The Drug War, the Peace Movement, and the Legacy of Port Huron
Channel: Crumblestiltskin Gee
Date: 2015-06-11

Tom Hayden was the key writer for the Port Huron Statement, which is seen by most as THE document that helped define the politics of what was once called the New Left during the 1960s. He gave this talk at the 5604 Manor Community Center in Austin, Texas as part of a 50th year celebration of the document's creation. He also timed his visit for this talk at the same time as his interview with the Mexican poet Javier Sicilia for an article in The Nation. 

Javier Sicilia had initiated what was dubbed the Caravan For Peace- a core group of people who were direct victims or who lost loved ones as a result of the war on drugs in Mexico. They traveled across the US border to demand an end to the militarized approach to enforcing drug policy in foreign countries. Sicilia, who lost his own son in Drug War-related crossfire, states that the Drug War "has taken more lives, caused  more misery, more destruction of democracy, far more than the consumption of drugs has done. It is the opening of the doors to hell... The only ones who benefit from it are the criminals, the corrupt bureaucracy, the bankers who launder money protected by the state, and those who invest in prisons, the army, the police..."

The talk was given on 25 September 2012 and was sponsored by the New Journalism Project, a non-profit that publishes The Rag Blog and Rag Radio. 

Video courtesy of Crumblestiltskin Archives.