Seattle Liberation Front

The Seattle Liberation Front, or SLF, was a radical anti-Vietnam War organization in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. The group, founded by then-University of Washington professor and political activist Michael Lerner, carried out its protest activities from 1970 to 1971.

The most famous members of the SLF were the "Seattle Seven" — seven SLF members charged with "conspiracy to incite a riot" in the wake of a violent protest at a courthouse. The members of the Seattle Seven were Lerner himself, as well as Jeff Dowd, Joe Kelly, Susan Stern, Michael Abeles, Chip Marshall, and Roger Lippman.

Formation

After the nationwide organization Students for a Democratic Society disintegrated in 1969, Michael Lerner, an instructor newly arrived in Seattle from Berkeley, California, felt compelled to start up his own local group. He kick-started his efforts by inviting Jerry Rubin, a notable counterculture figure, to speak on campus on January 17 – two days later, the SLF was formed, largely composed of students and radicals coming out of organizations (like the SDS) that had recently disbanded. One of the SLF's first actions was to hold a demonstration in favor of the Chicago Seven, a group of radicals charged with inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The demonstration

SLF planned a demonstration to be held at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle on February 17, 1970. It is commonly referred to by former SLF members as "The Day After" or "TDA." Whether because the SLF was still a young organization or because the turnout was much higher than expected, the demonstration quickly got out of hand. The roughly 2,000 protestors in attendance escalated their protests into violence, throwing rocks and paint bombs at both the courthouse and at police responding to the scene. Twenty were injured in the riot, and 76 were arrested.

The charges and trial

Two months later, on April 16, a federal grand jury indicted eight members of the SLF on charges of inciting the February 17 riot (one of the eight, Michael Justesen, disappeared but was later [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912056-1,00.html arrested in California by the FBI] in an infiltration of the Weather Underground). Federal District Judge George Boldt was assigned the case, which began in his Tacoma courtroom on November 6, 1970. The trial was quickly derailed by the defendants' vocal disruptions and the defendants walked out in protest at one point. Boldt declared a mistrial on December 10, citing all defendants for contempt of court. The contempt charges were eventually settled out of court by plea bargain in 1972, and all defendants served a brief sentence in federal minimum security prison. The charges of inciting a riot were never formally settled: most observers agreed that the prosecution's case was floundering (aided by the admission of government witnesses on the stand that they would "go to any length" to combat the radicals) and that no convictions would likely result.

The aftermath

The SLF disbanded in late 1971, and the members went on to other pursuits. Lerner, the founder, eventually edited "Tikkun", and then became an advisor to President Clinton and Hillary Clinton. Jeff Dowd went to Hollywood to become a screenwriter and producer (the character Jeffery "The Dude" Lebowski from "The Big Lebowski" is based on Dowd). Chip Marshall remained active in Washington politics, running for Seattle City Council in 1976 and working as a neighborhood activist in Issaquah.

Pop culture references

In the film The Big Lebowski (1998), the main character, Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, references the Seattle Seven:

:The Dude: Did you ever hear of "The Seattle Seven"?:Maude Lebowski: Mmm.:The Dude: That was me ... and six other guys.

"The Dude" is based on Jeff Dowd, a friend of the Coen Brothers.

External links

* [http://content.lib.washington.edu/protestsweb/index.html University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections - Vietnam War Era Ephemera] This collection contains leaflets and newspapers that were distributed on the University of Washington campus during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Includes ephemera from the Seattle Liberation Front.