What Would Abbie Hoffman Do to Stop the Koch Brothers?

He levitated the Pentagon, brought down Lyndon B. Johnson, shamed Richard Nixon, challenged Wall Street and pioneered a cultural revolution.

Sometimes I still hear his Brooklyn meets Boston accent when I think about Abbie Hoffman, his family or his legacy. I directed Steal This Movie to capture what I consider to be Abbie's greatest gift: using satire and culture to impact and inspire people to take action. Steal This Movie was the last narrative film I did, and Abbie inspires me to this day.

Abbie died 22 years ago this month and that's got me thinking about what he would do to stop the Koch brothers.

Tell me at my Koch Brothers Exposed campaign Facebook page.

Remember when he nominated a pig for president at the 1968 Democratic National Convention? Whether it was the Vietnam War, income inequality or environmental causes, Abbie always struck the right note.

That's how I first heard his name. His action on Wall Street -- where he literally threw cash down to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange -- merged intrigue and interest with activism in a way no one had even conceived of. He believed in never making it boring, which is advice I've followed as a young New Yorker picketing and protesting lunch counter segregation at the Harlem Woolworth's, and later as a director and political activist.

But behind the strategic humor and laughs was a serious and lifelong conversation about the haves and have-nots. Abbie would be disgusted at how much money there is in politics today. I know he'd have a few zingers aimed squarely at the big corporations that have demonstrated they own what Abbie would refer to as "the whole pickle."

That's why I know Abbie would take on the Kochs full throttle. More than anyone else today, the Kochs have a thirst for unchecked power, and that's a trait Abbie detested.

That two oil scions could amass $43 billion in wealth and spend $324 million exerting political influence would have infuriated him. But it also would've inspired Abbie, because it is a fight about the lifeblood of our democracy, which is at stake today.

Let's make Abbie our muse as we think about ways to stop the Koch brothers quest to remake our democracy in their image. Our Koch Brothers Exposed and Brave New Foundation videos are meant to be equal parts informative, entertaining and engaging. It's a model with Abbie's fingerprints.

Thinking about Abbie today, I wager he'd acknowledge social media as the great force for democratization. He'd have an iPhone (after all, Jerry Rubin was an early Apple investor), he'd have a page on Facebook and would interact with critics, imitators and allies through Twitter. His YouTube channel would feature young protesters everywhere from Cairo to Madison, WI.

I can only image how his LinkedIn profile would read.

Tell me what you think Abbie Hoffman would do to stop the Koch brothers at my Koch Brothers Exposed Facebook page.

I invite you to join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

Let the exposing begin.

 

 

 

Follow Robert Greenwald on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robertgreenwald

Comments

[Joejackal]

04:47 PM on 04/30/2011

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KOCH BROS PRODUCTS TO BOYCOTT:

Angel Soft toilet paper
Brawny paper towels
Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
Mardi Gras napkins and towels
Quilted Northern toilet paper
Soft ‘n Gentle toilet paper
Sparkle napkins
Vanity fair napkins
Zee napkins

Lycra
Stainmaster Carpet
Georgia-Pacific paper products and envelopes
All Georgia-Pacific lumber and building products
Georgia Pacific Building products:
Dense Armor Drywall and Decking
ToughArmor Gypsum board
Georgia pacific Plytanium Plywood
Flexrock
Densglass sheathing
G/P Industrial plasters (some products used by a lot of crafters)-
Agricultural Plaster
Arts & Crafts Plaster
Dental Plaster
General Purpose Plaster
Glass-reinforced Gypsum (GRG)
Industrial Tooling Plaster
Investment Casting Plaster
Medical Plaster
Metal Casting Plaster
Pottery Plaster
FibreStrong Rim board
G/P Lam board
Blue Ribbon OSB Rated Sheathing
Blue Ribbon Sub-floor
DryGuard Enhanced OSB
Nautilus Wall Sheathing
Thermostat OSB Radiant Barrier Sheathing
Broadspan Engineered Wood Products
XJ 85 I-Joists
FireDefender Banded Cores
FireDefender FS
FireDefender Mineral Core
Hardboard and Thin MDF including Auto Hardboard,
Perforated Hardboard and Thin MDF
Wood Fiberboard -
Commercial Roof Fiberboard
Hushboard Sound Deadening Board
Regular Fiberboard Sheathing
Structural Fiberboard Sheathing
COMFOREL® fiberfill
COOLMAX® fabric
CORDURA® fabric
DACRON® fiber
POLYSHIELD® resin
SOLARMAX® fabric
SOMERELLE® bedding products
STAINMASTER® carpet
SUPPLEX® fabric
TACTEL® fiber
TACTESSE® carpet fiber
TERATE® polyols
TERATHANE® polyether glycol
THERMOLITE® fabric
PHENREZ® resin
POLARGUARD® fiber and
LYCRA® fiber

[centercentric]

02:21 PM on 04/26/2011

I think Abbie Hoffman would be satirizing the Koch's support of pro-business, anti-environment practices, and their generous philanthropy for such high-culture institutions as the New York City Opera and the New York City Ballet while funding lobbying and disinformation efforts that make Big Oil & Gas look good and concerns about air and water quality and climate change silly, misguided, and inconsequential.

He'd do so because he tried to, as a rabbi put it at his funeral, "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

[plcsail]

11:38 PM on 04/25/2011

A more apt question might be, "What would John Lennon do?" He was taken more seriously by more people than Hoffman was. He is sorely missed.

[StevieTheK]

10:16 PM on 04/25/2011

hey man, I bet if you go through all your old LP records, get all the double albums out and open them up, you can scrape together enough remnant acapulco gold to spark small size bone.

ahhhh, memories... they always seem better than they really were.

[JRsNana]

11:47 PM on 04/25/2011

I'll bet you're right. Great idea. Now I just have to remember where in the basement and in what box they all are.

[Tax the Rich]

07:46 PM on 04/25/2011

This is a GREAT new (old) perspective on things!!!!

We liberals (no, i will not let the Right redefine that term for me) have got to become MUCH more creative in getting our message out. We get lost in our belief that the best-reasoned approach wins. In an overcrowded sea of information, our puny Truths become lost.

The Right is kicks our a** at this!

Tea Party-- catchy name, short, easy to remember, funny outfits, outrageous comments. Sure thing to lead the news.

100,000 protesters, just like you and me, in Wisconsin-- Not so Much!!!

[Dr Gregory Evans Haley]

03:05 PM on 04/25/2011

We are on the verge of Social Media Revolution in this country and both the Corporate owned Democrats and Corporate owned Republicans are powerless to prevent it, though both seem hellbent on trying to influence it. It won't matter. When a war begins, the first tactical maneuver is always to disrupt the enemy's communications systems and/or control them. It's exactly what we did on the first day of the Libya campaign. But social media is resistant to such control by design, and when the people have an opportunity to talk and debate and organize, the rulers run scared. One needs only look to the attempts to destroy unions in this country for evidence. 2012 is going to be the year of the Social Media Revolution in this country, and the people are carrying smart phones instead of pitch-forks. But the end result will be the same.

[Piraticalsimian]

07:24 PM on 04/25/2011

Spot on. As for disrupting communications: I have to wonder why the good folks of A-non-ymous have not gone after the special interests that are trying to steal our democracy. Corporations only respond to their wallets, and a concerted effort to disrupt their operations would be the best first step in taking them down.

[Athelstane]

02:46 PM on 04/25/2011

Abbie Hoffman was one of many bad jokes from the sixties. Politically they reached their culmination in the dismal presidential candidacy of George McGovern. Their after effects include long term socialogical damage to the culture through legitimzing drugs, very casual sex, and all manner of self gratification. Politically they did substantial damage to the Democratic Party which hasn't toally recovered to this day.

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

03:04 PM on 04/25/2011

Chasing wealth and living a materially indulgent lifestyle is every bit as damaging.

[Athelstane]

03:26 PM on 04/25/2011

If you don't think the Left is materially indulgent, you don't know the Left I do.

[LMPE]

04:59 PM on 04/25/2011

Yeah, it's far better to let corporations write environmental laws and lock people up for possessing a mere seed of marijuana.

[UnitedStatesOfTara]

01:51 PM on 04/25/2011

I think Pigasus' time has come. Pigasus for president in 2012!

[Indigo1941]

01:11 PM on 04/25/2011

Stage a humongous Renaissance Faire with the Feudal Lords Koch as the target of (an authetically costumed) Peasants' Revolt for the Summer of 2011, 2012 and however long it takes to overthrow them, restore the Magna Carta, and confiscate their wealth for the IRS.

[Piraticalsimian]

07:28 PM on 04/25/2011

Theatricality, while motivational to the left, is just that: theater. If you can gather enough people to pull off a stunt like that, why wouldn't you go take over one of their corporate headquarters instead?

[Indigo1941]

10:56 PM on 04/25/2011

With paper swords? Theater is just the beginning . . . it conjures vision and motivation and then . . . we shall see.

[Chris Miner PhD]

12:35 PM on 04/25/2011

The question is more important than the answers. That is, what would Abbie and the rest of the Yippie brigade do today about all the so-called "conservative" spin that controls the American media, American politics today?

I think that's a very important question, because Obama won, big time, on an arguably progressive agenda and yet, within a few months, he had lost his initiative altogether. Although I'm not sure it would be entirely productive, I am sure that if Abbie were still alive, he would be giving more hell to Obama than to the troglodyte Republicans. As for the Koch bothers, jeez, the French Revolution had the answer here more than 200 years ago: Guillotine!

[JayMonaco]

12:49 PM on 04/25/2011

F/f for that!

[darcy]

02:02 PM on 04/25/2011

Totally second that!

[frank day]

12:52 PM on 04/25/2011

Well said.!

[JohnnyWalkerBlueLabel]

12:29 PM on 04/25/2011

I don't understand what the left has against the Koch brothers. I think they are just some concerned, and very successful citizens.

[pyro]

04:38 PM on 04/25/2011

Have another shot of scotch their buddy.

[sudzy]

04:53 PM on 04/25/2011

The Koch brothers inherited their money from dad. Dad was a founding member of the John Birch Society. Pretty clear what their agenda is.

[cla65]

11:12 AM on 04/25/2011

I'm sure he would use the same tactics lefties like himself have always used. Riot, destroy the working mans businesses and then go to jail. It's what libbies do best. They can't win using the rules the rest of us live by so they just destroy other peoples property and think they are for some reason popular for doing it. But of course when you have such a lame media covering all their garbage they actually think people side with them, when these very people they think love their violent actions would never even allow them in their front doors.

[JayMonaco]

12:50 PM on 04/25/2011

You're so right, cla65, those Koch brothers truly just follow the rules and live in accordance to virtue. Their private property is duly "earned" and they are exercising their constitutional rights by trying to mess up the entire country. He who has the gold makes the rules, after all.

Riiiight, brother.

[Athelstane]

02:40 PM on 04/25/2011

Yes, they do play by the rules. They donate money to political causes, just like George Soros and all those airheaded egotists of the Holywood Left. You're just mad because the side the Kochs have been donating to has been winning.

[booktone]

12:53 PM on 04/25/2011

You mean like when a small crowd of 750,000 protests the war, and the BBC covers it, but it's roundly ignored by our "Liberal" media?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2765041.stm

Our media is overwhelmingly right-wing, starting with 95% of talk radio and running right on through Fox News and CNN. "Liberal media" is a phrase based on a myth, but it comes in very handy when Fox wants to keep their audience angry or Ann Coulter needs to sell another book.

[AustinG]

11:01 AM on 04/25/2011

I find this campaign to attack the Koch brothers to be very strange. The left is funded by billionaires. How do you get outraged at the Koch brothers while George Soros is ok? I certainly haven't seen any evidence to suggest that the Koch brothers are more heavily active in politics than is Soros. It would be hard to imagine that it would be possible for that to be the case. So why the outrage?

[booktone]

12:40 PM on 04/25/2011

Because Soros uses his powers for good and the Kochs use theirs for evil. Not that I'm biased or anything......

[AustinG]

02:27 PM on 04/25/2011

Lol at that being a legitimate response.

[JayMonaco]

12:51 PM on 04/25/2011

Soros isn't trying to wreck the entire country.

[AustinG]

01:30 PM on 04/25/2011

Please provide evidence that Soros isn't and/or that the Koch brothers are.

[jones]

09:30 AM on 04/25/2011

He'd declare class war on big Corp.

[TJHOPE]

08:40 AM on 04/25/2011

Keep the fire burning, Robert. And thank for the work you do.