Meet The Crusaders 1969-1979 - political activists

Interview, Oct, 1999 by Elise Harris

The last thirty years have witnessed some glory days of American and transnational activism, with causes and crusades from the street to the corporate boardroom to MTV. Here is one unscientific take on the high points

We all complain about the world's problems. But since the heady days of the late '60s, these individuals and organizations have combined creative minds, community, and capital to actually do something. The activism of the '70s was identity-driven and idealistic; '80s crusaders studied the ups and downs of big business, stealing the best of its advertising genius in order to target its abuses. In the last ten years, it didn't hurt to have Susan Sarandon at your demo, as causes harnessed celebrity power to reach mass audiences. In many cases, what started out being seen as radical eventually seemed rational. But if the goals had become reality, all of these heroic activists would have closed shop a long time ago.

LATE 1960s-1979

1. The National Organization for Women was founded in 1966 by Betty Friedan and twenty-seven other women, raising consciousness while fighting for equal pay and the Equal Rights Amendment. NOW is today the country's largest feminist activist network, with 500,000 members.

2. Muhammad Ali was one of the very first Vietnam draft protestors, insisting "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Coming from a hero, his sentiment lent spark to the growing antiwar movement. He and his wife are now leading the development of an $80 million community center for children in his hometown of Louisville.

3. Eunice Kennedy Shriver convened the first Special Olympics in 1968, marking the dawn of the movement to empower the disabled. The Games give participating adults and children a sense of pride and achievement. Winter and Summer Games are organized biannually, and training goes on year-round.

4. Armed with a grand sense of spectacle, Abbie Hoffman and his Youth International Party (YIP) arrived at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He was an anarchist, and the Yippies had come to nominate a pig for president and throw a music festival to offset huge antiwar protests. But after a several-day riot between protestors, police, the Army, and National Guardsmen, Hoffman and his compadres were tried for conspiracy as the Chicago Seven.

5. In 1969, four years before abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League was founded to do the laborious work of fighting state laws that restricted women's choices. NARAL is now the leading political lobby for reproductive freedom for women; their current focus is defeating George W. Bush's anti choice presidential bid.

6. A new generation joined the civil rights push when the Black Panthers were organized in the late '60s in Oakland, California, to arm black people against police brutality and to build practical community infrastructure. Led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the socialist, separatist group went to the people, serving up breakfasts for children, free health care, and a lot of self-defense training.

7. Reverend Jesse Jackson started People United to Save Humanity (PUSH) in 1971 to take up Martin Luther King's banner of equality for all, regardless of race or class. Jackson's career has in recent years spanned defending affirmative action and orchestrating the release of American prisoners of war in Iraq and Serbia.

8. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader's organization Public Citizen was founded in 1971 to take on the ills of corporate capitalism, from toxic waste to contaminated chicken. Current efforts span everything from campaign-finance reform to overhauling HMOs.

9. Since 1971, Doctors Without Borders has sent medical attention and international staff to bridge the healthcare gap between the First and Third Worlds. Their work is key to the survival of whole communities in the former Zaire and Rwanda, as well as orphans in Romania. They played a vital role in aiding the ethnic-Albanian refugees in Macedonia, and one of their original founders, Bernard Kouchner, has recently been tapped to head up the United Nations mission in Kosovo.

10. Native Americans' attempts at self-government and independence have been repeatedly foiled by the failure of national and state governments to live up to longstanding treaties and statutes. The Native American Rights Fund was founded in 1970 to negotiate issues like tribal sovereignty, official tribal recognition, hunting rights, and religious freedom.

11. Greenpeace, started in 1971, is the largest and most influential group battling for the preservation and restoration of the environment on a global level. One of the first environmental groups to apply direct action, they attacked plutonium shipments to South Africa, toxins in the Arctic, and farms with genetically modified pollution in the United Kingdom.

12. Since Millard Fuller pulled up his sleeves in 1976 (and Jimmy Carter's commitment in 1984), Habitat for Humanity has built over 75,000 homes across the world for low-income families.