Liberation

Liberation Magazine (1956-1977) was a monthly magazine, of the New Left compared with Dissent (magazine), and Studies on the Left.^[1]

Early days

"Liberation" was founded, published, and edited by David Dellinger, A. J. Muste from 1956-1975 out of New York. A. J. Muste brought funding from the War Resisters League.^[2][3]

For Bayard Rustin the magazine was a major commitment of time and energy, raising money and meeting every week with Muste.^[4]

He wrote to Martin Luther King,^[5] who later wrote for the magazine.

The New Left

The New Left positions of the magazine compared with Dissent (magazine), and Studies on the Left.^[6]

The magazine supported the Cuban Revolution, with the article C. Wright Mills' Listen Yankee,^[7] leading to Roy Finch resignation from the editorial board.^[8]

The magazine supported SDS, and anti-Vietnam War.^[9]

The magazine supported unilateral Nuclear disarmament, FOR organizers, and worked as a clearinghouse of activists, non-violence.^[10]

Louis Ginsberg father of Allen Ginsberg had a poem published in it.^[11]

Later

In the 1970s it became increasingly "collectivized." By 1977 was edited by Jan Edwards and Michael Nill out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Once Dellinger was gone, it went the way of most left publications of that era and concentrated on the personal as political. We lost track after 1977, but presume that it folded not long thereafter. For many years, though, "Liberation" was a thoughtful and provocative addition to the pacifist left. In addition to occasional theoretical pieces, it was also strong on investigative journalism. In early 1965, for example, it ran long articles by Vincent Salandria challenging the conclusions of the Warren Commission, and in 1975 it published an important article by Fred Landis on psychological warfare by the CIA in Chile. Dave Dellinger graduated from Yale and then did time for refusing to register for the draft in World War II. He has been arrested numerous times for pacifist demonstrations since then. Dellinger was a leading figure in the movement against the war in Vietnam, and at age 54 was the oldest member of the Chicago Eight, the group that was prosecuted for conspiring to get clubbed by police at the Democratic convention in August 1968. His recent autobiography is titled "From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter" (Pantheon, 1993).^[12]

References