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The legendary Chicago 7: Trump? Much worse than Nixon. Here's why Kamala's strategy can work

2024-08-19 15:51:17Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The legendary Chicago 7: Trump? Much worse than Nixon. Here's why
Chicago 7 activists

By Mar ilisa P alumbo - Cor riere della Sera

Lee Weiner, the only living member of the Chicago 7, the group of activists convicted and then released after the anti-Vietnam protests that marked the 1968 Democratic convention, speaks.

"Me and my friends found ourselves in a world, in a place, that we tried to change and that we changed a little, but not enough. I feel like a political refugee from a revolution that never took place." Lee Weiner, 84, is the only survivor of what throughout our zoom conversation from Florida he will always call "my friends," the legendary Chicago 7 that made history in '68, with activists against the Vietnam War by leading protests during the Democratic convention and were subsequently sued by the Nixon administration, which emerged victorious in the following November's election.

The Republican president thought he was teaching the counterculture an exemplary lesson by bringing those young people to court, but instead he gave them an unprecedented scene, as Aaron Sorkin showed in "The Trial of Chicago 7" (Netflix). All seven (plus Black Panthers leader Bobby Seal, whose position was removed) were acquitted of "conspiracy to riot," which is the title of Weiner's memoir, the remaining additional convictions overturned on appeal.

Why didn't that revolution happen?

“Let's say we weren't good enough and made mistakes: I'm still Marxist enough to answer that the conditions weren't ripe. But we have planted some seeds. America is very different today than it was then, despite tremendous efforts to bring it back. Political change is like that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it works a little. My friends and I did what we could."

Your trial was one of the most famous in modern history, how do you go back to normal life after something like that?

"Don't come back. You deceive yourself, but it never happens. Each of us did our best, but no one came back. Not even among those juries, I guess. With Jerry (Rubin) and Abbs (Abbie Hoffman, both leaders of the Yippies), we were very close and remained so after that. I always heard from Lenny Weinglass, one of the lawyers. Rennie (Davis) took a different direction (he became a follower of an Indian guru, then made a career as a venture capitalist, ed.). Many went in different directions. It has been a difficult time, for us individually and for America. We were not where we thought we would be and had to build a new life. I believe that it has happened to many in Italy as well. Foolishly throughout the process I thought that if I "survived" I could go back to what I did, political organizing on the streets. But obviously it wasn't like that."

He also thought he would stay in Chicago, but instead he left his city.

"Well, when the police officers on the street shout his name and tell you they haven't forgotten him, you know maybe it's time to think about moving to a more relaxed community (laughs).

He continued to be involved in social work throughout his life. In retrospect, was it more effective in the years of the Squares, or in the less visible but continuous work of the following decades?

"There is no comparison... in those years and in this process we have achieved a lot, we have proven that injustice can be resisted, on the streets and in the courts. The impact of that political commitment still reverberates here in the United States. Many of those who sit in the Senate and on the Supreme Court were young at the time and decided to get involved because they could not remain indifferent. My work afterwards, however, was not bad: it is not bad to try to help people fight against racism and anti-Semitism, or to try to find medicines and basic needs for people who are suffering and sick in any way. "

Are your children also activists?

"They all do different jobs, from lawyers to electricians, and they're all left-wing. Everyone participated in the demonstrations for George Floyd."

Often the "veterans" tend to say: we were better, more prepared, more fun... What do you think when you see children on the streets today, the demonstrations on campuses in recent months?

"I am proud of the people who manage to mobilize against injustice and the massacre in Gaza justifies the great anger. There are many students of Arab and Palestinian descent on campuses today, for whom the American left's insistence on identity politics has made them leaders of a broad movement. What if they sometimes go in directions that make me uncomfortable? Is it punishable? Does all this delegitimize the anger towards what is happening in Gaza? Absolutely not. I don't know what would have happened in the anti-Vietnam demonstrations if there had been many Vietnamese students."

You referred to identity politics: are today's movements so fragmented as to be weak?

"Look, America is a very strange place. At the beginning of the 20th century, demonstrations had signs in 7, 8, 9 languages, because people from Russia, Italy, Germany and Poland were extremely different and they tried to keep them together to fight capitalism. Today the differences between us Americans are certainly smaller, yet people consider them very, very important. Even in my time there were feminists, black women, there were discussions even then, but now the clashes are more blatant because they don't happen in a closed room, but on social networks. And I see an extreme tendency towards tribal identification everywhere."

Going back to the process, how did you manage to turn something that was supposed to be a lesson to discourage activists into a call to activism?

"The government made a terrible mistake. Eight people who knew how to do politics were targeted: we were not naive. While they, at least, were not very smart. Plus, when you end up in the national news every day and every night, you have a powerful tool to use, and we did. We were at the height of a movement. When I think of the avalanche of letters we received! Threats, clothes, sometimes marijuana, all kinds of tempting offers (laughs heartily).

Do you think a Trump administration could use its power like Nixon did?

"I'm afraid they will do much worse. American democracy is fragile, there have been presidents who have suspended parts of the Constitution. Lincoln did. Who would stop Trump if he did? The Senate? Chamber, "your" Supreme Court?".

If Trump loses, are you afraid there will be a showdown?

"If he loses, who cares. Will they hit the road? Why? Do they have guns? The army has more weapons. It will not be easy or pleasant, there may be crashes all over the country, but they will be overcome. The problem is if he wins, because if he wins, the problem will not be riots, but the way he will use the power of the state, something I have experience with."

Even the arrival of Kamala does not make you more optimistic?

“Not particularly, the fact is that whoever wrote the constitution thought that farmers and people who lived in rural areas were better than those in the city. The consequence nowadays is an electoral advantage for people living in less populated areas. And Trump is using this advantage".

Your trial strategy was extremely effective in mocking the authorities, revealing how absurd the judges and the government that had moved them were. Do you think this Democrats' strategy of using words like "weird" to describe Trump could be just as effective?

“Oh, I think it's fantastic. You know what? People are used to treating politics like the weather. They know it affects their lives, but they feel they can't do anything about it. So insisting on him (Trump) being anti-democratic wastes time with the average voter. Whereas naming someone as odd works: he's the kind of person you don't want to meet in the elevator, who if you see when the doors open you say: I'm waiting for the next one."


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