PASSINGS: STEW ALBERT

AMY MARTINEZ STARKE, OREGON LIVE - The Oregonian Stew Albert, a
co-founder of the theatrically unruly Youth International Party -- whose
members were more commonly known as Yippies -- and one of the last
remaining radical leftists of a colorful cohort that once included Jerry
Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, John
Lennon, Timothy Leary and Tom Hayden, died Monday in Portland of liver
cancer. He was 66. Mr. Albert was clubbed by police during the iconic
1968 anti-war Democratic National Convention riot, and was named as an
unindicted co-conspirator at the Chicago 7 trial; seven others were
indicted for conspiring to start a riot at the convention. The
prosecution read articles he'd written for an underground newspaper.

The Yippies were a political and cultural group which in 1968 advanced a
pig as candidate for president and in 1970 invaded Disneyland for a day.
In 1970, Mr. Albert ran for sheriff of Alameda County, Calif., but lost.
(He carried the city of Berkeley, though.)

A lifelong radical and activist, unlike many aging '60s radicals and
hippies who grew into careerists who worried about their own kids and
drugs, Mr. Albert continued to carry an idealistic torch for the 1960s,
marching, protesting, speaking and writing on behalf of radical social
change. . .

His memoir, "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?" -- so named because of a
question Howard Stern posed on his radio show -- was published by Red
Hen Press in 2005. "It's less a case of local boy makes good, more a
case of local boy makes trouble," Mr. Albert said.

http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1138677918136310.xml&coll=7


STEW ALBERT'S WEB SITE
http://members.aol.com/stewa/stew.html

DOUGLAS MARTIN, NY TIMES - Mr. Albert was not as famous as Mr. Hoffman
or Mr. Rubin, nor did he dream up the nickname for their Youth
International Party: Paul Krassner did. But Mr. Albert was a leader of
the Yippies, inasmuch as there were leaders, from before the formal
hatching of the self-styled gang of political absurdists in January 1968
until they faded away after Vietnam.

It was he who lectured the 82nd Airborne on the larger lessons of the
Lone Ranger during the March on the Pentagon in 1967, and he who caused
considerable laughter after Yippies were arrested after nominating
Pigasus outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968.
Afterward, he quoted a policeman's comment while he was in jail: "I have
bad news for you, boys. The pig squealed on you."

When it came to what were called New Left politics, Mr. Albert did not
miss much. He participated in demonstrations for free speech at
Berkeley; dropped money from the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange
to satirize capitalism; befriended Black Panthers; and was investigated
in connection with bombing the United States Capitol but never charged
with it. . .

Ms. Albert said the idea for the Chicago convention protest was to have
a rock festival, but that organizers were repeatedly denied permits.
Most bands, except for Country Joe and the Fish and MC-5, became uneasy
about potential confrontation and pulled out. The protests involved many
parties, but the Yippies got much of the publicity. Some leftists
resented them because they believed their antics trivialized serious
issues. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/01/nyregion/01albert.html?_r=1&oref=login