Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

have organized speeches at the International Amphitheater, the Yippies would have freeformgatherings in Chicago public parks. Where the Democrats would debate foreignpolicy and what to do about the Vietnam War, the Yippies planned rock n’ roll concerts,workshops on draft resistance, and teach-ins. Where the Democrats would vote onPresidential nominees, the Yippies would proclaim Pigasus the Pig as their candidate.Abbie Hoffman imagined the festival as a “Constitutional Convention” with the goal ofenvisioning a new kind of society, with everyone welcome (Revolution 106-108). Rubinwanted participants to come to Chicago for a “multi-media experience,” a “theaterconvention”of Yippies, hippies, and other radicals thumbing their noses at the officialconvention of the “National Death Party” (“Yippees are Coming” 2). The officialdelegates would be sheltered inside the International Amphitheater by protective policebarricades, but Yippies planned to wander freely in the streets of Chicago, debating withwhoever happened by.The Yippies proposed a variety of specific activities: a march through the streetsto the Convention to try to talk to the official delegates, and workshops on guerrillatheatre, protest tactics, and how to avoid arrest. There were to be musical acts likeCountry Joe and the Fish, Arlo Guthrie, the Steve Miller Blues Band, and Phil Ochs, aswell as celebrities such as satirist Paul Krassner, and LSD-guru Timothy Leary (Rubin,“Yippees Coming” 2). Clearly they wanted to reach out to a vast swath of the Left inAmerica, including the hippies as well as the New Left political activists. They imagineda great crowd attending. One anonymous Yippie manifesto promised: “We’ll haveyippees dressed like Vietcong walking the streets and shaking hands like ordinary156