First Published: Berkeley Barb, March 31, 1967.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
We think most of our readers will agree – it’s time to dump Johnson (Wallace or Lyndon) down the drain. And ”Chet’s” no sweat.
So that leaves us looking longingly to the left. To us they all look good.
But when you get behind the voting curtain there’s got to be a basis of choice. That’s where survival comes in.
That is, what do we stand to win or lose, to take a stand from the Berkeley Gaz, which is currently dipping into a barrel of red herrings to save its scene – we stand to win.
Playing it that way there’s little choice.
If you take electoral politics seriously, and want to help bring about immediate improvement in the Berkeley scene, BARB thinks these are the only sensible choices on April fourth:
Jerry Rubin, Robert Avakian, Howard Harawitz, J.B. Nielands, Robert Kaidenbach, Ron Dellums, Hazaiah Williams.
Take these names into the booth with you and you’ve a chance to win. You may even elect the first, like, Communist person ever in Berkeley, That’s making history.
If you feel like rationalizing, here’s some reasons:
The Socialist Workers Party candidates have more than achieved their proclaimed immediate goal, that is, to give us all some “political education.” They said at the start they weren’t out to win. But they taught us a lot.
Another candidate for mayor is Big Bill Miller, as a write in. His vibes are good, most good, and most in tune with BARB. But (sob) he cannot win – he said so from the start. Besides we need him a little while longer to PROVOke. Maybe next time Provo will prevail.
That brings us to Jerry Rubin, whose election could, in solid fact, make Berkeley a better place to live in, in the near future’
Jerry Rubin can win the mayoralty election. His campaign has demonstrated a serious concern for the immediate daily lives of Berkeleyans not remotely represented by the present city government.
To work for and vote for Jerry Rubin is right now the most effective way to hold back current Establishment attacks on Berkeleyans who look or act differently from white Chamber of Commerce standards. Charley Brown would have his teepee here if Jerry were Mayor, we’re sure.
We think your vote for Jerry Rubin is a vote for the best likelihood of immediate solutions to the most pressing local problems.
For parallel reasons, we ask you to vote for the candidates of the Community for New Politics.
Although the Socialist Workers Party campaign scores the most cogent points about the need for basic change in the structure of American society, we think immediate and desirable local change is possible through the election of the CNP candidates. This is not incompatible with longer-range, deeper-reaching goals.
The CNP candidates, like Jerry Rubin, can win office in this election. For City Council, we recommend that you vote for Robert Avakian, Howard Harawitz, and J. B. Neilands; for Auditor, Robert Kaidenbach.
Both the Jerry Rubin for Mayor campaign and the CNP endorse Ron Dellums for City Council and Nazaiah Williams for School Board.