the worldwide struggles against the war in Vietnam, among many other international rebellions and revolts, profoundly changed my life and thinking. They opened my eyes quite wide about some of the horrors going on around the world, and drew me into political activism with their irresistible slogan: Join us!

Today, however, many do not understand what took place or why. Numerous attacks on the protesters have been circulated, especially in the mainstream media, as usual a primary source of confusion, distortion, and lies.

Despite the severe shortcomings of some of the political tendencies which played a key role in those events at Columbia, especially among the leaders of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society, which I joined shortly after the strike of spring 1968), it is my belief as it was then that the basic demands of those actions were just. They sought an end to the building of a university gymnasium by the elite, private Columbia University in nearby Morningside Park, which is public land in Harlem, an end to university involvement in war research, and several related issues.

One of the most distorted features of this struggle involves the role of the Black students. Many accounts talk of the uprising by white students on this Ivy League campus, but either omit or downplay the crucial leadership role played by the Black students and their organization, the Students Afro-American Society (SAS). Still less is recorded about the role of activists from the Harlem community in leading the struggle against the gym, and in assisting the students when they struck Columbia and occupied campus buildings.

Now a new documentary film is trying to set the record straight. It is called "!VALA! The Power of Black Students at Columbia University 1968-2008". This film is the brainchild of Sherry A. Suttles, Barnard class of 1969, who is the film's executive producer, and was a student activist and SAS member in those days. The producer and director of the film is Kamau Suttles, her son.

Right after a screening and discussion of "!VALA!" this past Saturday, April 26, at this Columbia 1968 conference, we spoke about this film and its message with Sherry A. Suttles, Kamau Suttles, and activist Samuel White Jr., Columbia class of 1968.

You can listen to this lengthy interview for free by clicking here.

Thanks, Eddie Goldman

(Note: This show is not part of the NO HOLDS BARRED series, which will return later this week.)

Labels: 1968, Barnard, Black liberation, Columbia, Eddie Goldman, gym, gymnasium, Harlem, Kamau Suttles, Morningside Park, protest, racism, Samuel White, SAS, SDS, Sherry Suttles, strike, student, Vietnam war