Berkeley in the Sixties

Byrnzie

Good documentary. Some interesting parallels with the recent student protests in London, England.

Anyone know what became of America's student protest movements? Has it been completely swallowed up/co-opted by big business, or is there still some vestige left in some shape or form?



http://newsreel.org/video/BERKELEY-IN-THE-SIXTIES

1990 Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary Feature

Six years in the making and with a cast of thousands, Berkeley in the Sixties recaptures the exhilaration and turmoil of the unprecedented student protests that shaped a generation and changed the course of America. Many consider it to be the best filmic treatment of the 1960s yet made.

This Academy Award-nominated documentary interweaves the memories of 15 former student leaders, who grapple with the meaning of their actions. Their recollections are interwoven with footage culled from thousands of historical clips and hundreds of interviews. Ronald Reagan, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mario Savio, Huey Newton, Allen Ginsburg, and the music of Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead all bring that tumultuous decade back to life.

Its reflective and insightful analysis of the era - from the HUAC hearings and civil rights sit-ins at the beginning of the decade through the Free Speech Movement, the anti-war protests, the growth of the counter-culture, the founding of the Black Panther Party and the stirrings of the Women's Movement - confronts every viewer with the questions the 1960s raised, which remain largely unanswered.



Part 1: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0e8_1215331581

Part 2: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=77b_1215332542

Part 3: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=152_1215333264

Part 4: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=456_1215333855

Byrnzie

...though does anyone else find themselves cringing when they hear Joan Baez?

Her wet sentimental twaddle really rubs my fur the wrong way.

Jason P

I don't claim to know much about the subject, but I never saw and student movement protest groups when I was in college in the late 90's. I even lived on Berkeley's campus in the summers and most of die hard activists I saw (few and far between) were not even going to school there (and still living in the 60's, at least in their minds). Of course, this was prior to 9/11.

I think the threat of being drafted would fuel a movement more then anything. Granted, I'm eligible for the draft, but today's technology and the demise of large-scale infantry battles makes the threat of a draft pretty insignificant.

Godfather.

Byrnzie wrote:

Good documentary. Some interesting parallels with the recent student protests in London, England.

Anyone know what became of America's student protest movements? Has it been completely swallowed up/co-opted by big business, or is there still some vestige left in some shape or form?



http://newsreel.org/video/BERKELEY-IN-THE-SIXTIES

1990 Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary Feature

Six years in the making and with a cast of thousands, Berkeley in the Sixties recaptures the exhilaration and turmoil of the unprecedented student protests that shaped a generation and changed the course of America. Many consider it to be the best filmic treatment of the 1960s yet made.

This Academy Award-nominated documentary interweaves the memories of 15 former student leaders, who grapple with the meaning of their actions. Their recollections are interwoven with footage culled from thousands of historical clips and hundreds of interviews. Ronald Reagan, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mario Savio, Huey Newton, Allen Ginsburg, and the music of Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead all bring that tumultuous decade back to life.

Its reflective and insightful analysis of the era - from the HUAC hearings and civil rights sit-ins at the beginning of the decade through the Free Speech Movement, the anti-war protests, the growth of the counter-culture, the founding of the Black Panther Party and the stirrings of the Women's Movement - confronts every viewer with the questions the 1960s raised, which remain largely unanswered.



Part 1: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0e8_1215331581

Part 2: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=77b_1215332542

Part 3: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=152_1215333264

Part 4: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=456_1215333855

some of those activest from the 60's are probably politicans now and the rest just grew up and tought their children better..


Godfather.

ed243421

i forget
what year did the draft end?
kids (16-25) were different back then
imagine the size of the protests if they had the facebook or the twitter back then
a medium such as those would have changed the world
now, todays kids only use it to post pics of their wangs and tits
i think stricter parenting had a part in that generations rebellion
today, parenting sucks
kids are given everything
i also think kids have been "medicated" to keep them at bay
back then, kids smoked pot, tripped and got drunk
now, it's pills, pills and more pills
i think we all have been trained like pavlov's dog
trained response to any attempt to change the machine
jfk
rfk
mlk
kent st.
as humans, we have a history of rebelling against what is wrong
as americans, we have play station, porn on the internet,
and two and a half men
to keep us all occupied
learn to swim

we have the ability to separate right from wrong
but we choose not to
why is that?

_

We had a fair amount of protests when I was in college (mid-'90's - early '00's). If there are still many protests around here, though, I haven't heard about them. There was a big protest the night we invaded Iraq and the police used unnecessary, excessive force, teargassing a peaceful crowd that included small children and elderly people - and I think they got away with it. That may have caused some of the less die-hards to be afraid to engage in future protests.

Jeanwah

There seem to be regular peace rallys and protests in my area. The latest being a protest by students walking out of class at the NY State Universities in regard to increasing tuition. And I know the same thing happened in California last Fall when CA planned on increasing tuition there too.

I added the doc to my Netflix queue. Looks good.

Byrnzie

Godfather. wrote:

some of those activest from the 60's are probably politicans now and the rest just grew up and tought their children better..


Godfather.

Taught their children better? What's your definition of 'better'?

Did you watch the documentary?

Byrnzie

The people involved in the original Berkeley protests weren't a 'radical' fringe, they were the cream of America's young intellectuals defending the right of free speech as enshrined in the U.S constitution. There's an interesting part at the beginning of this documentary where the 'dean of the university'? refers to the university as a 'knowledge industry' and spouts off a bunch of statistics singing the praises of the university and it's contribution to what is effectively the military industrial complex. The students were regarded as mere tools in a box whose purpose of aquiring knowledge was to further the interests of big business. And it was this kind of thinking that finally pushed the students into a corner and caused them to stand up and protest.

Many of the protestors featured in the documentary later became teachers, and public officials e.t.c, though whether this means they 'grew up' and saw the light of conservatism as Godfather would have us believe is highly questionable.

Godfather.

Byrnzie wrote:

Godfather. wrote:

some of those activest from the 60's are probably politicans now and the rest just grew up and tought their children better..


Godfather.

Taught their children better? What's your definition of 'better'?

Did you watch the documentary?

no sorry I did not,i can't watch it at work it's blocked, I've seen protesters on tv here in san diego I've been stooped by the "save the whales" people at the grocery store,it seems I can't go shopping with out getting stooped by some nut that wants me to sign something and donate some money to help stop the worlds impending doom, this one time at the g-store some whacked out hippie from the 60's asked me to sign a petition to shorten term lengths for school board members I just chuckled a bit and said no thanks.

and by better I mean they realize that gathering in large groups and and making demands is for the most part a waste of time so they teach their children to become active in local government then move up from there to a place that their efforts have the respect from the people they want to reach unlike the dope smoking hippies and other groups that sit in the park or block an intersection with protest signs break windows loot local stores burn cars or shoot people then wait to get arrested, knowledge is power..not a protest sign.

Godfather.

Jeanwah

Godfather. wrote:

and by better I mean they realize that gathering in large groups and and making demands is for the most part a waste of time so they teach their children to become active in local government then move up from there to a place that their efforts have the respect from the people they want to reach unlike the dope smoking hippies and other groups that sit in the park or block an intersection with protest signs break windows loot local stores burn cars or shoot people then wait to get arrested, knowledge is power..not a protest sign.

Godfather.

Yet power in numbers absolutely DOES cause change. What I bolded is exactly what Egyptians did and it did cause change, or have you not been paying attention??!

Godfather.

Jeanwah wrote:

Godfather. wrote:

and by better I mean they realize that gathering in large groups and and making demands is for the most part a waste of time so they teach their children to become active in local government then move up from there to a place that their efforts have the respect from the people they want to reach unlike the dope smoking hippies and other groups that sit in the park or block an intersection with protest signs break windows loot local stores burn cars or shoot people then wait to get arrested, knowledge is power..not a protest sign.

Godfather.

Yet power in numbers absolutely DOES cause change. What I bolded is exactly what Egyptians did and it did cause change, or have you not been paying attention??!

this is America not Egypt and the situation in Egypt hasn't even started yet in my opinion,do you think that this "change" your talking about will change the coarse of history over night and that the way things have been done for all these years will just all the sudden get better with out any opposition from somebody, i hope it dose but the way things have been for hundreds or thousands of years kinda leaves me wondering what's next.

Godfather.

ed243421

Jeanwah wrote:

Godfather. wrote:

and by better I mean they realize that gathering in large groups and and making demands is for the most part a waste of time[/b] so they teach their children to become active in local government then move up from there to a place that their efforts have the respect from the people they want to reach unlike the dope smoking hippies and other groups that sit in the park or block an intersection with protest signs break windows loot local stores burn cars or shoot people then wait to get arrested, knowledge is power..not a protest sign.

Godfather.

Yet power in numbers absolutely DOES cause change. What I bolded is exactly what Egyptians did and it did cause change, or have you not been paying attention??!

waste of time?
this is how you country was founded

The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston's commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.

Godfather.

ed243421 wrote:

Jeanwah wrote:

Godfather. wrote:

and by better I mean they realize that gathering in large groups and and making demands is for the most part a waste of time[/b] so they teach their children to become active in local government then move up from there to a place that their efforts have the respect from the people they want to reach unlike the dope smoking hippies and other groups that sit in the park or block an intersection with protest signs break windows loot local stores burn cars or shoot people then wait to get arrested, knowledge is power..not a protest sign.

Godfather.

Yet power in numbers absolutely DOES cause change. What I bolded is exactly what Egyptians did and it did cause change, or have you not been paying attention??!

waste of time?
this is how you country was founded

The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston's commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.

good point Ed I'm glad you brought that up, today we'd never get away with that and the war in 1775 was fought with Guns not picket signs and sense then this country has moved forward some good and some not so good but for the most part we as a country have done pretty damn well especially considering we are less than 300 years old, why do think millions of people from every country in the world keep sneaking over here ?..it ain't for the food.
as messed up as our government seems today we still have a pretty good system, granted it can use some tweaking and adjustments but over all not so bad,so if you really want to make changes do it the right way and get involved with your local and state government or higher......I can't believe I just said that

Godfather.

ed243421

why do you think millions of people around the world despise us? it's not the freedom.
so many enemies in only 300 years. not so good.

Godfather.

ed243421 wrote:

why do you think millions of people around the world despise us? it's not the freedom.
so many enemies in only 300 years. not so good.

and yet they still come here anyway possible....why ?

Godfather.

Jeanwah

Godfather. wrote:

ed243421 wrote:

why do you think millions of people around the world despise us? it's not the freedom.
so many enemies in only 300 years. not so good.

and yet they still come here anyway possible....why ?

Godfather.

Not the haters.

Jeanwah

Godfather. wrote:

as messed up as our government seems today we still have a pretty good system, granted it can use some tweaking and adjustments but over all not so bad,so if you really want to make changes do it the right way and get involved with your local and state government or higher......I can't believe I just said that

The "right" way? It may be your way to get involved in politics in order to make change, but it's not THE right way.

Godfather.

Jeanwah wrote:

Godfather. wrote:

as messed up as our government seems today we still have a pretty good system, granted it can use some tweaking and adjustments but over all not so bad,so if you really want to make changes do it the right way and get involved with your local and state government or higher......I can't believe I just said that

The "right" way? It may be your way to get involved in politics in order to make change, but it's not THE right way.

and what is the right way ?

Godfather.

Godfather.

Jeanwah wrote:

Godfather. wrote:

and by better I mean they realize that gathering in large groups and and making demands is for the most part a waste of time so they teach their children to become active in local government then move up from there to a place that their efforts have the respect from the people they want to reach unlike the dope smoking hippies and other groups that sit in the park or block an intersection with protest signs break windows loot local stores burn cars or shoot people then wait to get arrested, knowledge is power..not a protest sign.

Godfather.

Yet power in numbers absolutely DOES cause change. What I bolded is exactly what Egyptians did and it did cause change, or have you not been paying attention??!

sure I'm paying attention


"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CBS correspondent Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob while covering the jubilation in Cairo's Tahrir Square on the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, the U.S. broadcasting network said Tuesday."

how about you ?

Godfather.

Drowned Out

Thoroughly enjoyed this doc, thanks Byrnzie First time I've actually enjoyed a poli-sci doc in ages...they usually frustrate and anger me ...so many popular movements born or finding traction in the area over only one decade. What a crazy time it would have been to be living down by the bay...

_

:? Civil rights movement? Anti-Vietnam? Women's suffrage? Not sounding familiar? :?

Jeanwah

Godfather. wrote:

Jeanwah wrote:

Godfather. wrote:

and by better I mean they realize that gathering in large groups and and making demands is for the most part a waste of time so they teach their children to become active in local government then move up from there to a place that their efforts have the respect from the people they want to reach unlike the dope smoking hippies and other groups that sit in the park or block an intersection with protest signs break windows loot local stores burn cars or shoot people then wait to get arrested, knowledge is power..not a protest sign.

Godfather.

Yet power in numbers absolutely DOES cause change. What I bolded is exactly what Egyptians did and it did cause change, or have you not been paying attention??!

sure I'm paying attention


"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CBS correspondent Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob while covering the jubilation in Cairo's Tahrir Square on the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, the U.S. broadcasting network said Tuesday."

how about you ?

Godfather.

You're ridiculous, man. :roll:

Jason P

ed243421 wrote:

why do you think millions of people around the world despise us? it's not the freedom.
so many enemies in only 300 years. not so good.

Possibly it's due to NASCAR and $0.99 cheeseburgers?

But really there is one region that really hates the U.S. and that is the Middle East. They hate us the same reason Kansas City Royals fans hate the New York Yankees. The Royals may have talent and prospects (oil), but sooner or later the Yankees will acquire those resources and win World Series while K.C. stays in the toilet. The only difference is that the Yankees don't pay K.C., they pay the players.

Don't hold my feet to the fire on this, but a lot of it could be envy. Of course two countries have reason not to like us (although I can only imagine the harmony that existed when the Taliban and Saddam were running the show). We have H.D. TV, air conditioning, a stable government, etc, while the middle east has oil and leftover butterfly landmines that the Soviets dropped.

:roll: (preemptive Jeanwah strike )

Godfather.

Jeanwah it's part of my over whelming charm and personality ....just kidding

Godfather.

Jeanwah

Godfather. wrote:

Jeanwah it's part of my over whelming charm and personality ....just kidding

Godfather.

Personality - yes, charm - ? :?

Byrnzie

Jason P wrote:

Don't hold my feet to the fire on this, but a lot of it could be envy. Of course two countries have reason not to like us (although I can only imagine the harmony that existed when the Taliban and Saddam were running the show). We have H.D. TV, air conditioning, a stable government, etc, while the middle east has oil and leftover butterfly landmines that the Soviets dropped.

:roll: (preemptive Jeanwah strike )

Ridiculous. You think people hate America because they're envious of you? No, they're not envious of you. That's just some juvenile nonsense concoted by the likes of George W Bush. The main reason you are hated is because of your foriegn policy, and your economic policy. This may come as a surprise to you, but people don't like being bombed and invaded. People also don't like it when the U.S interferes in their countries internal politics, and installs puppet dictators who are subservient to U.S economic interests.
It has nothing to do with anyone being envious of your bic macs, and your Nike Jordans.

Byrnzie

On the subject of documentaries, I just watched Oliver Stone's 'South of the Border' about the rise of Latin American leaders such as Evo Morales of Bolivia, Cristina Kirchner and former president Néstor Kirchner of Argentina, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Raúl Castro of Cuba, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Lula da Silva of Brazil, and Hugo Chavez.

Very good film about the rise of democracy in South America and the rejection of U.S imperialism and interference.