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what about Socialism? ... Hey, man, what about getting rid of the
system that caused this goddamn war?"
Friday, after the victory picnic, I told my writer-friend apolo–
getically that I had underestimated the ability of the Mobilization
leaders to convert Monday's failure into a triumph. Now, in retrospect,
I realize that the seeming disaster was itself part of the choreography.
From Mississippi to Columbia, the New Left has won its major victories
by getting pushed around; Chicago followed suit. Alternatives to bunk–
ing in the park were not arranged - so the city's refusal to let people
sleep there seemed more outrageous; a large bail fund was not raised–
SQ
people had to linger in the lockup. At one point Hayden even pre–
pared a tape, to be broadcast from the Hilton into Grant Park, an–
nouncing that he was inside, and inviting everyone to join him. This,
too, would have led to a "radicalizing experience" - a slaughter on the
Petrograd scale - but the friend he entrusted to broadcast it finally
refused.
But there was no
con~s:ious
cynicism in all this. Even Hayden's call
to· the Hilton, cagey through it seems in the recounting, was not manipu–
lative. As noted, his strategy is finely geared to the mood of his con–
stituents.
If
he gave them bloodshed in Chicago, he gave them what
they wanted. Thousands of
declasse
students and college graduates are
really itching for action, motivated by the unworthiest personal needs,
("Making a Revolution is the only way to get a stiff cock," I heard a
brilliant 38-year-old economist say) as well as lucid political argu–
ments. Most of them see the traditional American acquiescence and
flexibility in the face of unrest as a source of America's staying power.
For years they have been talking about imminent repression (at every
New Left gathering one hears references to the concentration camp
sites, the 60,000 radicals to be rounded up when Hoover gets - or
gives - the word) ; and by now many '\"QuId rather be jailed than
patronized. Their mood is also influenced by the voluntary negritude
that has energized young people from Mississippi to Haight Street.
In Chicago they adopted the Black Panther vocabulary for dealing with
the police.
Now any serious radical with a sense of history knows that the
armed might of the state has to be neutralized if you mean to take
power. In the weeks before the convention, organizers at Fort Hood,
Texas, had made significant headway with Regular Army soldiers sched–
uled for riot-control duty in Chicago. Eventually more than 100 black
GI's refused to embark; forty-three of them were arrested and court-
