1968: Chicago 7 Trial

MR.WEINGLASS: Will You please state your name?

THE WITNESS: Ed Sanders.

MR. WEINGLASS: Where do you reside?

THE WITNESS-.  In the Lower East Side of New York City.

MR. WEINGLASS: Prior to residing in the Lower East Side where did you lives

THE WITNESS: In Jackson County, Missouri.

MR. WEINGLASS: Do you recall what it was that brought you from Jackson County, Missouri to New York?

THE WITNESS: Reading Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" in shop class in high school in 1957.

MR. WEINGLASS: Mr. Sanders, could you indicate to the Court and to the jury what your present occupation is?

THE WITNESS: I am a poet, songwriter, leader of a rock and roll band, publisher, editor, recording artist, peace-creep--

MR. SCHULTZ: What was the last one, please?

THE COURT: Peace-creep?

THE WITNESS: Yes, sir.

THE COURT: Will you please spell it for the reporter?

THE WITNESS: P-E-A-C-E, hyphen, C-R-E-E-P.

THE COURT: Peace-creep, Mr. Schultz.

THE WITNESS [continuing] --and yodeler.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now in connection with your yodeling activities

MR. SCHULTZ: Your Honor, this is all very entertaining but it is a waste of time.  We don't have to do anything in connection with his yodeling to get to the issues in this case.

THE COURT: You may finish your question.

MR. WEINGLASS: Mr. Sanders, can you identify these two items?

THE WITNESS: They are two phonograph records.  The records were produced by me, by the group, The Fugs, of which I am the leader and head fug, so to speak.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, Mr. Sanders, have you also written a book about the Yippies?

MR. SCHULTZ: Leading, objection.

THE WITNESS: Yes.

THE COURT: I sustain the objection.

Mr. Witness, will you wait when there is an objection so that I can indicate my view of the objection?  Will you do that?

THE WITNESS: I'll try.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, directing your attention to the latter part of November in the year of 1967, did you have occasion to meet with any of the defendants seated here at the counsel table?

THE WITNESS: I met with Jerry Rubin.  There was a conference at the Church Center for the UN in New York City.

MR. WEINGLASS: And at the time of that meeting did you have a conversation?

THE WITNESS: Yes.  I mentioned the Monterey Festival, which was a free festival featuring all the rock bands in America.  Mr. Rubin said it was inspirational that some of the major rock bands in America were willing to play for free at a large tribal-type gathering of people, and I said it was really great and that we should consider convening something for the following summer or in the following year of a similar nature, that is, a free rock festival composed of all the major rock bands in America.

Then Keith Lampe said, "Why don't we hold it next summer, you know, sometime in August?" And it was agreed-at that point everybody decided it would be a wonderful idea to have a free rock festival denoting the new life styles emerging, and that we would get in touch with Abbie Hoffman and other people and have a meeting right away.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, directing your attention to the evening of January 4, 1968, do you recall where you were on that evening?

THE WITNESS: Yes.  I went to Jerry Rubin's house in New York City to get briefed on a meeting that had taken place.

MR. WEINGLASS: What took place at that meeting you had with Jerry Rubin?

THE WITNESS: Well, first we had a period of meditation in front of his picture of Chi on the wall for a half hour.

THE COURT: Picture of whom?

THE WITNESS: Che, Che Guevara.  Che, the great revolutionary leader.

THE COURT: Oh.  Would you spell it for the reporter.

THE WITNESS: C-H-E.

Then we practiced for about a half hour toughening up our feet walking around in Baggies full of ice, and then Jerry informed me about the circumstances of the meeting that had taken place, forming the Youth International Party, and that it was decided to hold a free rock festival in Chicago during the time of the Democratic National Convention, and that the convening would be a convening of all people interested in the new politics, guerilla theater, rock and roll, the convening of the hemp horde from all over the various tribes in the United States.  I was asked by Jerry if I would help coordinate, since I knew the major rock groups in the United States, if I would contact them and ask them if they would play.

I said I would be happy to and that I would proceed forthwith in contacting these major rock groups, and that I did.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, had you ever discussed with either Jerry Rubin or Abbie Hoffman in person your contacts with these major rock groups?

THE WITNESS: Yes.

MR. SCHULTZ: Your Honor, would you please ask Mr. Weinglass not to ask leading questions, not to lead the witness?

We keep on getting up and getting up.  It becomes embarrassing.  For people who don't know the legal rules, it looks very bad for the Government to constantly be getting up.

THE COURT: I appreciate that, Mr. Schultz.

MR. SCHULTZ: I am begging--I am begging defense counsel to ask questions properly.

THE COURT: Don't beg.

MR. SCHULTZ: That is what it is.

THE COURT: Don't beg.  You needn't beg.  I will order them not to ask leading questions.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, directing your attention to March 27, do you recall where you were in the evening of that day?

THE WITNESS: I was at my home in the Lower East Side.

MR. WEINGLASS: What, if anything, occurred while you were at home that evening?

THE WITNESS: I received a phone call from Jerry Rubin.

MR. WEINGLASS: Could you indicate to the Court and to the jury what the conversation was that you had with Jerry Rubin on the telephone that night?

THE WITNESS: Well, he said that he was very--he had gone to Chicago and that they had placed a petition for a permit, filled out the necessary forms with the necessary officials in Chicago.

Then I said to him, "I hear that you're thinking about nominating a pig for President, an actual pig, oinky-oink, you know, Pigasus, the Immortal."

Then I said--well, I let it be known, as a pacifist and a vegetarian, I had heard there was a faction within the hippie hemp horde that was advocating a big pig roast after the election at which point the pig would be made into bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, and that I was a spokesman for the vegetarians and I was opposed, philosophically opposed to this.

And so it was agreed tentatively at that point that there would be no bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches made of our presidential candidate.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, directing your attention to the date of August 7, at approximately nine o'clock that evening, do you recall where you were on that date and at that time?

THE WITNESS: Yes, I was in an interior office somewhere near Mayor Daley's office for a meeting with Al Baugher, David Stahl, Richard Goldstein, myself, Jerry, Abbie, Krassner, I guess.

MR. WEINGLASS: Do you recall what was said at that meeting?

THE WITNESS: I addressed Mr. Stahl and Mr. Baugher, saying that for many months we had planned a Festival of Life with the basis of free music and that I had negotiated with rock groups and singing groups to come to Chicago on that basis and that we needed permits, and we needed the use of the park for our various festival activities.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, what, if anything, were you doing during the course of that meeting?

THE WITNESS: I was making notes for a document that had been requested by various editors and people about the Yippie program for the Festival of Life.  You know, poetic rendering of it.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, I show you D-252 for identification, and I ask you if you can identify that document.

THE WITNESS: Yes.  I wrote it.  I mailed it out to various editors and publishers who had requested me for a statement.

MR. WEINGLASS: Your Honor, the defense offers Defendants' Exhibit D-252, identified by the witness.

Now, how many paragraphs appear on that document?

THE WITNESS: Eighteen.

MR. WEINGLASS: And could you read to the jury those paragraphs which are marked.

THE WITNESS: "Predictions for Yippie activities in Chicago:

"A.  Poetry readings, mass meditation, fly casting exhibitions, demagogic Yippie political arousal speeches, rock music and song concerts will be held on a precise timetable throughout the week, August 25 to 30.

"A dawn ass-washing ceremony with tens of--

THE COURT: I didn't hear that last.

THE WITNESS: Excuse me.

"A dawn ass-washing ceremony with tens of thousands participating will occur each morning at 5:00 A.m., as Yippie revelers and protesters prepare for the 7:00 A.M. volleyball tournaments.

Three --oh, no, five, excuse me.

"The Chicago offices of the National Biscuit Company will be hi-jacked on principle to provide bread and cookies for 50,000 as a gesture of goodwill to the youth of America.

"The Yippie ecological conference will spew out an angry report denouncing Chi's poison in the lakes and streams, industrial honkey fumes from white killer industrialists and exhaust murder from a sick hamburger society of automobile freaks with precise total assault solutions to these problems.

"Poets will rewrite the Bill of Rights in precise language detailing 10,000 areas of freedom in our own language to replace the confusing and vague rhetoric of 200 years ago.

"B. Share your food, your money, your bodies, your energy, your ideas, your blood, your defenses.  Attempt peace.

"C. Plan ahead of time how you will probably respond to various degrees of provocation, hate and creep vectors from the opposition."

MR. SCHULTZ: I didn't get that.  Creep what?

THE WITNESS: It is a neologism.  Creep vectors.

"D. Learn the Internationale.

"E. Bring sleeping bags, extra food, blankets, bottles of fireflies, cold cream, lots of handkerchiefs and canteens to deal with pig spray, love beads, electric toothbrushes, see-through blouses, manifestos, magazines, tenacity.

"Remember we are the life forms evolving in our own brain." . . . .

MR. WEINGLASS: I have no further questions.

THE COURT: All right.  Is there any cross-examination of this witness?

MR. SCHULTZ: Yes, your Honor.

MR., SCHULTZ: Now, you said, I think: that on January 4, 196 8, you went to Rubin's house, is that right?

THE WITNESS: Yes.

MR. SCHULTZ: And that you meditated before a picture of Che Guevara, is that right?

THE WITNESS: Yes.

MR. SCHULTZ: Is this the same Che Guevara who was one of the generals of Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution?

THE WITNESS: Yes.

MR. SCHULTZ: How long did you meditate before his picture?

THE WITNESS: About a half hour.

MR. SCHULTZ: In Mr. Stahl's office on August 7, did you hear Hoffman say that the Festival of Life that you were discussing with Deputy Mayor Stahl and Al Baugher would include nude-ins at the beaches, public fornications, body painting, and discussions of draft and draft evasion?  Did you hear that?

THE WITNESS: Nudism, draft counseling, the beach thing, but he didn't use the word "public fornication."

MR. SCHULTZ: He didn't use that word.  What word did he use in its place?

THE WITNESS: Probably fuck-in.

MR. SCHULTZ: This was a very important meeting for you, was it not, because if you didn't get the permit, there was a possibility that your music festival would be off, isn't that right?

THE WITNESS: The concept of the meeting was important; the substance turned out to be bilious and vague.

MR. SCHULTZ: And you wanted those permits badly, did you not?

THE WITNESS: We sorely wanted them.

MR. SCHULTZ: While you were writing this document, you were also listening to what was going on at the meeting, weren't you?

THE WITNESS: I was keeping an ear into it.

MR. SCHULTZ: Will you read number four of that document, please.

THE WITNESS: Four.

OK.

Psychedelic long-haired mutant-jissomed peace leftists will consort with known dope fiends, spilling out onto the sidewalks in pornape disarray each afternoon."

MR. SCHULTZ:  Would you read eight, please?

THE WITNESS: "Universal syrup day will be held on Wednesday when a movie will be shown at Soldiers Field in which Hubert Humphrey confesses to Allen Ginsberg of his secret approval of anal intercourse."

MR. SCHULTZ: Will you read nine, please.

THE WITNESS: "There will be public fornication whenever and wherever there is an aroused appendage and willing apertures"

MR. SCHULTZ: Did you read thirteen?

THE WITNESS: You want thirteen read?  "Two-hundred thirty rebel cocksmen under secret vows are on 24-hour alert to get the pants of the daughters and wives and kept women of the convention delegates."

MR. SCHULTZ: Did you ever see these principles, or whatever they are, published in any periodical?

THE WITNESS: Yes, a couple.

MR. SCHULTZ: They were published before the Convention began, weren't they?

THE WITNESS: Right.  Before.

MR. SCHULTZ: I have no more questions, your Honor.

(http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/Sanders.html)