Lee Weiner: Difference between revisions

Lee Weiner
Lee Weiner
	Chicago, February 11, 1970
Born	1939 (age 84–85); Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Education	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (BA); Hebrew University; Loyola University, Chicago (MSW); Northwestern University (PhD)

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Lee Weiner (born 1939) is an author and member of the Chicago Seven who was charged with "conspiring to use interstate commerce with intent to incite a riot" and "teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices that would be used in civil disturbances"^[1]^[2]^[3] at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He was acquitted of all charges by the jury and convicted on seven charges of criminal contempt that were later overturned on appeal. In 2020, Weiner published a memoir, Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7.

Early life and education

Lee Weiner was born in 1939^[4]^: 13 and raised on the South Side of Chicago.^[4]^{: 13–14, 20} Weiner is the only member of the Chicago Seven from Chicago.^[3]^[5] When the trial of the Chicago Seven began in September 1969, Weiner was a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant at Northwestern University, had previously graduated from the University of Illinois, studied political philosophy at Hebrew University of Jerusalem,^[6] and earned a master's degree in social work from Loyola University's School of Social Work in Chicago.^[7] At Northwestern University, Weiner worked for Howard S. Becker as a research assistant.^[8]

As a caseworker, Weiner witnessed dire poverty in Black neighborhoods, and wrote in his memoir, "Every day ... the work I did drove punishing truths into my head about what was wrong in America."^[9]

At the 1968 Chicago demonstrations, Weiner served as a marshal with the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.^[10] In 2018, Weiner told Olivia Waxman of TIME magazine that "On Aug[ust] 28, during the huge battle on Michigan Avenue with the National Guard, I separated myself from the crowd to stand on the steps of the Art Institute and watch the crowd of people. It was the only time in my life I thought a revolution might happen in the United States."^[11]

Trial

First dubbed the "Conspiracy 8" and later the "Chicago 7", the defendants included Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale, as well as "little-known community activist and social worker" Lee Weiner.^[12]^[13] Each of the defendants contributed an essay to the 1969 book, "The Conspiracy," edited by Peter Babcox and Deborah Abel. In Weiner's essay, "The Political Trial of a People's Insurrection", Weiner writes:

Using the artificial, state-controlled rules of the court, the U.S. government's prosecutors and judge will attempt to interpret the people's insurrection in Chicago as the private and deliberate manipulation of eight evil men. The government will be desperate to play down the independent action of thousands of people who openly resisted illegitimate political and police power. The trial, therefore, must blur and soften the contours of what actually happened, and instead focus upon and magnify the roles of these eight men in particular. The alternative image – one of a popular insurrection rooted in the experience and desires of people that was put down by the deliberate exercise of state-controlled violence – too clearly focuses public attention on what America is all about. The government effort is intended to punish and frighten a growing, insurgent mass movement of both the young and concerned adults, and to protect the official myths of political reality in America.^[14]

J. Anthony Lukas described Weiner as "a strangely remote figure who shunned most of the defendants' extracurricular activities."^[15]^[3] According to Professor Douglas Linder at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law, "Weiner rarely attended defense strategy sessions, perhaps out of a belief that their cause was hopeless. He spent most of his trial hours reading science fiction paperbacks or books on eastern philosophy. Weiner reacted to few courtroom developments, viewing the proceedings with a mixture of scorn and amusement."^[15] During the trial, a poster that said "Make a New Year's Revolution, Kids!"^[16] featuring Weiner and his girlfriend at the time, Sharon Avery, nude and with lights in their hair, was distributed "to the young people waiting out on the cold to sit in on our trial to thank them for supporting us," according to Weiner.^[11]

Groucho Marx was asked to testify at the trial, and Weiner wanted him to teach the courtroom about satire; Groucho said it would be "an honor" but declined, thinking his last name would bias the judge against him.^[9] According to Weiner, towards the end of the trial, "there was no question we would be put in jail. I ended up going, mostly for correcting my name. People always pronounced it Wee-ner. It's Wye-ner. When the judge would say Wee-ner, I would shout out, "It's Wye-ner," and he got pissed off and charged me with contempt, which was a perfect summary of my political stance. I was sentenced to two and a half months."^[17]^[18] While the jury deliberated, the judge cited the defendants and their lawyers for 159 counts of criminal contempt; Weiner was convicted on seven charges of criminal contempt.^[19]

After being taken to jail following their convictions for contempt on February 14, 1970,^[20] the defendants "almost immediately" stood on top of tables in the common areas and gave speeches of "defiance", getting applause and laughter from fellow inmates, and were quickly put into isolation cells.^[9] With the exception of David Dellinger, jail officials cut the long hair of the defendants for 'sanitary reasons.'^[21]^[22] Weiner recalls Abbie Hoffman "yelled that we should fight, force them to pay a price, that our hair was a symbol of our freedom and of everything we believed and we couldn't just acquiesce," before being held down by guards for the haircut.^[23]

On February 19, the jury acquitted all seven defendants of conspiracy and only acquitted Weiner and John Froines on all charges.^[24]^[25]^[26] On February 23, Cook County Sheriff Joseph I. Woods showed pictures of the defendants after their haircuts to an audience that according to John Kifner of The New York Times included "about 100 laughing and applauding members of the Elk Grove Township Republican organization at a meeting in the suburban Mount Prospect Country Club."^[21] The defendants were released from jail on February 28, 1970.^[27]

Weiner's contempt convictions were later reversed and remanded on appeal.^[19]^[24] At retrial, Weiner was acquitted of all contempt charges.^[10]

Post-trial

After the trial, Weiner left Chicago after accepting an offer to teach in the sociology department of Rutgers University,^[28] and moved to Brooklyn with his girlfriend at the time, Sharon Avery.^[11]

People magazine reports, "At a birthday party for Black Panther leader Bobby Seale in 1972, Weiner was overheard joking that he was "starting a new Communist party in New Jersey." The remark turned up in print, and he was told that his teaching contract at Rutgers would not be renewed."^[29] Weiner completed his PhD in sociology^[30] and dissertation, The Professional Revolutionary: Notes on the Initiation and Development of Careers in Revolution Making in 1975.^[31]

In the years following the trial, Weiner continued to work and protest for causes, including by participating in protests for Russian Jews and more funding for AIDS research.^[32] In the 1980s, while residing in Washington, D.C., he ran a home-based fundraising and direct-mail firm for political candidates and organizations.^[22] He later worked for the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in New York,^[33]^[34] and was a vice president for direct response at the AmeriCares Foundation in Stamford, Connecticut.^[35] He currently resides in Florida,^[3] and has offered commentary on similarities from his experience and protests in 2020^[36] and 2021.^[37]

Memoir

Weiner has written a memoir, Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7, published in August 2020 by Belt Publishing. An excerpt was published by Belt Magazine on July 23, 2020.^[30]

According to Malik Jackson, writing for South Side Weekly, "when reading Weiner's recollection of the demonstrations, which mostly took place on Michigan Ave. and in Grant Park, one is struck by the similarities between this imagery and the events we've witnessed on our own streets in recent years. There is the common instance of police charging crowds and trampling protesters, picking out individuals at random to beat with clubs. There were other instances of undercover cops blending into the crowd to overhear strategic discussions between marshals and subsequently stalking them—which is how Weiner was caught and indicted."^[38]

Kirkus Reviews describes the memoir as "a welcome addition to the library of the countercultural left," noting "Weiner closes with a stirring paean to activism. 'While a political life isn't easy,' he writes, 'and while frustration, anger, disappointment, fear, and confusion are sometimes pieces of it, I believe there is no more self-respecting, fulfilling life to try to lead.'"^[39]

Media

Jeremy Kagan interviewed Lee Weiner in 1987 in Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 for a personal account of his experiences.^[40]
Oren Nimni and Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs conducted a live interview with Lee Weiner, who "speaks about his childhood as a red diaper baby, becoming involved with radical anti-war politics, and being put on mass-televised trial for conspiracy and inciting to riot outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention."^[41]
Malik Jackson of South Side Weekly conducted a live interview with Lee Weiner about his memoir Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago Seven. "In the conversation, Weiner discusses his life of activism beyond the famous trial where he and seven other organizers were targeted and tried for conspiracy in federal court for their role in the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention."^[42]
"The story of the Chicago 7 trial" (Interview with Lee Weiner, CBS Sunday Morning, October 4, 2020)^[43]^[44]
Phil Manicki interviewed Lee Weiner about his history as a protester, his work as a community organizer, the Chicago Seven, and more.^[45]
In 2021, Weiner, Aaron Sorkin, Sacha Baron Cohen, Dolores Huerta, Baratunde Thurston, Jill Wine-Banks and Olivia Munn participated in Chicago 7 Town Hall: Voices For Change by Netflix, moderated by Katty Kay.^[46]

Popular culture

Weiner was portrayed by Robert Fieldsteel and appears in the 1987 film Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8. "The people who were growing up then are in positions of authority now," Weiner said in 1987, "and this was real important in people's lives. Politics is real, again, in people's lives. The message of the trial is that people can and should act politically. In almost every context, there's a way to act politically, effectively."^[47]
Marc Aubin portrayed Weiner in the 2000 film Steal This Movie!
Chuck Montgomery portrayed Weiner in the 2007 film Chicago 10
Aaron Abrams portrayed Weiner in the 2011 film The Chicago 8
Weiner was portrayed by Noah Robbins in the 2020 Sorkin film The Trial of the Chicago 7. When discussing "creative liberties with history" taken by Sorkin "that end up distorting it," Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs notes, "defendant Lee Weiner was extremely hairy and hippie-ish but is presented in the film as clean-cut and nerdy."^[48] Weiner told The Mirror he believes their story is highly relevant to 2020, and “It is a movie. It is not a documentary. The movie does work – it shows and tells people that resistance to injustice is both possible and necessary – whether it be on the streets with brutal police or in a biased, ugly courtroom."^[49]

References

^ Ragsdale, Bruce A. (2008). "The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts" (PDF). Federal Judicial Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved 2020-10-12. (at pp. 4, 16, 39)
^ Linder, Douglas O. ""The Chicago Eight" (or "Chicago Seven") Trial (1969 - 1970) - Indictment". Famous Trials. UMKC School of Law. Archived from the original on 2020-10-23. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Borrelli, Christopher (October 15, 2020). "The only Chicagoan of the Chicago 7 just wrote a memoir and says he's a fan of the Netflix movie 'Trial of the Chicago 7'". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 16 October 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020. Alt URL Archived 2023-02-03 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b Weiner, Lee (2020). Conspiracy To Riot. Cleveland, Ohio: Belt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-948742-68-9.
^ "About Lee". Lee Weiner. Belt Publishing. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
^ Irvy, Benjamin (October 16, 2020). "Meet the last surviving Jewish member of 'The Chicago 7'". The Forward. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
^ Babcox, Peter; Babcox, Deborah; Abel, Bob, eds. (1969). The Conspiracy. New York: Dell Publishing. p. 193. OCLC 53923.
^ Becker, Howard S.; Richards, Pamela (2010). Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, Or Article (2nd, ReadHowYouWant ed.). University of Chicago Press. pp. 122–123. ISBN 9781459605558. OCLC 921056926. I don't think I realized how this reading and commenting and being read and commented on by peers affected my professional development until I hired Lee Weiner as a research assistant a few years after I started teaching at Northwestern. I was away the summer he began work, and as a conscious revolutionary, Lee (who later became one of the Chicago Seven), read all of my correspondence, although it was not part of his duties. When I returned in the fall, he told me excitedly how much he had learned by looking through the folders I kept on papers I had written, seeing what my friends had written on, and about, succeeding drafts, and how I had taken those comments into account in my next version.
^ ^a ^b ^c Loerzel, Robert (July 30, 2020). "Court of Chaos". Chicago Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Biography of Lee Weiner". Federal Judicial Center. Archived from the original on February 24, 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c Waxman, Olivia B. (August 28, 2018). "'Violence Was Inevitable': How 7 Key Players Remember the Chaos of 1968's Democratic National Convention Protests". TIME Magazine. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
^ Belt Publishing. "Products: Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7". Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
^ Harrington, Adam (October 20, 2020). "'Banality Punctured By Moments Of Sheer Horror:' A Reporter Remembers The Real Trial Of The Chicago 7". CBS 2 Chicago. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020. [Topanga Bird, formerly known as Marti Ahern, a 19-year-old desk assistant for the Chicago Sun-Times with a press credential to cover the trial,] described Weiner as a 'nice guy; polite, intellectual,' adding, 'Nobody ever did figure out why he was corralled into this scrum.'
^ Babcox, Peter; Babcox, Deborah; Abel, Bob, eds. (1969). The Conspiracy. New York: Dell Publishing. p. 198. OCLC 53923.
^ ^a ^b Linder, Douglas O. "Biography of Lee Weiner". Famous Trials. UMKC School of Law. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
^ "Sharon Avery, Artists' Poster Committee of Art Workers Coalition, Michael Abramson: Make a New Year's Revolution, Kids!". ICP. International Center of Photography (ICP). 31 January 2018. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
^ Kisseloff, Jeff (2007). Generation On Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky. p. 94. ISBN 978-0813124162. OCLC 68623920.
^ "U.S. Seeks Review of Chicago 7 Case". The New York Times. March 26, 1971. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
^ ^a ^b Ragsdale, Bruce A. (2008). "The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts" (PDF). Federal Judicial Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved 2020-10-12. (at p. 8, p. 9, "In unsparing language, the court of appeals censured Judge Hoffman and the government attorneys for their open hostility toward the defendants and their failure to fulfill "the standards of our system of justice.")
^ Ragsdale, Bruce A. (2008). "The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts" (PDF). Federal Judicial Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved 2020-10-12. (at p. 11)
^ ^a ^b Kifner, John (February 25, 1970). "Ex-U.S. Aides Urge Bonds in Chicago". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
^ ^a ^b Gaines-Carter, Patrice (July 17, 1988). "Twilight Time in the Days of Rage". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
^ Weiner, Lee (2020). Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7. Cleveland, Ohio: Belt Publishing. p. 115. ISBN 9781948742689.
^ ^a ^b Tribune News Service (October 24, 2016). "Background: Chicago 7 trial". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 10 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
^ Ragsdale, Bruce A. (2008). "The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts" (PDF). Federal Judicial Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved 2020-10-12. (at p. 8)
^ Schmich, Mary (August 17, 2018). "The Chicago Seven put their fate in her hands. One juror's rarely seen trial journals reveal how that changed her forever". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
^ "The Chicago 7 and the Days of Rage". The Chicago Tribune. August 16, 2018. Archived from the original on February 28, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
^ Kisseloff, Jeff (2007). Generation On Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 94–95. ISBN 978-0813124162. OCLC 68623920.
^ McCall, Cheryl (September 12, 1977). "Their Anger Behind Them, the Chicago 7 Declare Peace in the '70s". People Magazine. Archived from the original on March 10, 2011.
^ ^a ^b Weiner, Lee (July 23, 2020). "Taking it to the Streets: Protesting at the 1968 Democratic National Convention". Belt Magazine. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
^ "NU Sociology Dissertations, 1927 to present" (PDF). Northwestern University Department of Sociology. September 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-09-25. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
^ "1960s radical Jerry Rubin, 56, dies in California of heart attack". The Baltimore Sun. New York Times News Service. November 29, 1994. Archived from the original on 2021-06-20. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
^ Kifner, John (October 30, 1994). "Silver Protest Reunion For Yesteryear's Yippies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
^ Haberman, Clyde (August 2, 1996). "An Ex-Radical Puts Chicago 8 In Distant Past". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
^ Bennett, Kitty (August 27, 2010). "Chicago Seven". AARP Bulletin. AARP. Archived from the original on 2 October 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
^ Ahmad, Meha; Kueppers, Courtney (November 21, 2020). "Director Aaron Sorkin Says This Summer's Protests 'Looked Exactly Like Footage From 1968'". WBEZChicago. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
^ Biscobing, Dave (March 9, 2021). "Member of 'Chicago 7' compares Phoenix protest arrests to 1968 incident". ABC15. Archived from the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
^ Jackson, Malik (October 14, 2020). "The Road There Is A Battlefield". South Side Weekly. Archived from the original on December 10, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
^ "Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7". Kirkus Reviews. May 10, 2020. Archived from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2020. Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
^ Kagan, Jeremy (11 November 2020). "Lee Weiner Interview 1987". Vimeo. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2021. a personal account of his experiences as a defendant in the Chicago Trial recreated in the award winning movie CONSPIRACY:The Trial of the Chicago 8
^ Robinson, Nathan; Nimni, Oren (August 20, 2020). "Lee Weiner of the Chicago Seven on "conspiracy to riot"". Patreon. Current Affairs. Archived from the original on 16 December 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
^ Jackson, Malik. "Lee Weiner of the Chicago 8". Soundcloud. SSW Radio. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
^ Smith, Tracy (October 4, 2020). "The story of the Chicago 7 trial". YouTube. CBS Sunday Morning. Archived from the original on 2021-12-17. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
^ "Retelling the story of the Chicago 7". CBS News. October 4, 2020. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
^ Manicki, Phil; benandersonwgnam (November 28, 2020). "American activist Lee Weiner on the Chicago Seven and more". WGNRadio720. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
^ "Chicago 7 Town Hall: Voices For Change". YouTube. Netflix. Archived from the original on 21 January 2022. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
^ Beale, Lewis (February 15, 1987). "Disorder in the court: HBO movie re-creates raucous Chicago 7 trial". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2020-10-29.
^ Robinson, Nathan J. (October 22, 2020). "The Real Abbie Hoffman: Why it's impossible to Sorkin-ize the great revolutionary clown". Current Affairs. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
^ Killelea, Amanda (October 24, 2020). "The Chicago Seven's Lee Weiner on how 2020 struggles show "we haven't won yet"". The Mirror. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2020.

External links

Linder, D.O., Biography of Lee Weiner, Famous Trials, UMKC School of Law.

[1] Ragsdale, Bruce A. (2008). "The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts" (PDF). Federal Judicial Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved 2020-10-12. (at pp. 4, 16, 39)

[2] Linder, Douglas O. ""The Chicago Eight" (or "Chicago Seven") Trial (1969 - 1970) - Indictment". Famous Trials. UMKC School of Law. Archived from the original on 2020-10-23. Retrieved 2020-10-20.

[Borrelli-3] Borrelli, Christopher (October 15, 2020). "The only Chicagoan of the Chicago 7 just wrote a memoir and says he's a fan of the Netflix movie 'Trial of the Chicago 7'". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 16 October 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020. Alt URL Archived 2023-02-03 at the Wayback Machine

[Weiner_memoir-4] Weiner, Lee (2020). Conspiracy To Riot. Cleveland, Ohio: Belt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-948742-68-9.

[5] "About Lee". Lee Weiner. Belt Publishing. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.

[Irvy_2020-6] Irvy, Benjamin (October 16, 2020). "Meet the last surviving Jewish member of 'The Chicago 7'". The Forward. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020.

[7] Babcox, Peter; Babcox, Deborah; Abel, Bob, eds. (1969). The Conspiracy. New York: Dell Publishing. p. 193. OCLC 53923.

[8] Becker, Howard S.; Richards, Pamela (2010). Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, Or Article (2nd, ReadHowYouWant ed.). University of Chicago Press. pp. 122–123. ISBN 9781459605558. OCLC 921056926. I don't think I realized how this reading and commenting and being read and commented on by peers affected my professional development until I hired Lee Weiner as a research assistant a few years after I started teaching at Northwestern. I was away the summer he began work, and as a conscious revolutionary, Lee (who later became one of the Chicago Seven), read all of my correspondence, although it was not part of his duties. When I returned in the fall, he told me excitedly how much he had learned by looking through the folders I kept on papers I had written, seeing what my friends had written on, and about, succeeding drafts, and how I had taken those comments into account in my next version.

[Loerzel-9] Loerzel, Robert (July 30, 2020). "Court of Chaos". Chicago Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.

[FJC-10] "Biography of Lee Weiner". Federal Judicial Center. Archived from the original on February 24, 2017.

[Waxman-11] Waxman, Olivia B. (August 28, 2018). "'Violence Was Inevitable': How 7 Key Players Remember the Chaos of 1968's Democratic National Convention Protests". TIME Magazine. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved December 1, 2020.

[Belt_product_page-12] Belt Publishing. "Products: Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7". Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.

[13] Harrington, Adam (October 20, 2020). "'Banality Punctured By Moments Of Sheer Horror:' A Reporter Remembers The Real Trial Of The Chicago 7". CBS 2 Chicago. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020. [Topanga Bird, formerly known as Marti Ahern, a 19-year-old desk assistant for the Chicago Sun-Times with a press credential to cover the trial,] described Weiner as a 'nice guy; polite, intellectual,' adding, 'Nobody ever did figure out why he was corralled into this scrum.'

[14] Babcox, Peter; Babcox, Deborah; Abel, Bob, eds. (1969). The Conspiracy. New York: Dell Publishing. p. 198. OCLC 53923.

[Linder-15] Linder, Douglas O. "Biography of Lee Weiner". Famous Trials. UMKC School of Law. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2020.

[16] "Sharon Avery, Artists' Poster Committee of Art Workers Coalition, Michael Abramson: Make a New Year's Revolution, Kids!". ICP. International Center of Photography (ICP). 31 January 2018. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.

[17] Kisseloff, Jeff (2007). Generation On Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky. p. 94. ISBN 978-0813124162. OCLC 68623920.

[NYT_contempt-18] "U.S. Seeks Review of Chicago 7 Case". The New York Times. March 26, 1971. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.

[Ragsdale_at_8-9-19] Ragsdale, Bruce A. (2008). "The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts" (PDF). Federal Judicial Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved 2020-10-12. (at p. 8, p. 9, "In unsparing language, the court of appeals censured Judge Hoffman and the government attorneys for their open hostility toward the defendants and their failure to fulfill "the standards of our system of justice.")

[20] Ragsdale, Bruce A. (2008). "The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts" (PDF). Federal Judicial Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved 2020-10-12. (at p. 11)

[Kifner-21] Kifner, John (February 25, 1970). "Ex-U.S. Aides Urge Bonds in Chicago". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.

[Gaines-Carter_1988-22] Gaines-Carter, Patrice (July 17, 1988). "Twilight Time in the Days of Rage". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 July 2022.

[23] Weiner, Lee (2020). Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7. Cleveland, Ohio: Belt Publishing. p. 115. ISBN 9781948742689.

[Trib_News_Service-24] Tribune News Service (October 24, 2016). "Background: Chicago 7 trial". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 10 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.

[25] Ragsdale, Bruce A. (2008). "The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts" (PDF). Federal Judicial Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved 2020-10-12. (at p. 8)

[26] Schmich, Mary (August 17, 2018). "The Chicago Seven put their fate in her hands. One juror's rarely seen trial journals reveal how that changed her forever". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.

[ChiTrib_2018-27] "The Chicago 7 and the Days of Rage". The Chicago Tribune. August 16, 2018. Archived from the original on February 28, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.

[28] Kisseloff, Jeff (2007). Generation On Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 94–95. ISBN 978-0813124162. OCLC 68623920.

[29] McCall, Cheryl (September 12, 1977). "Their Anger Behind Them, the Chicago 7 Declare Peace in the '70s". People Magazine. Archived from the original on March 10, 2011.

[Weiner-30] Weiner, Lee (July 23, 2020). "Taking it to the Streets: Protesting at the 1968 Democratic National Convention". Belt Magazine. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.

[31] "NU Sociology Dissertations, 1927 to present" (PDF). Northwestern University Department of Sociology. September 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-09-25. Retrieved 2020-10-26.

[32] "1960s radical Jerry Rubin, 56, dies in California of heart attack". The Baltimore Sun. New York Times News Service. November 29, 1994. Archived from the original on 2021-06-20. Retrieved 2020-12-01.

[33] Kifner, John (October 30, 1994). "Silver Protest Reunion For Yesteryear's Yippies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.

[34] Haberman, Clyde (August 2, 1996). "An Ex-Radical Puts Chicago 8 In Distant Past". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved October 27, 2020.

[35] Bennett, Kitty (August 27, 2010). "Chicago Seven". AARP Bulletin. AARP. Archived from the original on 2 October 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.

[36] Ahmad, Meha; Kueppers, Courtney (November 21, 2020). "Director Aaron Sorkin Says This Summer's Protests 'Looked Exactly Like Footage From 1968'". WBEZChicago. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.

[37] Biscobing, Dave (March 9, 2021). "Member of 'Chicago 7' compares Phoenix protest arrests to 1968 incident". ABC15. Archived from the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.

[38] Jackson, Malik (October 14, 2020). "The Road There Is A Battlefield". South Side Weekly. Archived from the original on December 10, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.

[39] "Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7". Kirkus Reviews. May 10, 2020. Archived from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2020. Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020

[40] Kagan, Jeremy (11 November 2020). "Lee Weiner Interview 1987". Vimeo. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2021. a personal account of his experiences as a defendant in the Chicago Trial recreated in the award winning movie CONSPIRACY:The Trial of the Chicago 8

[41] Robinson, Nathan; Nimni, Oren (August 20, 2020). "Lee Weiner of the Chicago Seven on "conspiracy to riot"". Patreon. Current Affairs. Archived from the original on 16 December 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2021.

[42] Jackson, Malik. "Lee Weiner of the Chicago 8". Soundcloud. SSW Radio. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2021.

[43] Smith, Tracy (October 4, 2020). "The story of the Chicago 7 trial". YouTube. CBS Sunday Morning. Archived from the original on 2021-12-17. Retrieved 31 January 2021.

[44] "Retelling the story of the Chicago 7". CBS News. October 4, 2020. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.

[45] Manicki, Phil; benandersonwgnam (November 28, 2020). "American activist Lee Weiner on the Chicago Seven and more". WGNRadio720. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.

[46] "Chicago 7 Town Hall: Voices For Change". YouTube. Netflix. Archived from the original on 21 January 2022. Retrieved 21 January 2022.

[47] Beale, Lewis (February 15, 1987). "Disorder in the court: HBO movie re-creates raucous Chicago 7 trial". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2020-10-29.

[48] Robinson, Nathan J. (October 22, 2020). "The Real Abbie Hoffman: Why it's impossible to Sorkin-ize the great revolutionary clown". Current Affairs. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2020.

[49] Killelea, Amanda (October 24, 2020). "The Chicago Seven's Lee Weiner on how 2020 struggles show "we haven't won yet"". The Mirror. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2020.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{short description|American social activist}}
+{{Infobox writer
+|name        = Lee Weiner
+|image       = Lee Weiner, outside Federal Building in Chicago during conspiracy trial, Feb 11 1970.jpeg
+|alt         = Lee Weiner, outside the Federal Building in Chicago during the conspiracy trial, February 11, 1970
+|caption     = Chicago, February 11, 1970
+|birth_date  = {{Birth year and age|1939}}
+|birth_place = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
+|death_date  =
+|death_place =
+|education   = [[University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Hebrew University of Jerusalem|Hebrew University]]<br>[[Loyola University, Chicago]] ([[Master of Social Work|MSW]])<br>[[Northwestern University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])
+}}
+'''Lee Weiner''' (born 1939) is an author and member of the [[Chicago Seven]] who was charged with "conspiring to use interstate commerce with intent to incite a riot" and "teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices that would be used in civil disturbances"<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ragsdale |first1=Bruce A. |title=The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts |url=https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |website=Federal Judicial Center |date=2008 |access-date=2020-10-12 |archive-date=2020-10-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017160130/https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |url-status=live }} (at pp. 4, 16, 39)</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Linder |first1=Douglas O. |title="The Chicago Eight" (or "Chicago Seven") Trial (1969 - 1970) - Indictment |url=https://www.famous-trials.com/chicago8/1328-indiciment |website=Famous Trials |publisher=UMKC School of Law |access-date=2020-10-20 |archive-date=2020-10-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023123733/https://www.famous-trials.com/chicago8/1328-indiciment |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Borrelli">{{cite web |last1=Borrelli |first1=Christopher |title=The only Chicagoan of the Chicago 7 just wrote a memoir and says he's a fan of the Netflix movie 'Trial of the Chicago 7' |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-lee-weiner-chicago-7-book-20201014-6fl6qbgnxfd4vgfu4zrtvawrtu-story.html |website=The Chicago Tribune |access-date=29 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016023642/https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-lee-weiner-chicago-7-book-20201014-6fl6qbgnxfd4vgfu4zrtvawrtu-story.html |archive-date=16 October 2020 |date=October 15, 2020 }} [https://www.baltimoresun.com/featured/ct-ent-lee-weiner-chicago-7-book-20201015-6fl6qbgnxfd4vgfu4zrtvawrtu-story.html Alt URL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203205604/https://www.baltimoresun.com/featured/ct-ent-lee-weiner-chicago-7-book-20201015-6fl6qbgnxfd4vgfu4zrtvawrtu-story.html |date=2023-02-03 }}</ref> at the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]]. He was acquitted of all charges by the jury and convicted on seven charges of [[Contempt of court|criminal contempt]] that were later overturned on appeal. In 2020, Weiner published a memoir, ''Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7''.
+==Early life and education==
-'''Lee Weiner''' (born September 7, 1939){{citation needed|date=January 2021}} was a member of the [[Chicago Seven]] charged with "conspiring to use interstate commerce with intent to incite a riot" and "teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices that would be used in civil disturbances"<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ragsdale |first1=Bruce A. |title=The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts |url=https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |website=Federal Judicial Center |date=2008}} (at pp. 4, 16, 39)</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Linder |first1=Douglas O. |title="The Chicago Eight" (or "Chicago Seven") Trial (1969 - 1970) - Indictment |url=https://www.famous-trials.com/chicago8/1328-indiciment |website=Famous Trials |publisher=UMKC School of Law}}</ref><ref name="Borrelli">{{cite web |last1=Borrelli |first1=Christopher |title=The only Chicagoan of the Chicago 7 just wrote a memoir and says he’s a fan of the Netflix movie ‘Trial of the Chicago 7’ |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-lee-weiner-chicago-7-book-20201014-6fl6qbgnxfd4vgfu4zrtvawrtu-story.html |website=The Chicago Tribune |access-date=29 November 2020 |archive-url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/featured/ct-ent-lee-weiner-chicago-7-book-20201015-6fl6qbgnxfd4vgfu4zrtvawrtu-story.html |archive-date=15 October 2020 |date=October 15, 2020}}</ref> at the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]]. Weiner and his co-defendant [[John Froines]] were acquitted of the charges by the jury.<ref name="Trib News Service">{{cite web |last1=Tribune News Service |title=Background: Chicago 7 trial |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chicago-8-trial-chicago-7-trial-story.html |website=The Chicago Tribune |access-date=29 November 2020 |date=October 24, 2016}}</ref> Weiner was the only member of the [[Chicago Seven]] from Chicago,<ref name="Borrelli" /> and was raised on Chicago's South Side.<ref>{{cite web |title=About Lee |url=https://www.leeweinerchicago7.com/about-lee |website=Lee Weiner |publisher=Belt Publishing |access-date=1 December 2020}}</ref>
+Lee Weiner was born in 1939<ref name="Weiner memoir">{{cite book |last1=Weiner |first1=Lee |title=Conspiracy To Riot |date=2020 |publisher=Belt Publishing |location=Cleveland, Ohio |isbn=978-1-948742-68-9}}</ref>{{rp|13}} and raised on the [[South Side, Chicago|South Side of Chicago]].<ref name="Weiner memoir"/>{{rp|13-14, 20}} Weiner is the only member of the [[Chicago Seven]] from Chicago.<ref name="Borrelli" /><ref>{{cite web |title=About Lee |url=https://www.leeweinerchicago7.com/about-lee |website=Lee Weiner |publisher=Belt Publishing |access-date=1 December 2020 |archive-date=27 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027022350/https://www.leeweinerchicago7.com/about-lee |url-status=live }}</ref> When the trial of the Chicago Seven began in September 1969, Weiner was a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant at [[Northwestern University]], had previously graduated from the [[University of Illinois]], studied political philosophy at [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]],<ref name="Irvy 2020">{{cite web |last1=Irvy |first1=Benjamin |title=Meet the last surviving Jewish member of 'The Chicago 7' |url=https://forward.com/culture/456435/meet-the-last-surviving-jewish-member-of-the-chicago-7/ |website=The Forward |date=October 16, 2020 |access-date=October 25, 2020 |archive-date=October 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027061144/https://forward.com/culture/456435/meet-the-last-surviving-jewish-member-of-the-chicago-7/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and earned a master's degree in social work from [[Loyola University Chicago|Loyola University]]'s School of Social Work in Chicago.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Babcox |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Babcox |editor2-first=Deborah |editor3-last=Abel |editor3-first=Bob |title=The Conspiracy |date=1969 |publisher=Dell Publishing |location=New York |page=193 |oclc=53923}}</ref> At [[Northwestern University]], Weiner worked for [[Howard S. Becker]] as a research assistant.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Becker |first1=Howard S. |last2=Richards |first2=Pamela |title=Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, Or Article |date=2010 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9781459605558 |oclc=921056926 |pages=122–123 |edition=2nd, ReadHowYouWant |quote=I don't think I realized how this reading and commenting and being read and commented on by peers affected my professional development until I hired Lee Weiner as a research assistant a few years after I started teaching at Northwestern. I was away the summer he began work, and as a conscious revolutionary, Lee (who later became one of the Chicago Seven), read all of my correspondence, although it was not part of his duties. When I returned in the fall, he told me excitedly how much he had learned by looking through the folders I kept on papers I had written, seeing what my friends had written on, and about, succeeding drafts, and how I had taken those comments into account in my next version.}}</ref>
+As a caseworker, Weiner witnessed dire poverty in Black neighborhoods, and wrote in his memoir, "Every day ... the work I did drove punishing truths into my head about what was wrong in America."<ref name="Loerzel">{{cite web |last1=Loerzel |first1=Robert |title=Court of Chaos |url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2020/Conspiracy-to-Riot-Chicago-Seven/ |website=Chicago Magazine |access-date=29 November 2020 |date=July 30, 2020 |archive-date=4 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104163307/http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2020/Conspiracy-to-Riot-Chicago-Seven/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
+At the 1968 Chicago demonstrations, Weiner served as a marshal with the [[National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam]].<ref name="FJC">{{cite web |title=Biography of Lee Weiner |url=http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_chicago7_bio_weiner.html |website=Federal Judicial Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224160329/http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_chicago7_bio_weiner.html |archive-date=February 24, 2017}}</ref> In 2018, Weiner told Olivia Waxman of ''TIME'' magazine that "On Aug[ust] 28, during the huge battle on Michigan Avenue with the National Guard, I separated myself from the crowd to stand on the steps of the Art Institute and watch the crowd of people. It was the only time in my life I thought a revolution might happen in the United States."<ref name="Waxman"/>
 ==Trial==
+{{Main|Chicago Seven}}
-First dubbed the "Conspiracy 8" and later the "Chicago 7", the defendants included [[Abbie Hoffman]] and [[Bobby Seale]], as well as "little-known community activist and social worker" Lee Weiner, "who was just as surprised as the rest of the country when his name was called."<ref name="Belt product page">{{cite web |last1=Belt Publishing |title=Products: Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7 |url=https://beltpublishing.com/products/conspiracy-to-riot |access-date=29 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Harrington |first1=Adam |title=‘Banality Punctured By Moments Of Sheer Horror:’ A Reporter Remembers The Real Trial Of The Chicago 7 |url=https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/10/20/chicago-7-trial-sun-times-reporter-remembers/ |work=CBS 2 Chicago |date=October 20, 2020 |quote=[Topanga Bird, formerly known as Marti Ahern, a 19-year-old desk assistant for the Chicago Sun-Times with a press credential to cover the trial,] described Weiner as a 'nice guy; polite, intellectual,' adding, 'Nobody ever did figure out why he was corralled into this scrum.'}}</ref> When the trial of the [[Chicago Seven]] began in September 1969, Weiner was a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant at [[Northwestern University]], had previously graduated from the [[University of Illinois]], studied political philosophy at [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Irvy |first1=Benjamin |title=Meet the last surviving Jewish member of ‘The Chicago 7’ |url=https://forward.com/culture/456435/meet-the-last-surviving-jewish-member-of-the-chicago-7/ |website=The Forward |date=October 16, 2020}}</ref> and earned a master's degree in social work from [[Loyola University Chicago|Loyola University]]'s School of Social Work in Chicago.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Babcox |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Babcox |editor2-first=Deborah |editor3-last=Abel |editor3-first=Bob |title=The Conspiracy |date=1969 |publisher=Dell Publishing |location=New York |page=193 |oclc=53923}}</ref> As a caseworker, Weiner had witnessed dire poverty in Black neighborhoods, and writes in his memoir that, "Every day ... the work I did drove punishing truths into my head about what was wrong in America."<ref name="Loerzel">{{cite web |last1=Loerzel |first1=Robert |title=Court of Chaos |url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2020/Conspiracy-to-Riot-Chicago-Seven/ |website=Chicago Magazine |access-date=29 November 2020 |date=July 30, 2020}}</ref> At [[Northwestern University]], Weiner worked for [[Howard S. Becker]] as a research assistant.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Becker |first1=Howard S. |last2=Richards |first2=Pamela |title=Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, Or Article |date=2010 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9781459605558 |oclc=921056926 |pages=122-123 |edition=2nd, ReadHowYouWant |quote=I don't think I realized how this reading and commenting and being read and commented on by peers affected my professional development until I hired Lee Weiner as a research assistant a few years after I started teaching at Northwestern. I was away the summer he began work, and as a conscious revolutionary, Lee (who later became one of the Chicago Seven), read all of my correspondence, although it was not part of his duties. When I returned in the fall, he told me excitedly how much he had learned by looking through the folders I kept on papers I had written, seeing what my friends had written on, and about, succeeding drafts, and how I had taken those comments into account in my next version.}}</ref> At the Chicago demonstrations, Weiner served as a marshal with the [[National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam]].<ref name="FJC">{{cite web |title=Biography of Lee Weiner |url=http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_chicago7_bio_weiner.html |website=Federal Judicial Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224160329/http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_chicago7_bio_weiner.html |archive-date=February 24, 2017}}</ref>
+First dubbed the "Conspiracy 8" and later the "Chicago 7", the defendants included [[Abbie Hoffman]] and [[Bobby Seale]], as well as "little-known community activist and social worker" Lee Weiner.<ref name="Belt product page">{{cite web |last1=Belt Publishing |title=Products: Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7 |url=https://beltpublishing.com/products/conspiracy-to-riot |access-date=29 November 2020 |archive-date=16 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116155108/https://beltpublishing.com/products/conspiracy-to-riot |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Harrington |first1=Adam |title='Banality Punctured By Moments Of Sheer Horror:' A Reporter Remembers The Real Trial Of The Chicago 7 |url=https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/10/20/chicago-7-trial-sun-times-reporter-remembers/ |work=CBS 2 Chicago |date=October 20, 2020 |quote=[Topanga Bird, formerly known as Marti Ahern, a 19-year-old desk assistant for the Chicago Sun-Times with a press credential to cover the trial,] described Weiner as a 'nice guy; polite, intellectual,' adding, 'Nobody ever did figure out why he was corralled into this scrum.' |access-date=October 21, 2020 |archive-date=October 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021061719/https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/10/20/chicago-7-trial-sun-times-reporter-remembers/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Each of the defendants contributed an essay to the 1969 book, "The Conspiracy," edited by Peter Babcox and Deborah Abel. In Weiner's essay, "The Political Trial of a People's Insurrection", Weiner writes:
+{{blockquote|Using the artificial, state-controlled rules of the court, the U.S. government's prosecutors and judge will attempt to interpret the people's insurrection in Chicago as the private and deliberate manipulation of eight evil men. The government will be desperate to play down the independent action of thousands of people who openly resisted illegitimate political and police power. The trial, therefore, must blur and soften the contours of what actually happened, and instead focus upon and magnify the roles of these eight men in particular. The alternative image – one of a popular insurrection rooted in the experience and desires of people that was put down by the deliberate exercise of state-controlled violence – too clearly focuses public attention on what America is all about. The government effort is intended to punish and frighten a growing, insurgent mass movement of both the young and concerned adults, and to protect the official myths of political reality in America.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Babcox |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Babcox |editor2-first=Deborah |editor3-last=Abel |editor3-first=Bob |title=The Conspiracy |date=1969 |publisher=Dell Publishing |location=New York |page=198 |oclc=53923}}</ref>}}
-In Weiner's essay, "The Political Trial of a People's Insurrection," he writes:
+[[J. Anthony Lukas]] described Weiner as "a strangely remote figure who shunned most of the defendants' extracurricular activities."<ref name="Linder">{{cite web |last1=Linder |first1=Douglas O. |title=Biography of Lee Weiner |url=https://www.famous-trials.com/chicago8/1348-weinerl |website=Famous Trials |publisher=UMKC School of Law |access-date=29 November 2020 |archive-date=14 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314024136/https://www.famous-trials.com/chicago8/1348-weinerl |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Borrelli" /> According to Professor Douglas Linder at the [[University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law]], "Weiner rarely attended defense strategy sessions, perhaps out of a belief that their cause was hopeless. He spent most of his trial hours reading science fiction paperbacks or books on eastern philosophy. Weiner reacted to few courtroom developments, viewing the proceedings with a mixture of scorn and amusement."<ref name="Linder" /> During the trial, a poster that said "Make a New Year's Revolution, Kids!"<ref>{{cite web |title=Sharon Avery, Artists' Poster Committee of Art Workers Coalition, Michael Abramson: Make a New Year's Revolution, Kids! |url=https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/make-a-new-years-revolution-kids |website=ICP |date=31 January 2018 |publisher=International Center of Photography (ICP) |access-date=4 February 2021 |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205071952/https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/make-a-new-years-revolution-kids |url-status=live }}</ref> featuring Weiner and his girlfriend at the time, Sharon Avery, nude and with lights in their hair, was distributed "to the young people waiting out on the cold to sit in on our trial to thank them for supporting us," according to Weiner.<ref name="Waxman"/>
-<blockquote>Using the artificial, state-controlled rules of the court, the U.S. government's prosecutors and judge will attempt to interpret the people's insurrection in Chicago as the private and deliberate manipulation of eight evil men. The government will be desperate to play down the independent action of thousands of people who openly resisted illegitimate political and police power. The trial, therefore, must blur and soften the contours of what actually happened, and instead focus upon and magnify the roles of these eight men in particular. The alternative image – one of a popular insurrection rooted in the experience and desires of people that was put down by the deliberate exercise of state-controlled violence – too clearly focuses public attention on what America is all about. The government effort is intended to punish and frighten a growing, insurgent mass movement of both the young and concerned adults, and to protect the official myths of political reality in America.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Babcox |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Babcox |editor2-first=Deborah |editor3-last=Abel |editor3-first=Bob |title=The Conspiracy |date=1969 |publisher=Dell Publishing |location=New York |page=198 |oclc=53923}}</ref></blockquote>
+[[Groucho Marx]] was asked to testify at the trial, and Weiner wanted him to teach the courtroom about satire; Groucho said it would be "an honor" but declined, thinking his last name would bias the judge against him.<ref name="Loerzel" /> According to Weiner, towards the end of the trial, "there was no question we would be put in jail. I ended up going, mostly for correcting my name. People always pronounced it ''Wee''-ner. It's ''Wye''-ner. When the judge would say ''Wee''-ner, I would shout out, "It's ''Wye''-ner," and he got pissed off and charged me with contempt, which was a perfect summary of my political stance. I was sentenced to two and a half months."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kisseloff |first1=Jeff |title=Generation On Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History |date=2007 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington, Ky. |isbn=978-0813124162 |oclc=68623920 |page=94}}</ref><ref name="NYT contempt">{{cite news |title=U.S. Seeks Review of Chicago 7 Case |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/26/archives/us-seeks-review-of-chicago-7-case-new-hearing-in-contempt-sentences.html |work=The New York Times |date=March 26, 1971 |access-date=February 26, 2021 |archive-date=December 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209134424/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/26/archives/us-seeks-review-of-chicago-7-case-new-hearing-in-contempt-sentences.html |url-status=live }}</ref> While the jury deliberated, the judge cited the defendants and their lawyers for 159 counts of criminal contempt; Weiner was convicted on seven charges of criminal contempt.<ref name="Ragsdale at 8-9"/>
-[[J. Anthony Lukas]] described Weiner as "a strangely remote figure who shunned most of the defendants' extracurricular activities."<ref name="Linder">{{cite web |last1=Linder |first1=Douglas O. |title=Biography of Lee Weiner |url=https://www.famous-trials.com/chicago8/1348-weinerl |website=Famous Trials |publisher=UMKC School of Law |access-date=29 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="Borrelli" /> According to Professor Douglas Linder at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, "Weiner rarely attended defense strategy sessions, perhaps out of a belief that their cause was hopeless. He spent most of his trial hours reading science fiction paperbacks or books on eastern philosophy. Weiner reacted to few courtroom developments, viewing the proceedings with a mixture of scorn and amusement."<ref name="Linder" />
+After being taken to jail following their convictions for contempt on February 14, 1970,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ragsdale |first1=Bruce A. |title=The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts |url=https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |website=Federal Judicial Center |date=2008 |access-date=2020-10-12 |archive-date=2020-10-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017160130/https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |url-status=live }} (at p. 11)</ref> the defendants "almost immediately" stood on top of tables in the common areas and gave speeches of "defiance", getting applause and laughter from fellow inmates, and were quickly put into isolation cells.<ref name="Loerzel" /> With the exception of David Dellinger, jail officials cut the long hair of the defendants for 'sanitary reasons.'<ref name="Kifner"/><ref name="Gaines-Carter 1988" /> Weiner recalls Abbie Hoffman "yelled that we should fight, force them to pay a price, that our hair was a symbol of our freedom and of everything we believed and we couldn't just acquiesce," before being held down by guards for the haircut.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weiner |first1=Lee |title=Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7 |date=2020 |publisher=Belt Publishing |location=Cleveland, Ohio |isbn=9781948742689 |page=115}}</ref>
-[[Groucho Marx]] was asked to testify at the trial, and Weiner wanted him to teach the courtroom about satire; Groucho said it would be "an honor" but declined, thinking his last name would bias the judge against him.<ref name="Loerzel" /> According to Weiner, towards the end of the trial, "there was no question we would be put in jail. I ended up going, mostly for correcting my name. People always pronounced it ''Wee''-ner. It's ''Wye''-ner. When the judge would say ''Wee''-ner, I would shout out, "It's ''Wye''-ner," and he got pissed off and charged me with contempt, which was a perfect summary of my political stance. I was sentenced to two and a half months."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kisselhoff |first1=Jeff |title=Generation On Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History |date=2007 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington, Ky. |isbn=0813124166 |oclc=68623920 |page=94}}</ref>
-After being taken to jail, the defendants "almost immediately" stood on top of tables in the common areas and gave speeches of "defiance", getting applause and laughter from fellow inmates, and were quickly put into isolation cells.<ref name="Loerzel" /> The jury acquitted all seven defendants of conspiracy and only acquitted Weiner and [[John Froines]] on all charges.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ragsdale |first1=Bruce A. |title=The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts |url=https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |website=Federal Judicial Center |date=2008}} (at p. 8)</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Schmich |first1=Mary |title=The Chicago Seven put their fate in her hands. One juror's rarely seen trial journals reveal how that changed her forever |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/mary-schmich/ct-met-chicago-7-democratic-national-convention-mary-schmich-20180815-story.html |work=The Chicago Tribune |date=August 17, 2018}}</ref> While the jury deliberated, the judge cited the defendants and their lawyers for 159 counts of criminal contempt; Weiner was convicted on seven charges of criminal contempt later reversed and remanded after an appeal,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ragsdale |first1=Bruce A. |title=The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts |url=https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |website=Federal Judicial Center |date=2008}} (at p. 8, p. 9, "In unsparing language, the court of appeals censured Judge Hoffman and the government attorneys for their open hostility toward the defendants and their failure to fulfill "the standards of our system of justice.")</ref> that cited, according to ''The Chicago Tribune'', "among other things, antagonistic behavior from the judge and the fact that the FBI had bugged the defense lawyers' offices."<ref name="Trib News Service" /> At retrial, Weiner was acquitted of all contempt charges.<ref name="FJC" />
+On February 19, the jury acquitted all seven defendants of conspiracy and only acquitted Weiner and [[John Froines]] on all charges.<ref name="Trib News Service">{{cite web |last1=Tribune News Service |title=Background: Chicago 7 trial |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chicago-8-trial-chicago-7-trial-story.html |website=The Chicago Tribune |access-date=29 November 2020 |date=October 24, 2016 |archive-date=10 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201110151051/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chicago-8-trial-chicago-7-trial-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Ragsdale |first1=Bruce A. |title=The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts |url=https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |website=Federal Judicial Center |date=2008 |access-date=2020-10-12 |archive-date=2020-10-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017160130/https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |url-status=live }} (at p. 8)</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Schmich |first1=Mary |title=The Chicago Seven put their fate in her hands. One juror's rarely seen trial journals reveal how that changed her forever |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/mary-schmich/ct-met-chicago-7-democratic-national-convention-mary-schmich-20180815-story.html |work=The Chicago Tribune |date=August 17, 2018 |access-date=October 23, 2020 |archive-date=October 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022225535/https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/mary-schmich/ct-met-chicago-7-democratic-national-convention-mary-schmich-20180815-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On February 23, [[Cook County Sheriff]] Joseph I. Woods showed pictures of the defendants after their haircuts to an audience that according to John Kifner of ''The New York Times'' included "about 100 laughing and applauding members of the Elk Grove Township Republican organization at a meeting in the suburban Mount Prospect Country Club."<ref name="Kifner">{{cite news |last1=Kifner |first1=John |title=Ex-U.S. Aides Urge Bonds in Chicago |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/25/archives/exus-aides-urge-bonds-in-chicago-clark-marshall-sign-brief-drawn-up.html |work=The New York Times |date=February 25, 1970 |access-date=February 26, 2021 |archive-date=February 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203055337/https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/25/archives/exus-aides-urge-bonds-in-chicago-clark-marshall-sign-brief-drawn-up.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The defendants were released from jail on February 28, 1970.<ref name="ChiTrib 2018">{{cite news |title=The Chicago 7 and the Days of Rage |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/visuals/vintage/ct-chicago-seven-conspiracy-dnc-1968-photo-0180816-photogallery.html |work=The Chicago Tribune |date=August 16, 2018 |access-date=February 26, 2021 |archive-date=February 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228152631/https://www.chicagotribune.com/visuals/vintage/ct-chicago-seven-conspiracy-dnc-1968-photo-0180816-photogallery.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
+Weiner's contempt convictions were later reversed and remanded on appeal.<ref name="Ragsdale at 8-9">{{cite web |last1=Ragsdale |first1=Bruce A. |title=The Chicago Seven: 1960s Radicalism in the Federal Courts |url=https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |website=Federal Judicial Center |date=2008 |access-date=2020-10-12 |archive-date=2020-10-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017160130/https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/chicago7.pdf |url-status=live }} (at p. 8, p. 9, "In unsparing language, the court of appeals censured Judge Hoffman and the government attorneys for their open hostility toward the defendants and their failure to fulfill "the standards of our system of justice.")</ref><ref name="Trib News Service" /> At retrial, Weiner was acquitted of all contempt charges.<ref name="FJC" />
-Weiner left Chicago after accepting an offer to teach in the sociology department of Rutgers University,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kisselhoff |first1=Jeff |title=Generation On Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History |date=2007 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington, Ky. |isbn=0813124166 |oclc=68623920 |page=94-95}}</ref> and moved to Brooklyn, NY with his girlfriend at the time, Sharon Avery.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Waxman |first1=Olivia B. |title=‘Violence Was Inevitable’: How 7 Key Players Remember the Chaos of 1968's Democratic National Convention Protests |url=https://time.com/5377386/1968-democratic-national-convention-protesters/ |website=TIME Magazine |date=August 28, 2018}}</ref> ''People'' magazine reports, "At a birthday party for Black Panther leader [[Bobby Seale]] in 1972, Weiner was overheard joking that he was "starting a new Communist party in New Jersey." The remark turned up in print, and he was told that his teaching contract at Rutgers would not be renewed."<ref>{{cite web |last1=McCall |first1=Cheryl |title=Their Anger Behind Them, the Chicago 7 Declare Peace in the '70s |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20069021,00.html |website=People Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310012100/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20069021,00.html |archive-date=March 10, 2011 |date=September 12, 1977}}</ref>
+==Post-trial==
-Weiner completed his PhD in sociology<ref name="Weiner">{{cite web |last1=Weiner |first1=Lee |title=Taking it to the Streets: Protesting at the 1968 Democratic National Convention |url=https://beltmag.com/chicago-7-1968-democratic-national-convention/ |website=Belt Magazine |date=July 23, 2020}}</ref> and dissertation, "The Professional Revolutionary: Notes on the Initiation and Development of Careers in Revolution Making," in 1975.<ref>{{cite web |title=NU Sociology Dissertations, 1927 to present |url=https://sociology.northwestern.edu/documents/DISSERTATIONS.pdf |website=Northwestern University Department of Sociology |date=September 2018}}</ref>
+After the trial, Weiner left Chicago after accepting an offer to teach in the sociology department of [[Rutgers University]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kisseloff |first1=Jeff |title=Generation On Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History |date=2007 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington, Ky. |isbn=978-0813124162 |oclc=68623920 |pages=94–95}}</ref> and moved to Brooklyn with his girlfriend at the time, Sharon Avery.<ref name="Waxman">{{cite web |last1=Waxman |first1=Olivia B. |title='Violence Was Inevitable': How 7 Key Players Remember the Chaos of 1968's Democratic National Convention Protests |url=https://time.com/5377386/1968-democratic-national-convention-protesters/ |website=TIME Magazine |date=August 28, 2018 |access-date=December 1, 2020 |archive-date=April 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421054922/https://time.com/5377386/1968-democratic-national-convention-protesters/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
-In the years following the trial, Weiner continued to work and protest for causes. He has worked for the [[Anti-Defamation League]] of B'nai B'rith in New York,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kifner |first1=John |title=Silver Protest Reunion For Yesteryear's Yippies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/30/nyregion/silver-protest-reunion-for-yesteryear-s-yippies.html |work=The New York Times |date=October 30, 1994}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Haberman |first1=Clyde |title=An Ex-Radical Puts Chicago 8 In Distant Past |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/02/nyregion/an-ex-radical-puts-chicago-8-in-distant-past.html |work=The New York Times |date=August 2, 1996}}</ref> participated in protests for Russian Jews and more funding for AIDS research,<ref>{{cite news |title=1960s radical Jerry Rubin, 56, dies in California of heart attack |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-11-29-1994333169-story.html |work=The Baltimore Sun |agency=New York Times News Service |date=November 29, 1994}}</ref> and was a vice president for direct response at the [[AmeriCares]] Foundation in Stamford, Connecticut.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bennett |first1=Kitty |title=Chicago Seven |url=https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-08-2010/chicago_seven.html |website=AARP Bulletin |publisher=AARP |access-date=1 December 2020 |date=August 27, 2010}}</ref> He currently resides in Florida.<ref name="Borrelli" />
+''People'' magazine reports, "At a birthday party for Black Panther leader [[Bobby Seale]] in 1972, Weiner was overheard joking that he was "starting a new Communist party in New Jersey." The remark turned up in print, and he was told that his teaching contract at Rutgers would not be renewed."<ref>{{cite web |last1=McCall |first1=Cheryl |title=Their Anger Behind Them, the Chicago 7 Declare Peace in the '70s |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20069021,00.html |website=People Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310012100/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20069021,00.html |archive-date=March 10, 2011 |date=September 12, 1977}}</ref> Weiner completed his PhD in sociology<ref name="Weiner">{{cite web |last1=Weiner |first1=Lee |title=Taking it to the Streets: Protesting at the 1968 Democratic National Convention |url=https://beltmag.com/chicago-7-1968-democratic-national-convention/ |website=Belt Magazine |date=July 23, 2020 |access-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029093611/https://beltmag.com/chicago-7-1968-democratic-national-convention/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and dissertation, ''The Professional Revolutionary: Notes on the Initiation and Development of Careers in Revolution Making'' in 1975.<ref>{{cite web |title=NU Sociology Dissertations, 1927 to present |url=https://sociology.northwestern.edu/documents/DISSERTATIONS.pdf |website=Northwestern University Department of Sociology |date=September 2018 |access-date=2020-10-26 |archive-date=2021-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925103104/https://sociology.northwestern.edu/documents/DISSERTATIONS.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
-== Works ==
+In the years following the trial, Weiner continued to work and protest for causes, including by participating in protests for Russian Jews and more funding for AIDS research.<ref>{{cite news |title=1960s radical Jerry Rubin, 56, dies in California of heart attack |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-11-29-1994333169-story.html |work=The Baltimore Sun |agency=New York Times News Service |date=November 29, 1994 |access-date=2020-12-01 |archive-date=2021-06-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210620124716/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-11-29-1994333169-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the 1980s, while residing in [[Washington, D.C.]], he ran a home-based fundraising and direct-mail firm for political candidates and organizations.<ref name="Gaines-Carter 1988">{{cite news |last1=Gaines-Carter |first1=Patrice |title=Twilight Time in the Days of Rage |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1988/07/17/twilight-time-in-the-days-of-rage/0be120be-a369-4879-9152-83a578306603/ |access-date=16 July 2022 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=July 17, 1988}}</ref> He later worked for the [[Anti-Defamation League]] of B'nai B'rith in New York,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kifner |first1=John |title=Silver Protest Reunion For Yesteryear's Yippies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/30/nyregion/silver-protest-reunion-for-yesteryear-s-yippies.html |work=The New York Times |date=October 30, 1994 |access-date=October 17, 2020 |archive-date=October 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016172156/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/30/nyregion/silver-protest-reunion-for-yesteryear-s-yippies.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Haberman |first1=Clyde |title=An Ex-Radical Puts Chicago 8 In Distant Past |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/02/nyregion/an-ex-radical-puts-chicago-8-in-distant-past.html |work=The New York Times |date=August 2, 1996 |access-date=October 27, 2020 |archive-date=October 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031104155/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/02/nyregion/an-ex-radical-puts-chicago-8-in-distant-past.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and was a vice president for direct response at the [[AmeriCares]] Foundation in Stamford, Connecticut.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bennett |first1=Kitty |title=Chicago Seven |url=https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-08-2010/chicago_seven.html |website=AARP Bulletin |publisher=AARP |access-date=1 December 2020 |date=August 27, 2010 |archive-date=2 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201002052250/https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-08-2010/chicago_seven.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He currently resides in Florida,<ref name="Borrelli" /> and has offered commentary on similarities from his experience and protests in 2020<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ahmad |first1=Meha |last2=Kueppers |first2=Courtney |title=Director Aaron Sorkin Says This Summer's Protests 'Looked Exactly Like Footage From 1968' |url=https://www.wbez.org/stories/aaron-sorkin-trial-of-the-chicago-7-speaks-to-this-moment/d95304af-deed-4e58-ab81-d70210a364e0 |website=WBEZChicago |access-date=31 January 2021 |date=November 21, 2020 |archive-date=16 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116191030/https://www.wbez.org/stories/aaron-sorkin-trial-of-the-chicago-7-speaks-to-this-moment/d95304af-deed-4e58-ab81-d70210a364e0 |url-status=live }}</ref> and 2021.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Biscobing |first1=Dave |title=Member of 'Chicago 7' compares Phoenix protest arrests to 1968 incident |url=https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/protest-arrests/member-of-chicago-7-compares-phoenix-protest-arrests-to-1968-incident |access-date=10 March 2021 |work=ABC15 |date=March 9, 2021 |archive-date=10 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310023129/https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/protest-arrests/member-of-chicago-7-compares-phoenix-protest-arrests-to-1968-incident |url-status=live }}</ref>
-=== ''Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7'' ===
-Weiner has written a memoir, ''Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weiner |first1=Lee |title=Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7 |date=August 4, 2020 |publisher=Belt Publishing |location=Cleveland, OH |isbn=9781948742689 |url=https://beltpublishing.com/products/conspiracy-to-riot}}</ref> about how "the actions that brought him before a jury and a vindictive government were part of a long tradition of American radicalism that had shaped him from an early age and remain directly relevant to today's efforts to change America for the better."<ref name="Belt product page" />
+== Memoir ==
-According to Malik Jackson, writing for ''South Side Weekly'', "[w]hen reading Weiner's recollection of the demonstrations, which mostly took place on Michigan Ave. and in Grant Park, one is struck by the similarities between this imagery and the events we've witnessed on our own streets in recent years. There is the common instance of police charging crowds and trampling protesters, picking out individuals at random to beat with clubs. There were other instances of undercover cops blending into the crowd to overhear strategic discussions between marshals and subsequently stalking them—which is how Weiner was caught and indicted."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jackson |first1=Malik |title=The Road There Is A Battlefield |url=https://southsideweekly.com/conspiracy-to-riot/ |work=South Side Weekly |date=October 14, 2020}}</ref>
+Weiner has written a memoir, ''Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7'', published in August 2020 by [[Belt Publishing]]. An excerpt was published by ''Belt Magazine'' on July 23, 2020.<ref name="Weiner" />
+According to Malik Jackson, writing for ''South Side Weekly'', "when reading Weiner's recollection of the demonstrations, which mostly took place on Michigan Ave. and in Grant Park, one is struck by the similarities between this imagery and the events we've witnessed on our own streets in recent years. There is the common instance of police charging crowds and trampling protesters, picking out individuals at random to beat with clubs. There were other instances of undercover cops blending into the crowd to overhear strategic discussions between marshals and subsequently stalking them—which is how Weiner was caught and indicted."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jackson |first1=Malik |title=The Road There Is A Battlefield |url=https://southsideweekly.com/conspiracy-to-riot/ |work=South Side Weekly |date=October 14, 2020 |access-date=December 1, 2020 |archive-date=December 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201210063843/https://southsideweekly.com/conspiracy-to-riot/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
-''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' describes the memoir as "a welcome addition to the library of the countercultural left," noting "Weiner closes with a stirring paean to activism. 'While a political life isn't easy,' he writes, 'and while frustration, anger, disappointment, fear, and confusion are sometimes pieces of it, I believe there is no more self-respecting, fulfilling life to try to lead.'"<ref>{{cite web |title=Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7 |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lee-weiner/conspiracy-to-riot/ |website=Kirkus Reviews |date=May 10, 2020}} Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020</ref>
+''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' describes the memoir as "a welcome addition to the library of the countercultural left," noting "Weiner closes with a stirring paean to activism. 'While a political life isn't easy,' he writes, 'and while frustration, anger, disappointment, fear, and confusion are sometimes pieces of it, I believe there is no more self-respecting, fulfilling life to try to lead.'"<ref>{{cite web |title=Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7 |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lee-weiner/conspiracy-to-riot/ |website=Kirkus Reviews |date=May 10, 2020 |access-date=July 10, 2020 |archive-date=July 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713090713/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lee-weiner/conspiracy-to-riot/ |url-status=live }} Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020</ref>
-The book was published in August 2020 by [[Belt Publishing]],<ref name="Belt product page" /> and an excerpt was published by ''Belt Magazine'' on July 23, 2020.<ref name="Weiner" />
 ==Media==
-* [[Jeremy Kagan]] interviews Lee Weiner in 1987 in ''[[Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8]]'' for a personal account of his experiences.
+* [[Jeremy Kagan]] interviewed Lee Weiner in 1987 in ''[[Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8]]'' for a personal account of his experiences.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kagan |first1=Jeremy |title=Lee Weiner Interview 1987 |url=https://vimeo.com/478178769#at=154 |website=Vimeo |date=11 November 2020 |access-date=31 January 2021 |quote=a personal account of his experiences as a defendant in the Chicago Trial recreated in the award winning movie CONSPIRACY:The Trial of the Chicago 8 |archive-date=3 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203205605/https://vimeo.com/478178769#at=154 |url-status=live }}</ref>
-* Oren Nimni and [[Nathan J. Robinson]] of ''[[Current Affairs (magazine)|Current Affairs]]'' conduct a live interview with Lee Weiner, who "speaks about his childhood as a red diaper baby, becoming involved with radical anti-war politics, and being put on mass-televised trial for conspiracy and inciting to riot outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention."
+* Oren Nimni and [[Nathan J. Robinson]] of ''[[Current Affairs (magazine)|Current Affairs]]'' conducted a live interview with Lee Weiner, who "speaks about his childhood as a red diaper baby, becoming involved with radical anti-war politics, and being put on mass-televised trial for conspiracy and inciting to riot outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Robinson |first1=Nathan |last2=Nimni |first2=Oren |title=Lee Weiner of the Chicago Seven on "conspiracy to riot" |url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/40659979 |website=Patreon |publisher=Current Affairs |access-date=31 January 2021 |date=August 20, 2020 |archive-date=16 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201216181423/https://www.patreon.com/posts/40659979 |url-status=live }}</ref>
-* Malik Jackson of ''South Side Weekly'' conducts a live interview with Lee Weiner about his memoir Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago Seven. "In the conversation, Weiner discusses his life of activism beyond the famous trial where he and seven other organizers were targeted and tried for conspiracy in federal court for their role in the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention."
+* Malik Jackson of ''South Side Weekly'' conducted a live interview with Lee Weiner about his memoir Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago Seven. "In the conversation, Weiner discusses his life of activism beyond the famous trial where he and seven other organizers were targeted and tried for conspiracy in federal court for their role in the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jackson |first1=Malik |title=Lee Weiner of the Chicago 8 |url=https://soundcloud.com/south-side-weekly-radio/lee-weiner-of-the-chicago-8 |website=Soundcloud |publisher=SSW Radio |access-date=31 January 2021 |archive-date=18 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201118173702/https://soundcloud.com/south-side-weekly-radio/lee-weiner-of-the-chicago-8 |url-status=live }}</ref>
+*"The story of the Chicago 7 trial" (Interview with Lee Weiner, ''CBS Sunday Morning'', October 4, 2020)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Tracy |title=The story of the Chicago 7 trial |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_7uZwOgUXY  |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211217/v_7uZwOgUXY |archive-date=2021-12-17 |url-status=live|website=YouTube |publisher=CBS Sunday Morning |access-date=31 January 2021 |date=October 4, 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Retelling the story of the Chicago 7 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-trial-of-the-chicago-7-aaron-sorkin-sacha-baron-cohen/ |access-date=31 January 2021 |work=CBS News |date=October 4, 2020 |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201120632/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-trial-of-the-chicago-7-aaron-sorkin-sacha-baron-cohen/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
-*"The story of the Chicago 7 trial" (Interview with Lee Weiner, ''CBS Sunday Morning'', October 4, 2020)
+* Phil Manicki interviewed Lee Weiner about his history as a protester, his work as a community organizer, the Chicago Seven, and more.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Manicki |first1=Phil |last2=benandersonwgnam |title=American activist Lee Weiner on the Chicago Seven and more |url=https://wgnradio.com/pinch-hitters/american-activist-lee-weiner-on-the-chicago-seven-more/ |website=WGNRadio720 |access-date=31 January 2021 |date=November 28, 2020 |archive-date=18 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118031159/https://wgnradio.com/pinch-hitters/american-activist-lee-weiner-on-the-chicago-seven-more/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
-* Justin Kaufmann of WBEZ/91.5 Chicago interviews Lee Weiner in Aaron Sorkin: 'Trial Of The Chicago 7’ Speaks To This Moment (October 15, 2020)
+* In 2021, Weiner, [[Aaron Sorkin]], [[Sacha Baron Cohen]], [[Dolores Huerta]], [[Baratunde Thurston]], [[Jill Wine-Banks]] and [[Olivia Munn]] participated in ''Chicago 7 Town Hall: Voices For Change'' by [[Netflix]], moderated by [[Katty Kay]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Chicago 7 Town Hall: Voices For Change |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QFk_VFzzS0 |website=YouTube |publisher=[[Netflix]] |access-date=21 January 2022 |archive-date=21 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121035014/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QFk_VFzzS0 |url-status=live }}</ref>
-* [[Jon Wiener]] of the ''Trump Watch Podcast'' interviews Lee Weiner "about the movie, and what really happened."
-* Phil Manicki interviews Lee Weiner about his history as a protester, his work as a community organizer, the Chicago Seven, and more.
 ==Popular culture==
-* Weiner was portrayed by Robert Fieldsteel and appears in the 1987 film ''[[Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8]].'' "The people who were growing up then are in positions of authority now," Weiner said in 1987, "and this was real important in people's lives. Politics is real, again, in people's lives. The message of the trial is that people can and should act politically. In almost every context, there's a way to act politically, effectively."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Beale |first1=Lewis |title=Disorder in the court: HBO movie re-creates raucous Chicago 7 trial |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-02-15-8701120634-story.html |website=The Chicago Tribune |date=February 15, 1987}}</ref>
+* Weiner was portrayed by Robert Fieldsteel and appears in the 1987 film ''[[Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8]].'' "The people who were growing up then are in positions of authority now," Weiner said in 1987, "and this was real important in people's lives. Politics is real, again, in people's lives. The message of the trial is that people can and should act politically. In almost every context, there's a way to act politically, effectively."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Beale |first1=Lewis |title=Disorder in the court: HBO movie re-creates raucous Chicago 7 trial |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-02-15-8701120634-story.html |website=The Chicago Tribune |date=February 15, 1987 |access-date=2020-10-29 |archive-date=2023-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203205605/https://www.chicagotribune.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
 * Marc Aubin portrayed Weiner in the 2000 film ''[[Steal This Movie!]]''
 * Chuck Montgomery portrayed Weiner in the 2007 film ''[[Chicago 10 (film)|Chicago 10]]''
 * [[Aaron Abrams]] portrayed Weiner in the 2011 film ''[[The Chicago 8]]''
-* Weiner was portrayed by [[Noah Robbins]] in the 2020 drama film ''[[The Trial of the Chicago 7]]''. Weiner told ''The Mirror'' he believes their story is highly relevant to 2020, and “It is a movie. It is not a documentary. The movie does work – it shows and tells people that resistance to injustice is both possible and necessary – whether it be on the streets with brutal police or in a biased, ugly courtroom."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Killelea |first1=Amanda |title=The Chicago Seven's Lee Weiner on how 2020 struggles show "we haven't won yet" |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/tv-film-news/chicago-sevens-lee-weiner-how-22899999 |website=The Mirror |date=October 24, 2020}}</ref>
+* Weiner was portrayed by [[Noah Robbins]] in the 2020 Sorkin film ''[[The Trial of the Chicago 7]]''. When discussing "creative liberties with history" taken by Sorkin "that end up distorting it," [[Nathan J. Robinson]] of ''[[Current Affairs (magazine)|Current Affairs]]'' notes, "defendant Lee Weiner was extremely hairy and hippie-ish but is presented in the film as clean-cut and nerdy."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Robinson|first=Nathan J.|url=https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/10/the-real-abbie-hoffman|title=The Real Abbie Hoffman: Why it's impossible to Sorkin-ize the great revolutionary clown|access-date=November 12, 2020|date=October 22, 2020|journal=Current Affairs|archive-date=November 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101090250/https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/10/the-real-abbie-hoffman|url-status=live}}</ref> Weiner told ''The Mirror'' he believes their story is highly relevant to 2020, and “It is a movie. It is not a documentary. The movie does work – it shows and tells people that resistance to injustice is both possible and necessary – whether it be on the streets with brutal police or in a biased, ugly courtroom."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Killelea |first1=Amanda |title=The Chicago Seven's Lee Weiner on how 2020 struggles show "we haven't won yet" |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/tv-film-news/chicago-sevens-lee-weiner-how-22899999 |website=The Mirror |date=October 24, 2020 |access-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029215351/https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/tv-film-news/chicago-sevens-lee-weiner-how-22899999 |url-status=live }}</ref>
 ==References==
@@ Line 61: / Line 78: @@
 ==External links==
 * Linder, D.O., [https://www.famous-trials.com/chicago8/1348-weinerl Biography of Lee Weiner], ''Famous Trials'', UMKC School of Law.
-* Lee Weiner, [https://www.leeweinerchicago7.com/conspiracy-to-riot Conspiracy To Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7] (Author page, Belt Publishing)
 {{Chicago Seven}}
@@ Line 71: / Line 87: @@
 [[Category:Living people]]
 [[Category:1939 births]]
-[[Category:American Jews]]
+[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
 [[Category:Writers from Chicago]]
+[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
+[[Category:Northwestern University alumni]]
+[[Category:University of Illinois alumni]]
+[[Category:Loyola University Chicago alumni]]
+[[Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni]]
+[[Category:Jewish anti-war activists]]
+[[Category:Jewish American activists]]

v t e Chicago Seven
Defendants	Rennie Davis David Dellinger John Froines Tom Hayden Abbie Hoffman Jerry Rubin Bobby Seale Lee Weiner
Lawyers/Judge	William Kunstler (defense lawyer) Leonard Weinglass Julius Hoffman (judge) Tom Foran (prosecutor) Richard Schultz
Supporters	Center for Constitutional Rights Stew Albert Noam Chomsky Judy Collins Bernardine Dohrn Allen Ginsberg Judy Gumbo Anita Hoffman Paul Krassner Nancy Kurshan Timothy Leary Norman Mailer Country Joe McDonald Graham Nash Phil Ochs Pigasus Ed Sanders
Context	Youth International Party (Yippies) 1968 Democratic National Convention protests "The whole world is watching" Counterculture of the 1960s National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam Mayor Richard J. Daley Vietnam War opposition Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968 book) Weather Underground
Media	"Chicago" (1970 song) Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (1987 film) Steal This Movie! (2000 film) Chicago 10 (2007 film) William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe (2009 documentary) The Chicago 8 (2011 film) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020 film)