Gerry Maxey's 1969 BERKELEY TRIBE Essay on WOODSTOCK; He Was There

Once upon a time in Berkeley, there was an Underground newspaper called the BERKELEY BARB. Being Berkeley, it was not radical enough.

There was a strike at the BERKELEY BARB, and a new word order was created, THE BERKELEY TRIBE.

“The Berkeley Tribe was a radical  counter cultural underground newspaper published in Berkeley, California from 1969 to 1972. It was formed after a bitter staff dispute split the nationally known Berkeley Barb into new competing underground weeklies. In July 1969 some 40 editorial and production staff with the Barb went on strike for three weeks, then started publishing the Berkeley Tribe as a rival paper… It became a leading publication of the New Left.

Berkeley Tribe quickly positioned itself as more radical, counter-cultural and politically astute than Scherr's Barb; it soon became more successful, surpassing an initial press run of 20,000 reaching a high point of 60,000 copies by the spring of 1970..... The Tribe was published weekly from early July 1969 until May 1972; by that time the feminist-run newspaper went biweekly for its final issues, folding in May. Like the Barb it was sold on the streets of Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco by hippie street vendors; all staff were paid weekly with 100 copies which they too sold. .....

Original contributions included cartoons by Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton and Spain Rodriguez; ...poetry and prose from Marge Piercy and Diane DiPrima; feminist writings by Jane Alpert and Robin Morgan; and original works by William Burroughs, Gary Snyder, Timothy Leary....

Tribe reporters covered Bernadette Devlin's fractious fund raising tour on behalf of the Provisional Irish Republican Army; French New Wave film director Jean-Luc Godard's difficulties with his new film One Plus One about the Rolling Stones as well as his uncompleted film One P.M. and cinema verite; the world premiere of Woodstock in Hollywood; the gain of Native American pride with the seizure of Alcatraz Island by the American Indian Movement (AIM); the loss of hippie, flower child innocence at Altamont; the Yippie takeover of Disneyland; and the police murder trial of Los Siete de la Raza in San Francisco.The Oakland trial of Huey Newton was a weekly story and, later, staff covered the deadly shootout at the Marin County Courthouse, that killed a judge and the younger brother of George Jackson.”

Staff lived in a Berkeley Tribe commune on Ashby Avenue, including most production and editorial staff. The commune hosted numerous fellow travelers, bands, fugitives, film directors, and actresses including MC5, Jean-Luc Godard, Jane Fonda, Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Paul Kantner from the Jefferson Airplane, Pun Plamondon, White Panther Party co-founder with John Sinclair, and Hunter S. Thompson. The commune was a leased two-story residence above College Avenue, with a secluded backyard where the cover photo of the Tribe's well-known "Call to Arms" issue was staged. The commune served as a way station for leftist political fugitives and the base of operations for International Liberation School, a self-defense weapons training center that had a gun range in the Berkeley Hills. During the spring and summer of 1970, Berkeley Tribe became more radicalized, with the continuing war in Vietnam and assassination of black leaders. The paper earlier had published a Governor Ronald Reagan quote on its cover, If It Takes A Bloodbath, expressing his sentiment toward student radicals. Then Berkeley Tribe published the entire Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerrilla written by Brazilian revolutionary Carlos Marighella and Tupamaros, the first North American English-language edition. After this, the paper published a centerfold exposé on FBI infiltrator Larry Grathwohl, supplied by Weather Underground. 

Subsequently, the editorial offices of Berkeley Tribe were firebombed and staff were forced to barricade the taped front windows with stacks of old issues after shots were fired into the offices twice while the paper was in production....."

Before his initial meeting with  the stevedore/philosopher Eric Hoffer, this Blogger was highly regarded by the staff and forces within THE BERKELEY TRIBE.

Once this Blogger began to dabble in destroying the Soviet Union, for the benefit of mankind, he was ostracized and  hated by his former admirers.

This Blogger was at WOODSTOCK, in the mud, and dope, naked women and delusion.

He published an essay, which the BERKELEY TRIBE made its center fold.

This Blogger thought it was lost; however an old friend of this Blogger, informed him that the page had been digitally archived  by INDEPENDENT VOICES( link attached).

https://voices.revealdigital.com/?a=d&d=BFBJFGJ19690919.1.13&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-maxey%252D+berkeley+tribe+--------------1

From WOODSTOCK to now, what this Blogger has  learned is this….only Joni Mitchell has it right....and Carl Jung.

‘I've looked at life from both sides now 
From win and lose and still somehow 
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've looked at life from both sides now 
From up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all…JONI MITCHELL.”