Activist Tom Hayden has passed away
October 24, 2016 3:56 AM   Subscribe

Tom Hayden, member of the Chicago Seven, one of the founders of the SDS, politician and leading anti-Vietnam War activist has passed away at the age of 76. Link to recent NPR podcast from the DNC.
posted by HuronBob (53 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by coldhotel at 4:08 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by mondo dentro at 4:27 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by mikelieman at 4:33 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by octothorpe at 4:35 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by Joey Michaels at 4:35 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by Gelatin at 4:41 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by Sing Or Swim at 4:53 AM on October 24, 2016


He fought the good fight.

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posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 5:13 AM on October 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


Tom Hayden was my first political hero. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Students for a Democratic Society, the great New Left organization he helped found. The Port Huron Statement, written mostly by Hayden, was a revelation, and at times a real pleasure to read:

"We are people of this generation, in our late teens and early- or mid-twenties, bred in affluence, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit ... We seek to be public, responsible, and influential—not housed in garrets, lunatic, and ineffectual; to be visionary yet ever developing concrete programs—not empty or deluded in our goals and sterile in inaction; to be idealistic and hopeful—not deadened by failures or chained by a myopic view of human possibilities; to be both passionate and reflective—not timid and intellectually paralytic; to vivify American politics with controversy—not to emasculate our principles before the icons of unity and bipartisanship; to stimulate and give honor to the full movement of human imagination—not to induce sectarian rigidity or encourage stereotyped rhetoric."

He will be missed.

RIP.

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posted by young_simba at 5:16 AM on October 24, 2016 [17 favorites]


Always felt I was born too late, one of my childhood heroes. Here's hoping he's finally found Peace.
posted by goinWhereTheClimateSuitsMyClothes at 5:18 AM on October 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


Thanks for the post, HuronBob. Hayden first came to my attention as one of the Chicago 7 - past post on that, many links broken but some still available, along with commentary from some members who recall that amazing sequence of events from "annus horribilis": yippies, peace protests, police & Pigasus the pig

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posted by madamjujujive at 5:30 AM on October 24, 2016 [5 favorites]


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posted by Bob Regular at 5:34 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by Etrigan at 5:37 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by Mister Bijou at 5:43 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by lalochezia at 5:47 AM on October 24, 2016


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He was a hero to my activist Michigander parents who named me so that my initials are SDS.
posted by tractorfeed at 5:50 AM on October 24, 2016 [9 favorites]


You know if you pulled SDS pranks today you would be headed for a supermax prison at best and get your butt secretly renditioned to Poland at worst.
posted by bukvich at 6:24 AM on October 24, 2016 [4 favorites]


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posted by rtha at 6:28 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by kozad at 6:37 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by Thorzdad at 6:41 AM on October 24, 2016


If it wasn't for Hayden's advocacy for rent control I would not be able to live in Santa Monica. More than just a personal luxury (which it is, no doubt) it has allowed me to stay close to my mom as her health has declined, which probably kept her in her (rent controlled) apartment and out of a nursing home for three or four years. I don't believe in an afterlife, but if I did I'd be glad to know Tom would make sure it wasn't just for rich people.

And Tom, if you're reading this, you know that quarter you "borrowed" that time? That loan is forgiven.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:42 AM on October 24, 2016 [10 favorites]


bukvich, " prank"?
prank: a practical joke

We didn't see it that way back in the day. And, honestly, some of those "pranksters" did go to jail, or were killed.
posted by HuronBob at 6:46 AM on October 24, 2016 [6 favorites]


Here's to the good-hearted folk.

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posted by allthinky at 6:53 AM on October 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times (including once at his very modest home in Santa Monica) when I lived and worked in LA in the early 90s. Very nice guy. My condolences to those who knew him and loved him.
posted by terrapin at 6:55 AM on October 24, 2016 [4 favorites]


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posted by evilDoug at 6:56 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by JoJoPotato at 7:01 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by languagehat at 7:21 AM on October 24, 2016


Theoretic chaos has replaced the idealistic thinking of old--and, unable to reconstitute theoretic order, men have condemned idealism itself. Doubt has replaced hopefulness--and men act out a defeatism that is labeled realistic. The decline of utopia and hope is in fact one of the defining features of social life today. The reasons are various: the dreams of the older left were perverted by Stalinism and never re-created; the congressional stalemate makes men narrow their view of the possible; the specialization of human activity leaves little room for sweeping thought; the horrors of the twentieth century symbolized in the gas ovens and concentration camps and atom bombs, have blasted hopefulness. To be idealistic is to be considered apocalyptic, deluded. To have no serious aspirations, on the contrary, is to be "tough-minded."

Good stuff. Sadly still very relevant.
posted by freecellwizard at 7:45 AM on October 24, 2016 [6 favorites]


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posted by Cash4Lead at 7:49 AM on October 24, 2016



posted by rocket88 at 7:49 AM on October 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


One more Port Huron quote from the intro. The first sentence especially is really insightful.

Some would have us believe that Americans feel contentment amidst prosperity--but might it not better be called a glaze above deeply felt anxieties about their role in the new world? And if these anxieties produce a developed indifference to human affairs, do they not as well produce a yearning to believe that there is an alternative to the present, that something can be done to change circumstances in the school, the workplaces, the bureaucracies, the government? It is to this latter yearning, at once the spark and engine of change, that we direct our present appeal. The search for truly democratic alternatives to the present, and a commitment to social experimentation with them, is a worthy and fulfilling human enterprise, one which moves us and, we hope, others today.
posted by freecellwizard at 7:54 AM on October 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


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Also that was quite some post mjj. I advise anyone who wants a bit of recent history to check that out and also read the comments. Some interesting comments there.
Where are todays activist leaders I wonder.
posted by adamvasco at 7:55 AM on October 24, 2016


A lot of them are working in the Black Lives Matter movement and are being told that they are doing it wrong. Plus ça change.
posted by rtha at 8:03 AM on October 24, 2016 [8 favorites]


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posted by cazoo at 8:04 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by the_blizz at 8:09 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by mosk at 8:18 AM on October 24, 2016


• Shame to lose him.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 8:28 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by Splunge at 8:51 AM on October 24, 2016


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Relevant comment (particularly from a seminal radical) from this thread a few years ago ...

A few years ago, I stumbled (pretty much literally) into a talk that Tom Hayden (60s "radical", one of the Chicago Eight, Jane Fonda's ex,) was giving in Vancouver. Long story short, it was a low key thing, part of a book tour as I recall. But he did touch on one point of maturity (I believe he used that exact word) that it took him many years to arrive at -- that the only meaningful long term resolution of extreme conflicts comes from the moderates on both sides of a given divisive issue finding a way to work together.
posted by philip-random at 9:12 AM on October 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


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posted by suelac at 9:25 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by hortense at 9:35 AM on October 24, 2016


My heroes.

I called my Dad, and said, "Daddy I have been arrested." He laughed and asked, "What did they get you for honey?" I said, "Desecration of the flag. But I didn't desecrate any flag, I carried a flag I made, and it isn't an American flag." He said, "Ill be right down there to get you."

We walked into the Federal building, to get my personal property, (which I still have,) six FBI agents were lined up at ease with their hands behind their backs. My dad, an OSI agent, looked down the row of them and said, "You sons of bitches!" Then he turned to me, smiled beatifically, and said, "Honey, I don't agree with what you are doing, but I will defend, until my death, your right to do it." And we left.

I stole Abbie Hoffman's book. I loved the Chicago Seven as if they were my uncles of choice. RIP Tom Hayden.
posted by Oyéah at 10:00 AM on October 24, 2016 [11 favorites]


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posted by detachd at 10:36 AM on October 24, 2016


Aware of the problems, most of the solutions escaped us. Naivete sheltered us from ridicule. We watched in agony while our revolutionaries devolved into bead-stringers, and our heroes choked on the slogans.

Peace didn't have a chance, Tom, but anyhow thanks for the smaller things.

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posted by mule98J at 10:52 AM on October 24, 2016


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posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:09 AM on October 24, 2016


reading Jane Fonda's autobio, and having her talk about how much went to Hayden's pet causes, and how he might have been less pacifist at home, made him a bit of clay of feet situation, but at least he didn't fall into as much yuppie cliche ignominy as rubin or hoffman.
posted by PinkMoose at 11:22 AM on October 24, 2016


Brief coverage of Hayden's passing on today's Democracy Now! (at about 14:55, alt link, .torrent, transcript.)
posted by XMLicious at 1:09 PM on October 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


F.
posted by theorique at 1:17 PM on October 24, 2016


Oops - there's another slightly longer bit about Hayden at the end of today's DN! broadcast, at around 56:20. (transcript)
posted by XMLicious at 1:44 PM on October 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


I talked to him not long ago. He seemed fine. I also talked to another of the Seven/Eight, who was drinking tequila at 2 pm and...seemed like it. Very personable. That last one is still around. And they sort of hated each other by now? And, to hear their telling, were only incidentally allies back then? But still. Peace be upon him. They brought some truth and beauty into the world during grim days.

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posted by Zerowensboring at 6:31 PM on October 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


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posted by pjmoy at 9:22 PM on October 24, 2016


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posted by Obscure Reference at 7:55 AM on October 25, 2016


And on today's Democracy Now! (at about 11:45, alt link, .torrent, transcript) the full video of a speech Hayden gave last year at a conference in Washington, D.C., titled "Vietnam: The Power of Protest."

All DN! appearances by Tom Hayden.
posted by XMLicious at 12:19 PM on October 25, 2016


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