Berkeley Liberation Program

Berkeley: n.pub, [196-]. Pamphlet. [8p.] staplebound pamphlet, 7.5x8.5 inches, vertical fold crease. According to an article in the Summer 1969 issue of Leviathan, a local movement newspaper, "The Berkeley Liberation program was written by several groups of Bay Area radicals and was first made public at the time of the People's Park struggle. It is one of the first efforts by movement activists to set out a more or less comprehensive political vision for the city in which they live and work...The particulars of the program are another matter. Already there has been much debate about the specifics of the thirteen points, their applicability to other areas of the country, or even their appropriateness to an expanding movement in Berkeley... The program is an effort by white, mostly male and university-centered radicals to define a working relationship with street culture, the women's movement and the extensive drop-out community which are major factors in Berkeley politics... aspects of the program represent both new developments in the Berkeley scene and sharp departures from the emerging political direction characterized by developments in SDS (the two Revolutionary Youth Movement proposals)." The program, which was also published in the form of a poster, begins by asserting that "The people of Berkeley must increase their combativeness; develop, tighten, and toughen their organizations; and transcend their middle-class, ego-centered life styles. We shall resist our oppressors by establishing a zone of struggle and liberation, and if necessity shall defend it. We shall create a genuine community and control it to serve our material and spiritual needs. We shall develop new forms of democratic participation and new, more humane styles of work and play. In solidarity with other revolutionary centers and movements, our Berkeley will permanently challenge the present system and act as one of many training grounds for the liberation of the planet.