Abbie Hoffman Quotes
You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.
Hoffman, Abbie. The Best of Abbie Hoffman. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1989.
It became a slogan and rallying cry for Long and his followers.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 This is a classic example of a twisted logic what was used for many years in the 20th century Red Scare in America. The International Communist Party was critical of the United States legal racial segregation as it was one of the great weaknesses of U. S. Capitalism for most people in the world. The American Communist party also echoed the party line. Almost all socialist organizations supported the Civil Rights Bill as well. Therefore argued Russell and most Southerners, it should be opposed as a Communist effort to weaken America. What they did not mention was that the majority of Democrats and Republicans supported the bill. That the vast majority of all the American churches and other religious organizations supported the bill, that Business groups all across the country wanted legal segregation ended. The only reason there was a long debate is that the Southerners used the filibuster where a small minority could block Senate legislation. But the American majority was so great for civil rights that the filibuster was defeated and the law passed which changed America forever.
Campaigning for the U. S. Senate in Alabama in 1948. This was a remarkably courageous statement to make in 1948 when racism and segregation was rampant in the South. Potentially losing the election was a minor risk compared to the very real threat of the KKK and other racists physically assaulting her or killing her. Both were very common as lynching to intimidate opponents of segregation was a common occurrence.
Abbot Howard Hoffman, better known as Abbie Hoffman, was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponent of the Flower Power movement.
