Jack Weinberg
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Jack Weinberg (born April 4, 1940) is an American
environmental activist The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...
and former
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
activist who is best known for his role in the Free Speech Movement at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, in 1964.


Youth

Weinberg was born in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
, on April 4, 1940, Reprinted from a ''
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'' article dated April 21, 2000.
and grew up there. His father owned a small jewelry business in Buffalo. He began college at the
University of Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...
. At age 21 he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in mathematics. He graduated in January 1963 "with great distinction". In the spring semester 1963, Weinberg continued at Berkeley as a
graduate student Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have ...
in the mathematics department, where he was a
teaching assistant A teaching assistant (TA) or education assistant (EA) is an individual who assists a professor or teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate students; ''undergraduate teach ...
. Weinberg's first participation in a political organization occurred in 1963, when he joined the Berkeley chapter of
CORE Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (laboratory), a highly specialized shared research resource * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber ...
(Congress of Racial Equality). Weinberg spent the summer of 1963 traveling in the South and visiting civil rights groups. He returned to Berkeley and began his second semester of grad school in the fall of 1963 but then withdrew mid-semester to devote himself full-time to civil rights activities. He became the head of Campus CORE. Weinberg remained in the Bay Area throughout the summer of 1964.


Free Speech Movement

In the fall semester of 1964, Weinberg was engaged in student activism at the University of California, Berkeley. On October 1, 1964, Weinberg was sitting at the CORE table in
Sproul Plaza Sproul Plaza is one center of student activity at the University of California, Berkeley. It is divided into two sections: Upper Sproul and Lower Sproul. They are vertically separated by and linked by a set of stairs. History Sproul Plaza as ...
. He refused to show his identification to the campus police and was arrested at noon for violating the university's new rules regarding student political activism. There was a spontaneous movement of students to surround the police car in which he was to be transported. They
sat The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...
on the ground around the police car, preventing it from moving. Throughout the night and into the next day, students, including Mario Savio, gave speeches from atop the car calling for
free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...
on campus. Weinberg, too, addressed the crowd from the top of the police car. At one point, there may have been 3,000 students around the car. On the evening of October 2, 1964, approximately 24 hours later, representatives of political groups on campus signed an agreement with the administration regarding student free speech, which was dubbed the Pact of October 2.1990 documentary film, directed by Mark Kitchell. Excerpt
can be viewed on YouTube
After being confined in the police car for 32 hours, Weinberg was then booked and freed as the agreement stipulated that the university would not press charges against him. But less than a week later, the
Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. A ...
District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...
did press charges against Weinberg. Because no one would sign a complaint, however, the case was dropped in mid-October. Jack Weinberg called his close friend, classmate and free speech supporter, John Wingfield McGuire (also majoring in mathematics) to pick him up from jail and bring him to John and Rosemary McGuire's house on Russell Street near Telegraph Avenue, where Jack began making phone calls to begin organizing the next critical steps in the free speech movement. The first meeting of FSM (Free Speech Movement) took place on October 3, in Art Goldberg's apartment. The first order of business was to choose a name for the organization (the name "Free Speech Movement" did not yet exist). Several names were proposed—Students for Free Speech, United Free Speech Movement, University Rights Movement, Students for Civil Liberties. Weinberg suggested "Free Speech Movement" and that's the name that was adopted, by a margin of one vote. FSM leader Mario Savio later stated that Jack Weinberg was the FSM's key tactician. Historian W. J. Rorabaugh calls Weinberg "one of the most effective civil rights organizers" and "the strategist behind FSM". An ''
Oakland Tribune The ''Oakland Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Oakland, California, and a predecessor of the '' East Bay Times''. It was published by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of MediaNews Group. Founded in 1874, the ''Tribune'' ...
'' photo from early January 1965 shows Weinberg speaking, alongside Savio, to a large campus crowd.


"Don't trust anyone over 30"

Weinberg is credited with the phrase, "Don't trust anyone over 30". The saying exists in several variants, such as "Never trust anybody over 30". Often misattributed to
Abbie Hoffman Abbot Howard Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponent of the ...
, Jerry Rubin,
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
, and others, Weinberg coined the phrase during a November 1964 interview about the Free Speech Movement with a reporter for the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
''. Weinberg later described the incident as follows:
I was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter, and he was making me very angry. It seemed to me his questions were implying that we were being directed behind the scenes by Communists or some other sinister group. I told him we had a saying in the movement that we don't trust anybody over 30. It was a way of telling the guy to back off, that nobody was pulling our strings.
text version
of this article is also online.
On November 15, 1964, the ''Chronicle'' printed the story, quoting Weinberg as saying "We have a saying in the movement that you can't trust anybody over 30." A ''Chronicle'' columnist, Ralph J. Gleason, highlighted the saying in his column on November 18. The saying then went viral, becoming a favorite for reporters and columnists wishing to ridicule the young, the New Left, or the
hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...
/ Yippie movement. That annoyed Weinberg, who has said:
I've done some things in my life I think are very important, and my one sentence in history turns out to be something I said off the top of my head which became completely distorted and misunderstood. But I've become more accepting of fate as I get older.


After FSM

Weinberg was active in leadership of the
Vietnam Day Committee The Vietnam Day Committee (VDC) was a coalition of left-wing political groups, student groups, labour organizations, and pacifist religions in the United States of America that opposed the Vietnam War during the counterculture era. It was formed in ...
(VDC), a coalition that organized rallies and marches opposing the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
.
text version
of this article is also online.
On Friday night, October 15, 1965, the VDC held an anti-war march that began at the UC Berkeley campus and was intended to end at the Oakland Army Terminal. The march left the UC campus at 7:52 p.m. after an all-day rally there. Marchers carried anti-U.S. foreign policy signs and chanted anti-war slogans. There were 10,000–14,000 people in the march. At the head of the march was a banner carried by a line of marchers, then a sound truck containing VDC leaders including Jack Weinberg, Bettina Aptheker, Jerry Rubin,
Stephen Smale Stephen Smale (born July 15, 1930) is an American mathematician, known for his research in topology, dynamical systems and mathematical economics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 and spent more than three decades on the mathematics faculty ...
, Steve Weissman, Frank Bardacke, and Robert Scheer. Also in the truck was the poet
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...
chanting the ''
Heart Sutra The ''Heart Sūtra'', ) is a popular sutra in Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the title ' translates as "The Heart of the Prajnaparamita, Perfection of Wisdom". The Sutra famously states, "Form is emptiness (''śūnyatā''), em ...
''. However, the City of Oakland had refused to grant the march a permit, and so Oakland police blocked Telegraph Avenue at the Oakland border with a
phalanx The phalanx (: phalanxes or phalanges) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar polearms tightly packed together. The term is particularly used t ...
of some 375 policemen. When the march neared the border, it came to a halt while the leaders considered what to do. Weinberg and Bardacke got out of the truck, crossed the police line, and met with Oakland Police Chief Edward M. Toothman. Weinberg and Bardacke could not persuade Toothman to let the march proceed into Oakland. So they returned to the sound truck and told the other VDC leaders. A fierce debate ensued about what to do; they voted 5–4 to turn back into Berkeley. Weinberg joined the Independent Socialist Club in 1966 and helped organize it into a national movement—the International Socialists—of which he was a national council member. Weinberg has said that the Stop the Draft Week protests of October 16–21, 1967, were
the first clear demonstration that the radical part of the Anti-Vietnam war movement was coming up against its own limitations. It didn't really have the weight in society to stop the war. I think that it was after that, that the Berkeley radical scene became more and more cut off from reality. And the question of moving American society, changing people really was getting lost. Transcript of 1990 documentary film directed by Mark Kitchell. This quote occurs at 69 minutes 56 seconds into the film.
Weinberg moved to Los Angeles to work as labor correspondent for a radical weekly
underground newspaper The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific rece ...
, the ''
Los Angeles Free Press The ''Los Angeles Free Press'', also called the "''Freep''", is often cited as the first, and certainly was the largest, of the underground newspapers of the 1960s. The ''Freep'' was founded in 1964 by Art Kunkin, who served as its publisher un ...
''. Becoming involved in the formation of the
Peace and Freedom Party The Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) is a socialist political party in the United States which operates mostly in California. It was formed in 1966 from anti–Vietnam War and pro–civil rights movements. PFP operates both as an organization unt ...
of California, he organized the registration drive that collected enough signatures to get the party on the California ballot in the 1968 elections. Weinberg served as the California state chairperson of the Peace and Freedom Party from August 1968 until November 1968. In November 1968, Weinberg was the Peace and Freedom Party candidate for congress in California's 26th congressional district election (
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
area); he received 3% of the vote.


Work in labor movement

In following years, Weinberg was a union activist. In 1973, he was a participant in
wildcat strike A wildcat strike is a strike action undertaken by unionised workers without union leadership's authorization, support, or approval; this is sometimes termed an unofficial industrial action. The legality of wildcat strikes varies between countries ...
s at
Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...
plants in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
, as a member of UAW (United Automobile Workers) Local 212. He wrote a book about those strikes. In 1975, Weinberg was the editor of ''Network, Voice of UAW Militants'' which was a new bimonthly magazine for members of the UAW labor union. He then moved to
Gary, Indiana Gary ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 69,093 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it Indiana's List of municipalities in Indiana, eleventh-most populous city. The city has been historical ...
, where he became a steelworker and was involved in the United Steelworkers union.


Work in environmental movement

In 1982, Weinberg led a coalition of environmentalists, unionists, and community members in defeating a proposal to construct a
nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...
in
Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
on
Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...
. He worked for
Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...
from 1990 to 2000. He then began working for the Environmental Health Fund. Weinberg is a consultant to groups seeking to clean up environmental pollution.


Personal life

He is married to Valerie Denney. Weinberg is a grandfather of three and has an
adjunct faculty An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is ge ...
position in public health at the
University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...
.


Notes


References


External links

* * (Article written by Weinberg and Gerson in September 1969 became a chapter in book that was published in 1972.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberg, Jack 1940 births Living people American Jews American free speech activists American environmentalists Activists for African-American civil rights Activists from Buffalo, New York UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Peace and Freedom Party politicians Members of the International Socialists (United States)