ABSTRACT
The 1956 is of course a crucial year in the history of contemporary protest and rebellion. In California, the left activist Peace and Freedom Party is in alliance with the militant Black Panther Party, and the two campaign jointly and have issued joint posters, which can be seen in the windows of progressive people. In retrospect, the remarkable thing is not that some intelligent people became Marxists, but that some did not. On the poster, the symbols of the parties are represented: the dove and the panther. The mystique of violence of course fits in perfectly with a vision of revolution which is expressive and not at all instrumental: to think of consequences of a revolution would be as sordid as drawing up a financial marriage settlement. The inability to choose between quietest withdrawal and revolutionary activism, and the fact that the quietism is anything but quiet, are further indices of this giveaway ambivalence.
