Friday 10 April 2009

Chicago '68

by David Farber

At the Colosseum, for most of the night, approximately four thousand protesters, including an increasing number of young McCarthy workers, vented their spleen against LBJ. In a carnivalesque atmosphere, created in the main through the daylong preparations of Ed Sanders, local music groups played and speakers railed against LBJ, racism, and the war in Vietnam. "Fuck you, LBJ," the crowd chanted. And "Hell, no, we won't go." When Phil Ochs sang, "I Ain't Marching Anymore," people wept with frustration, anger, and bitterness. Draft cards and draft notices were put to flame while Ochs sang: "Call it peace or call it treason / Call it honor [sic] or call it reason / But I ain't marching anymore." David Dellinger told the crowd that they would march on the Amphitheater the next day. Shortly before midnight, Rennie Davis ended the show by advising the crowd to make their way in small groups to Grant Park, where they could greet the returning delegates in front of the network television cameras.

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