AN INTERVIEW WITH ABBIE HOFFMAN<\/p>\n
I first met Abbie at URI campus.<\/p>\n
He was not stoned. Surprising
\nthinking he’d just finished
\nplugging his new book, “Steal This
\nUrine Test”.<\/p>\n
He was lecturing about the
\nupcoming Student Convention at
\nRutgers this February. The crowd
\nwas — I dunno, about 600 people.
\nThey expected over a thousand, but
\nno one showed up cause it was a
\nThursday nite and you know how that
\ngoes at college. The kegs start
\nabout 4pm thursday and go til
\nsunday morning around 1am.
\n Anyways, those who gave up the
\nkeggin for a day got to see quite
\nthe riot. He was cussin and rantin
\nand ravin about how much Raygun
\nReagan’s gonna fuck things up on
\nhis way out. You know, make a
\nparking lot out of Iran, spend all
\nour money, fuck fawn hall, etc,
\netc.
\n I asked him if the newspapers had
\nthe right to say we’re at war right
\nnow, and he said, “if you call
\n10,000 guatemalan Indians dying
\nevery month by american bullets a
\nwar, go for it.”
\n Abbie’s tryin to get a bunch of
\nus college aged people down to
\nRutgers University this february
\nand we’re all gonna lock ourselves
\nin this building for three days and
\nrewrite the U.S.
\nconstitution.
\n Then we’re gonna get this
\nhighschool girl to stand up in the
\nMiddle of the presidential debates
\nnext year and demand that if the US
\ndoesnt vote on the new Constitution
\nbefore we vote for a new president,
\n40,000 fuckin teenagers are gonna
\nblow up every large city in the US
\nin the next three weeks.
\n Well, ok, not that harsh, but
\nthey’re gonna stand up and take
\nnotice when a bunch of “heads” have
\nthe brains to all of a sudden do
\nsomething just as politically
\nradical; get involved!!! So,
\nanyways, Abbie takes me and a
\ncouple kids to this bar in
\nWakefield and gets us cocked. Then
\nwe ask him questions and he ignores
\nus and watches the Chicago Bears
\nget the shit kicked out of them on
\na 19inch tv.
\n After the game we talk politics
\nagain. We ask him who he’s
\nfollowing for the 88 election, and
\nhe tells us “who the fuck cares.”
\n “Politics is every day, man,”
\nAbbie says. “Not just who’s gonna
\nwin in four years, or who should be
\ntown counselor. Politics is your
\nroomates, your friends, your stupid
\nteachers that have no clue.”
\n “Well how the hell do we get the
\nrest of America involved.”
\n “It’s not a thing of the rest of
\nem. The average person in amerika
\ncould give a shit about this.
\nThey’re busy working at the
\nshipbuilding plant, coming home and
\nwatching Three’s Company, beating
\n their wife, and kicking their
\ndog.
\n Abbie’s a radical fuckin dude,
\nthat’s all I have to say. He’s the
\nfirst person I’ve met who isn’t
\nafraid to tell a cop he’s a pig
\nright to his face.
\n You know, the only person alive
\nwith the balls to walk into the
\nPhiladelphia Utilities company and
\nsay,
\n “you charge too much fuckin
\nmoney. Rip up the wiring to my
\nhouse, I’m buildin a fuckin
\nwindmill.”
\n HE DID.
\nthe end, julie. all right?<\/p>\n
OK, I was at a Dunkin Donuts and
\nI wrote that part right from my
\nhead. Here’s some exact quotes from
\nmy notes which I didnt have with me
\nat the time.<\/p>\n
HOW CAN OUR YOUTH GET SOME
\nIMMEDIATE RESULTS IN AN AMERICA
\nWHERE KIDS ARE APATHETIC? THEY
\nTHINK THERE’S NOTHING THEY CAN DO
\nIN THE POLITICAL PROCESS.<\/p>\n
Rutgers. Rutgers is where you have
\nto go. Right now there are about
\n3,000 students around calling
\nthemselves activists.
\n I know, because I see more
\nactivists than anybody in the
\ncountry. My own kids are activists,
\nI see them all the time.
\nBUT WHAT ABOUT SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO
\nGET MORE INVOLVED THAN FOR ONE
\nEVENT; ONCE A YEAR SAY, OR EVERY 4
\nYEARS.<\/p>\n
Politics is not something you go to
\nthe booth and pull the party lever
\nfor. It’s something you do every
\nday.
\nHOW CAN A BUDDING JOURNALIST HELP
\nTHE YOUTH SEE THAT.
\nListen, you’ve gotta get people
\nthinking that politics is a way of
\nlife. The way they act all the
\ntime. Then you’ve gotta get em
\nthinkin, “forget about the
\npresident; let’s talk about the
\ncity council…
\nHOW DO YOU GET THE GENERAL PUBLIC
\nMORE AWARE.
\nThe general public is not involved.
\nThe General Public doesnt make
\nchange.
\n First thing you do is knock out
\nof your vocabulary and mind, the
\nidea of nobody and everybody.
\nBecause you’re not taking gallup
\npolls all the time. You’re talking
\nto your roomate, your friends.
\n For social change, you need that’s all.
\nHOW DO I PREPARE FOR RUTGERS
\nThe philadelphia electric company
\nis upset with me because I’m not
\njust blowin windmills. They know
\nI’m one fuck of an organizer. And
\nI’m willing to risk everything.
\n That’s the mentality you gotta
\ndevelop. Not who you gonna vote
\nfor. You’ve gotta say, how do we
\nget block booking now or how do we
\nget the cars together, what points
\nare we gonna raise, are we just
\ngonna go there to bullshit to argue
\nthat local organizing’s more
\nimportant or we need a black woman
\nlesbian leader the first time who’s
\nagainst a vegitarian cabbage kid
\nsupporting arms struggle; is that
\nwhat you’re gonna do? Stay home!!!
\n If you’re gonna go to really
\nwrestle with the problems of
\ndecision making, of leadership,
\nwith some idea of politics and how
\nit works, a give and take, a
\ncompromise, then you go to Rutgers
\nand build the organization. You
\nwill change how the world looks at
\nyoung people in America. And you’ll
\nchange history.
\nDO YOU THINK THE PRESS SHOULD BE
\nALLOWED TO SAY WE’RE AT WAR RIGHT
\nNOW?
\nThink about 1 million Indians in
\nGuatemala killed or driven out of
\ntheir homes; are we at war?
\nDO YOU THINK CENSORSHIP IS OK.
\nI do think at times of war, the
\nreality overcomes some of your
\nideals; but write away.<\/p>\n
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