Bill Weinberg begins the interview discussing his youth in Jackson Heights, Queens and his traveling to Manhattan in search of counterculture. He discusses various strains of counterculture in the late-1970s New York: Yippies, post-1960s hippies, punk rockers, cannabis advocates, and Rock Against Racism. He discusses the scenes at CBGB and Studio 10. He describes activism-related travels protesting presidential conventions and for indigenous rights. He describes the "gringo trail" of American leftists going to Central America in the 1980s and his own travels in Chiapas and Guatemala. He discusses activism in the Lower East Side in the later 1980s to 1990s. Dimensions of this include the Tompkins Square Park riot of 1988, squatter culture, economic conditions and homelessness, neighborhood demographics, and contradictions between punk activism and gentrification. He discusses writing and editing for Downtown, High Times, Native Americas, and CounterVortex. He describes he scene around the Libertarian Book Club/Anarchist Forum, and gives an overview of different anarchist factions and their histories. His discusses his time hosting the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade (MORC) radio program on WBAI. He closes with some thoughts on the Arab Spring, the Syrian Civil War, the Rojava Kurds, and United States foreign policy
Hippies; Punk culture; Anarchism; Anarchists; Radicalism--History.--New York (State); Revolutions--Central America; Indigenous peoples--Civil rights; Jackson Heights (New York, N.Y.); Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.); Tompkins Square Park (New York, N.Y.); Weinberg, Bill; CBGB OMFUG (Nightclub); Newtown High School; WBAI Radio (New York, N.Y.)
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2025
Physical Description
51 pages; 1 online resource digital preservation master, mp3 file
Note (Biographical)
Bill Weinberg is a journalist, political writer, activist, and radio personality. His work and activism has focused on human rights, indigenous movements, drug policy, the environment, the Middle East, and opposition to war and authoritarianism. He is the author of the books Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico (Verso, 2000), War on the Land: Ecology and Politics in Central America (Zed Books, 1991), Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in the City and the World (Autonomedia, 1999), and other books on politics, the United States' international interventions, and cannabis. Weinberg has been an editor or regular contributor to Native Americas, High Times, The Guardian (New York-based left-wing publication), Project CBD, Cannabis Now, and The Village Sun. His work has appeared in numerous other publications and won awards from the Native American Journalists Association. His online news site CounterVortex covers issues related to human rights, ecology, democracy, peace, and the rights of indigenous peoples. Weinberg started CounterVortex as World War 4 Report following 9/11 and the United States' initiation of a new form of warfare in the Global War on Terror. Weinberg was a co-producer and on-air personality for the radio show Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade (MORC) from 1992 to 2011