Seeking advice from "hippies"?

[Flabbergasted]

I'm 29. A friend of mine (50) told me that in the 60's there was a massive boycott of GE. How the hell did you get that going and how do we get it going NOW?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

1. We did all kinds of stuff in the 60's these panzies won't try now

We had as many ANTI-WAR protestors carrying signs as Hispanic cultures have in the streets these days. Now, everyone just complains and sits at home, so we smoke too much and call them candy-asses.

[MnFats]

4. yep. I'm still hoping the campuses will turn up the heat this spring...

...otherwise I'm going to be very disillusioned.
we shut the country down in May 1972...

[Flabbergasted]

7. I own a business right by a community college...Cafe

I always notice how controlled the campus is. Police, Security, Don't hand out anything, Don't do anything unusual?

Hard to have an on-campus crusade amidst these conditions?

[Gman]

24. Its called "civil disobedience"

we all did it in the 60's and 70's.

[Flabbergasted]

25. Amen Brother! AMEN

[Erika]

37. We considered it a civic duty

We stand for the principles of this country, not its partisan politicians.

[Totally Committed]

56. I don't know why the art of civil disobedience is lost these days!

We actually got a lot done in the 60's and 70's using civile disobedience.

Can you imagine how differently Democrats in The House and The Senate might be governing if there were massive sit-ins in the Capitol Rotunda, or weekly protests on the Washington Mall DEMANDING they find their balls and govern for us again????

Geezzzzz.................... WRITING E-MAILS (WHILE MOMENTARILY SATISFYING) IS NOT A FORM OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.

TC

[laugle]

46. I used to wonder why there was so much apathy in

young people.....I'll tell you why in one word.....DRAFT!!

We all know the horrors of the draft at that time!! I'm not saying I want another one--but we who lived through it know it would light a MAJOR FIRE under people's butts, and not just the young people.

[VPStoltz]

13. Oh my god yes!

The teeny tiny town I grew up in had a huge anti-war march. By comparison, it was larger than anything I've seen in regard to this mess now. These people are pansies.

[laugle]

47. Let's be fair--we had a draft and they don't!

I have no doubt there would be huge protests if there was......

Ah the days of love, peace and happiness, the whole social, sexual and cultural revolution......

John Lennon, the Beatles, the Fillmore west!

It was a time like no other....nostalgia is good....it was such an innocent time......

[MADem]

2. There were a shitload of boycotts back in the day

Many --most, in fact--had to do with the war. DuPont Chemical, Dow, those guys who made napalm. I had a friend who worked for one of those companies and QUIT because he couldn't stomach the product they were putting out....it was a ballsy thing to do, because he was making an obscenely huge wage for the day, but he had to live with himself. He is still alive today, content, not rich, a good fella.

Back then, it was all word of mouth, mimeograph machines, hand printed flyers, all very local. Telephone, tell a friend....much socializing accompanied any political action, too.

Of course, the thing staring everyone in the face was a trip to Vietnam and a bullet with your name on it.

It is very difficult to make people rise up for mainly altruistic reasons. Ya gotta hit them where they live, in the pocketbook, in the lives of their kids, in their lifestyle, and ya gotta do it hard, and it is only then that they become motivated to fight back.

[Flabbergasted]

3. You know it puts a tear in my eye to hear words from you all, who stood

up and made your voice count!

Thanks for YOUR sacrifice!

[sam sarrha]

12. an analysis showed the factor that allowed activism was actually cheap Rent

people could go places because there were plentiful good paying jobs, lots of small private businesses that would pay a good worker more money to keep them. inthe late 60's and early 70's rent was less than $100 a month. i paid usually $75 or $85 for a nice little house.. my 3 hippie friends and i rented an isolated farmhouse for $40 each

people could go work to register blacks in the South and work in Civil rights.

i was in the Peace Corps and a VISTA Volunteer twice. i accompanied Rosa Parks from San Fransisco to Seattle on a train.. took time off to go get the parade permit for the Martin Luther King Jr memorial parade because the blacks could not obtain one. and my boss let me have the time off, 2 days.

once i got my unemployment check and took a bus to Mexico City spent a week and flew home and got my next check and took a two week trip to idaho,.. next check to Oregon. i worked in the cannery and had some time off before school, college was free them you just paid registration and books. them came Ronnie Raygun and put an end to all that. that is why things suck today, less educated people, less traveled people.. the Peace Corps opened my eyes.. and refugee camps and starvation isn't too far away here either.. we have a fragile system and these fools are F'n it up with their megalomania and foolish Fascist Greed

[spag68]

19. free collage

The rethugs make no bones about the fact that all those gis got that education from the fiftys until the "voluntary army came into being. So it starts with the WW2 guys in the 50s, but their aim is always the same don't let any of "them" get educated, keep lowering wages, a much older fight.

[TheBaldyMan]

65. I presume you are a veteran but that doesn't invalidate their acts

civil disobedience is better than doing nothing. What do you suggest as an alternative ?

[alfredo]

41. Let's see, Iceberg Lettuce, table grapes, and Gallo wines

Yep, there were a lot of boycotts. I still don't eat iceberg lettuce, not because of any boycott, but because it tastes terrible and has no nutritional value.

[MADem]

49. Funny, I lost the habit back then as well! n/t

[alfredo]

55. It's amazing how our politics has affected our diet.

[sam sarrha]

5. there was a boycott of power protesting a Nuclear power plant at San Luis

Obispo..spl

they actually reduced the power demand more than the plant would produce.

there has been an ongoing mind control program sense the Kent State murders..
where they killed 7 Innocent bystanders near a peaceful protest to send a message that you dont even get near those people.

there were no real protests after that.. today there are some 'Parades' but no real protests, we have been 'Neutered'.

[Flabbergasted]

6. Mind Control Program?

[sam sarrha]

18. Kreskin had a show at Kent State the week before the murders, he said he

noticed that people there were behaving oddly, he said it was obvious to him there was a program of thought control going on and he warned them someone was controlling them thru suggestion. he said something terrible was going to happen soon.

Kreskin uses mass hypnosis in a lot of his performances. the harping on Faux and CNN is a process of systematic control.. why else would people not be in the streets..?? why hasnt people like DeLay been tar'd and feathered and run out of DC on a rail, and no protest to speak of against a war started on lies killing thousands by a wet brain dry drunk alcoholic drug addict that never really had a job..... and is an obvious draft dogger, as is his whole cabinet.

[Erika]

23. It was a period of hell that W is going to force on us again

and W never will have even suffered a broken fingernail with either "war".

The National Guard "kids" who did the shooting at Kent State were hyped up beyond belief.

[sam sarrha]

61. they were not national guard, they had masks on. guy in silk jacket was CIA

[RandomKoolzip]

42. Kreskin's a fraud and this is all hearsay.

a) There's no such thing as "psychics." Psychics are all hucksters.

The reason Kreskin surmised that there was going to be some shit coming down the week before the killings was that students, mostly SDS members with the help of some hip faculty, had occupied several buildings and held massive campus-wide protests, some erupting in riots and bonfires. The national guard was a presence at Kent for days before anyone was killled. It was inevitable that there would be a showdown of some kind that had nothing to do with "mind control." I just read "Are We Not Men?", the biography of Devo. Devo's bassist/theoritician, Gerald Casale, was friends with Alison Krause, one of the slain students. He was by her side when she was shot. There is a full account of the events leading up to the massacre in this book, should you care to read it, and unlike the claims of some quasi-paranormal buck-chaser, his account is based on facts.

b) "Mind control" is tinfoil. Posting about it as if it actually exists makes lurkers and curious readers think the whole of DU is batshit nuts.

Ah, but there's my "Generation Y" cynicism coming to the fore again...:eyes:

Oh, and I forgot to mention: they killed FOUR people, not seven. CSNY's song "Ohio" would have sounded a lot different had there been that many students killed. The rythym of the syllables would have been all fucked up.

[RebelOne]

50. I saw a performance by Kreskin years ago on Miami Beach.

And he sure was convincing. Dom DeLuise was in the audience and he had him fooled also.

[sam sarrha]

62. i saw him on a special interview, he is an interesting person,he talked a

lot about what he did.. he said he uses mass hypnosis in his performances.. he said it was a 'Performance'.. but he said since he uses mass hypnosis in his act all the time, he saw it when others do it .. that was the point.

i cant believe the shrill denials that the Robber Barrpms arent controlling what we see and think thru the media.. 'we' as in a nation... my german friends that visited just howled with laughter at our news.. they looked at me in total disbelief and said..'do you really fall for that shit..'?

[sam sarrha]

59. he isnt a fraud he professes to only be a performer.. attatude attack

[RandomKoolzip]

63. If he's only a performer who poses as a man

with paranormal powers, why do you accept him as an authority on the events of May 1970, specifically this supposed "mind control" program that was in place back then?

[arwalden]

51. Oh Yeah... PSYCHIC MIND CONTROL... That's GOT To Be The Cause

[sam sarrha]

58. I didnt say Psychic mind control, you dont have to listen to Faux or CNN

very long before you get my point.. you are are in denial if if you watch the madia and you dont think it is manipulating people...

[spag68]

20. "7 people killed?"

[MnFats]

26. sorry but in May 1972 there were FAR more extensive protests..

...than those that followed Kent State.
....this was when Nixon promised to draw down troop withdrawals,then pulled a bait and switch by increasing the bombing and mining Haiphong Harbor.
....Virtually every campus in the country went off at that time...I was around for both..

[Erika]

29. Remember when Agnew called protesters "effeminates"

And George Mitchell locked up 8,000 protesters and suspended their rights?

Yes, the Bush administration is becoming another Nixon administration.

[MnFats]

43. nattering nabobs of negativism...who wrote that crap?

course, Agnew had his own just deserts....took cash payoffs, then he was gone...

[RandomKoolzip]

Mind control? Kent State?!

Dude, you've been listening to too much Devo. :crazy:

[laugle]

48. LOL.....really what's he been smoking????

[Erika]

8. Remember the Bank of America and antiestablishmentarism?

Kids just said enough and took it to the streets. There was so much social injustice with no social conscience.

The Vietnam war was the last extension of that anger. Todays chickenhawks were the cowards in that "conflict".

As Cheney said, "he had other things to do during that war".

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. The draft motivated a lot of kids to become activists for all kinds

of "anti-establishment" causes. Thank God there isn't a draft, however, having no draft took the wind out of the sails of a lot of activist causes.

[Erika]

11. That's why Rangel wants the draft reinstated

So all classes will feel to some extent the pain of immoral and unwinnable wars.

[MADem]

15. It's a brilliantly nuanced position

Hate the war, favor a draft. Charlie is an American hero!

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. Certainly the Vietnam draft was a disgrace. You went if you were

poor, weren't "college material", or didn't have any connections and were unlucky enough to get a low number. I think Rangel had an idea to make it more fair. However, I'm glad it didn't happen, because who knows how many countries they would be occupying by now if they had an unlimited supply of draftees to suit up.

[Erika]

17. Maybe our kids would stand up again and say no more

and spread the message.

[The_Casual_Observer]

21. I only hope that the US comes to it's senses and gets out of that

place before it's too late. Sending off draftees to fight a god damn war isn't any way to teach a generation a civics lesson.

[bobbieinok]

57. I was a young college instructor in the late 60s....male students who were

goofing off (some were,even then) and/or failing would try to emotionally blackmail me 'if I don't get at least a C, I'll be on academic probation, and my draft board will send me to Vietnam'

[Mabus]

10. Clergy and Laity Concerned About the War targeted four corporations

Yet another reason the Republicans want the churches in their pockets.

Subsequently, an organization called Clergy and Laity Concerned About the War in Vietnam targeted four corporations for a nationwide campaign: General Electric, Honeywell, Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon), and International Telegraph and Telephone (ITT). For CALC these campaigns represented a way to mobilize its own constituency. It would provide a mechanism through which members of churches and church-related groups all around the nation could oppose the war. A research unit of the National Council of Churches revealed that three of its member churches owned almost 40,000 shares of Honeywell stock worth about $5 million.

Shareholder resolutions were proposed and boycotts organized against each of the four firms. For example, the Women’s Strike for Peace picketed ITT’s international headquarters in New York City and attempted to encourage supporters of the peace movement to refuse to buy two consumer products made by ITT, Hostess Twinkles and Wonder Bread. The War Resistance League, as well as several other peace groups, also engaged in civil disobedience activities outside ITT’s New York offices; they passed out leaflets in the form of antipersonnel weapons. However, CALC’s campaign against Honeywell was the most important of the four. Their national steering committee reasoned: “We believe that Honeywell, Inc. symbolizes the heinousness of the entire South East Asia war, because it produces 70 percent of all anti-personnel weapons used in the war”(Usher 1972: 8).


Stocks Without Sin: The Emergence of Ethical Investing

The anti-war movement also witnessed the emergence of socially responsible investing as a political tactic. In late 1969 Alice Tepper Marlin, a financial analyst for a Boston investment firm, was asked by a local synagogue to prepare a list of companies that were not involved in the production of war materials. The resulting “peace portfolio” was advertised in the New York Times, and over 600 individuals and organizations requested additional information. The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press picked up the story and, according to Marlin, “the idea just snowballed from there.” Marlin subsequently founded the Council on Economic Priorities, an organization, which sought to politicize the investor role by providing detailed information on corporate social performance.

The amount of information available about the behavior of specific corporations as well as the sudden increase of popular interest in corporate performance raised the possibility that ethical investing could become much more than a symbolic act: it could be generalized into a principle of corporate reform. The expectation underlay the initial conception of the Council on Economic Priorities. In an interview conducted soon after CEP was founded, Marlin remarked:

… there can be little doubt that advising and informing these institutions of the opportunities for socially conscious investments can bring financial pressure to bear on corporations…The Council is trying to foment a new market psychology which will provide corporate management with a rationale for their social responsibility…a corporation …aware that socially responsible behavior will attract the attention of investors (“Social Dividends 1970: 2).
source: source is this PDF file

edited to add link.

[Erika]

14. We're seeing a clergy movement again. Ever so slowly.

The poor in this country and the world's poor are being over-looked while the globalists profit, along with the rich. This is directly against Christ's teachings. Some of those clergy are saying if they truly believe what they do, then there will be a reckoning day.

Pre-emptive strikes are also against the Golden Rule. Again, people are waking up slowly to seeing that our world is not headed in a Christian direction.

[Mabus]

53. Good points

There have been a combination of factors that have helped some clerics to misuse the teachings of Christianity to rouse fear in their congregations. As their parishioners continue to be adversely affected by the economic climate, their shock at how Katrina victims were/are treated, the growing questions about the war the attitudes are changing.

[MsUSA]

64. clergy movement strong on immigration now.

[WCGreen]

22. Since the Hippies now own GE....

What's the point......

[Erika]

27. Who does own GE now?

I thought it became part of a global conglomerate.

[WCGreen]

28. Shareholders....

People with 401k's and a whole mess of pension funds....

[Flabbergasted]

30. Damn it, I'm tired of the left's cynicism! a COMPANY TO BOYCOTT?

[Erika]

31. Bushco

It fits every requirement of a company who is in the business only for corporate profit at the expense of the working class.

Send a check to any democrat candidate in a tough election.

[Flabbergasted]

32. No No No No No.....Company Boycott?

[Erika]

33. Believe me, Bushco operates 100% as a company

with corporate profits it's only goal.

[Flabbergasted]

34. So you're suggestion is to boycott Taxes?

[Erika]

35. No, to vote and support democrats

But I have told my DC reps that if they support the outlawing of abortion, they won't get a cent in taxes from me. Taxation without representation.

[Flabbergasted]

36. And if the voting system doesn;t work?

[Erika]

38. I withhold my taxes

That begins a nice protest.

[Flabbergasted]

39. Can I hold you to that?

[gumby]

40. "Revolution" emanates from the middle class.

It was the educated middle class that produced the '60s 'revolution.'

Just why, aside from carnal greed, do you think the middle class and education has been systematically dismantled?

That's the Neo-Con agenda, and as your question implies, their grip on this country has worked marvelously.

[RandomKoolzip]

45. Well, the Watts riots weren't a middle class phenomenon.

Before white college kids were getting mowed down, blacks were rising up in cities all over the US. And organizing Black Panther chapters.

And it wasn't just the RW agenda that killed the "idealistic" revolutionary fervor of the 60's; Manson helped a great deal, as did People's Park, Altamont, Eldridge Cleaver, and the general fucking softheadedness that finds its home today in the laughably diffuse "New Age" movement that is unfortunately the 60's truest legacy. The 60's killed itself.

But you're right...having a unprecedentedly large, mobile, educated, young middle class helped foment a change back then. But it's all over. Time to stop reflecting back on those days and start coming up with political solutions that work NOW. The internet has given the left a major voice, one that cannot be underestimated no matter how hard the MSM tries, and a massive, organized reform movement at all levels of government, federal, state, etc, in regards to elections, health care, environmental regulation, lobbying, etc. needs to emerge as a natural outcropping of that new voice. Bloggers and thinkers need to step out from the sidelines and ACTIVELY TAKE PART IN GOVERNMENT by running in local/state elections. Liberal millionaires in the entertainment industry need to start putting their money where their mouths are and fund some fucking foundations and think tanks to do battle with the right.

The real 60's model we should be emulating is not the left's, but the right's. They were smart and they got investors to create think tanks and media apparatuses. They stormed local elections and took over city councilships county by county in the late 60's. They organized their efforts. It took them thirty fucking years, but they did it.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

44. Many things are different from the 60s - we had the media on our side

first of all...

Now with the right wing owned media conglomerates, it's very tough to gain any traction with boycotts or even to gain support against the war. Just look at what they did to Dan Rather when he spoke out against Bush.

When I was a senior in high school in 1969 we had WALTER CRONKITE on the tube every evening pounding home the stories of the soldiers on the front lines in Vietnam. These were young guys who had just graduated from our high school the year before and who, because of their lottery numbers, were shipped off to war. Remember we had the draft and that was like the SWORD OF DAMOCLES hanging over every 18 year old male. My boyfriend at the time lost 40 lbs on a water only diet to stay under the minimum weight for recruitment since his number in the lottery was 17. There was a VERY compelling reason for every college aged kid to protest, but now with an all volunteer army, the administration has diffused what was, in my opinion, the catalyst for the anti-war movement in our era.

Also, remember that until recently the public only had three choices for television news, CBS, ABC and NBC. There was no PROPAGANDA station the likes of FOX NEWS. The nightly images of bloody bodies on all three networks took it's toll and helped turn the tide. I have hope that the media will do it's job again this time, the Los Angeles Times has run an incredible series this week on our soldiers in Iraq with gut wrenching photos... maybe it's a sign.

In any case, it's heartening to see that the 20 somethings have the desire to change the course Bush & Co. have placed us on... we "hippies" still have the fire in our bellies and are ready to join you!!!!

[omega minimo]

52. The media was not "on your side" they were doing the job of Journalism

which is (supposed to be) impartial. I agree with your point, but would underline that we don't need media "on our side" then or now-- we need them to do their job and operate as a Free Press.

This press ain't free to do its job--

[SoCalDemGrrl]

67. point well taken...

[Mabus]

54. I remember seeing the causalty totals every night at dinner

and every night the totals climbed. It was very powerful. The footage was often gritty and the reporters weren't happily embedded in "green zones".

You're right. It was different back then.

[Uncle Joe]

60. I think a boycott of G.E. is an excellent idea!

If I remember correctly it was the CEO of G.E. that pressured NBC to call Florida for Bush election night, early while it was still in dispute. As for me, they are as responsible for the coup of 2000 as the screaming lunatic brown shirts that were flown in to Florida by Tom Delay and company to kill democracy. The only thing they care about is money, I imagine this is why they would have no qualms with perpetual war, it helps their bottom line. A boycott will send them a message, there is a price to be paid for betraying the American People.


P.S. As if that was not enough, they deserve a boycott just for giving us Tweety.

[slackmaster]

66. Just turn off the lights, man.

:hippie:

[Joe Fields]

68. First, you have to be willing to leave your comfort zone....

and stand up to bullets and batons, because, baby, that's what you will be facing, if you decide to take to the streets like we did in the sixties.