![]() He spent the 1980s bemoaning the wane of political activism among young people and committed suicide on April 12, 1989. Pictured are Lee Weiner, John Froines, Abbie Hoffman, Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, and Dave Dellinger. Hoffman surrendered in 1980 and served four months of a maximum three-year sentence for the cocaine charge. He skipped bail, got plastic surgery, and became a fugitive for six years. Hoffman was charged with cocaine possession in 1974, an accusation he would swear to his death was a frame-up by police. The group’s guilty verdicts turned to acquittals on appeal. Hoffman openly mocked the proceedings, heightening his cachet with the press. They were called the Chicago Seven at trial. Poet-activist Allen Ginsberg assisted by chanting.ĭuring the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Hoffman helped organize a series of demonstrations that resulted in a riot with the police. That October, during a 10,000-person march to protest the Vietnam War, Hoffman tried to levitate the Pentagon with his mind. He was adept at sound bites, like “sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers.” On August 24, 1967, he and his followers sprinkled fake money from the New York Stock Exchange gallery traders dove for the bills. What set Hoffman apart from other radicals was his ability to manipulate the media. Branding themselves the Yippies, the Youth International Party had no formal leadership or membership. After supporting the Civil Rights movement for several years with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Hoffman created the Youth International Party in the late 1960s. ![]() 1981)Ībbie Hoffman grew up middle-class in Worcester, Massachusetts. "Looking back on the trial and the generational convulsion it was a part of, Weiner refreshingly doesn't swear off his old allegiances or political ideals.U.S. ![]() “A new memoir by Lee Weiner - the member of the Chicago Seven that was actually from the city - gives fresh insight into how the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests and trial really went down.” -Chicago magazine A welcome addition to the library of the countercultural 1960s left." -Kirkus Reviews "A book that should be shelved alongside Mark Rudd's Underground and Pat Thomas's Did It! Weiner closes with a stirring paean to activism. Along the way, he collected a couple of master’s degrees and a PhD in sociology. ![]() His later political work included direct response fundraising for members of Congress and national non-profit organizations. The defense teams core argument was that the protests in Chicago had been. His activist life began with free-speech demonstrations at the University of Illinois in 1960, included community organizing in desperately poor neighborhoods in Chicago, and led to his indictment in the notorious trial of the Chicago 7 in 1969. The defense called more than 100 witnesses during the trial of the Chicago Seven. Lee Weiner was born and raised on Chicago’s South Side. With startling relevance to today’s polarized political climate, Conspiracy to Riot is a book for anyone who hopes for a better, more just world, and offers a blueprint for how to make it happen. In this irreverent, freewheeling memoir of an indelible moment in history-which Kirkus Review called “a welcome addition to the library of the countercultural 1960s left”- Conspiracy to Riot shows how a commitment to your ideals can change your destiny forever. The ensuing trial of the Chicago 7 became a media sensation, and it changed Weiner’s life forever. But it also included a little-known community activist and social worker from the South Side of Chicago named Lee Weiner, who was just as surprised as the rest of the country when his name was included in the indictment. First dubbed the “Conspiracy 8” and later the “Chicago 7,” the group included firebrands like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale. In March 1969, eight young men were indicted by the federal government for conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. A memoir of a life in activism by one of the original defendants in the Trial of the Chicago 7, subject of the 2020 Oscar-nominated Aaron Sorkin film of the same name.
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