The Ideological Impetus and Struggle in Praxis for Multiracial Radical Alliances in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1967-1980 by Aaron Byungjoo Bae A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved November 2016 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Matthew Garcia, Chair Karen J. Leong Matthew Delmont ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY December 2016 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the history of multiracial alliances among internationalist radical activists in the San Francisco Bay Area from the late 1960s through the 1970s. Using the approaches of social movement history and intellectual history, I critically assess the ideological motivations radicals held for building alliances and the difficulties they encountered with their subsequent coalitional work in four areas of coalescence—the antiwar movement, political prisoner solidarity, higher education, and electoral politics. Radical activists sought to dismantle the systemic racism (as well as economic exploitation, patriarchy, and the intersections of these oppressions) that structured U.S. society, through the creation of broad-based movements with likeminded organizations. The activists in this study also held an orientation toward internationalist solidarity, linking the structural oppressions against which they struggled in the United States to the Vietnam War and other U.S. militaristic interventions overseas and viewing these entanglements as interconnected forces that exploited the masses around the world. Scholarly and popular interpretations of Sixties radical movements have traditionally characterized them as narrowly-focused and divisive. In contrast, my research highlights the persistent desire among Bay Area radicals to form alliances across these decades, which I argue demonstrates the importance of collaborative organizing within these activist networks. Scholarship on coalitional politics also tends to emphasize “unlikely alliances” between “strange bedfellows.” In contrast, this project illuminates how sharing similar ideological principles predisposed these radical organizations to creating alliances with others. Coalitions remain integral to contemporary social and political movements, and excavating the possibilities but also problems within previous i broad-based organizing efforts provides a usable history for understanding and confronting societal issues in the present day. At the same time, the multifarious manifestations of racism and other systems of inequality demonstrate the need to first understand how these oppressions affect minority groups uniquely, before we can understand how they affect groups in comparison to each other. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is as much of a testament to the people and institutions that supported me over the years as it is to my development into a historian. Eloquently and thoroughly thanking all these people and institutions is impossible with these allotted three pages, but please know that without you, I would not have reached this point. My dissertation advisory committee at Arizona State University came on board to this project at various points of my graduate career and stuck with me through all my inconsistencies and problems. Matt Garcia, Karen Leong, and Matt Delmont guided me during the times I lost direction and gave me affirmation that I could do this work and do it well. Thank you all for your enthusiasm, sharp critiques, and opening doors to new opportunities during my time here. Jackie Willy, Rio Hartwell, John Romero, Miles Campos, Tyler Kirk, Phil Skorohodov, James Dupey, Brianna Theobald, Rebecca Baird, Farina King, Grace Hunt Watkinson, Stephen Pederson, Pete Van Cleave, Victoria Jackson, Nichole Lucero, Dave Dupey, Cody Ferguson, John Goodwin, and Karla Alonso were among those who made the History program at ASU friendly in classes and gatherings, especially with sharing our work and receiving their advice throughout this process. Rudy Guevarra and Anna Holian served as my second and third members on my comparative migrations secondary field qualifying exams. Aaron Moore, Victoria Thompson, Catherine O’Donnell, Katherine Osburn, Mark von Hagen, Matthew Whitaker, Donald Critchlow, Gayle Gullett, Paul Hirt, and Jaime Aguila, were among the current and former History faculty who influenced my development. The Ethnic Studies Working Group and American Studies Research Cluster were wonderful interdisciplinary spaces that expanded my iii scholarly mind and connected me with other warm people, including Sujey Vega, Lee Bebout, Wendy Cheng, and Kathy Nakagawa. Special thanks to the office staff for the School of Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, who work tirelessly to keep operations running despite little thanks from most and continual budget cuts. My time at Claremont Graduate University and Baylor University laid the foundation for the scholar I would become. CGU faculty including Janet Brodie, Robert Dawidoff, Daniel Lewis, and Lisa Pozas, along with Rita Roberts, April Mayes, and Hal Barron from the other Claremont Colleges, helped build me to the point where I could undertake my doctoral studies. Bryan Price, Dean Adachi, Bridget and Eric Lawlor and Sarah and Richard Ross remain good friends, even though I can’t visit anymore as much as I’d like. I first learned about the process through which we create historical interpretations at Baylor University, particularly under the mentorship of James SoRelle, Michael Parrish, Keith Francis, and D.E. Mungello. Through their literature courses, Mona Choucair and Luke Ferretter helped me think more critically about the power of narrative. Among the scholars outside of ASU who shared their critiques and commendations about my research and became friends are Daryl Maeda, Diane Fujino, Leighton Quarles, Ally Brantley, Ryan Fukumori, Destiney Linker, Celeste Menchaca, Brian Behnken, Felipe Hinojosa, Ernesto Chavez, Jimmy Patiño, Mark Ocegueda, Douglas Henry Daniels, Mark Brilliant, and Michael Innis-Jimenez. Your work inspires me to meet the standard you set. I received institutional funding for this project from the Max Millett Family, the Emma Goldman Travel Grant, SHPRS, and Graduate Education. Outside of ASU, the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, Organization of American iv Historians Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, the Southwest Oral History Association, and the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University provided funding for my research and conferences. I am grateful to the staff at the institutions where I researched for this project, including the Freedom Archives, the Bancroft Library, the Hoover Institution, and the special collections at Stanford University, UCLA, and UC Santa Cruz. Thank you to Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, Katarina del Valle Thompson, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Manuel Gomez, Alex Gonzalez, Robert Hoover, Ying Lee, and Cheryl Perry-League for the stories you shared with me and making our society a freer place. My friends outside of the university remind me of the importance of humility in the work I do. Thanks go out to David Joo, Michael Lu, Yan Gorman, Aaron Dinga Rich and Aimee Baek, London and Humphrey Shin, Leigh Ann and Edward Kim, Jane and BJ Oh, Daniel and Becky An, Mina Choi, Hwihyun Kim, Pastor Chris Yi, Susan and Eugene Chung, and many others between the Bay Area and Arizona. Finally, I do not have enough words to express my gratitude to my family. To my aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids, I’m finally finished with school! Jean Bae and Laurie Bae Matschoss have given me their sisterly love, and I’m so glad that Frank, Phan, and little Elliott are part of our family now too. My parents, Eunice and Howard Bae, and I have not always seen eye-to-eye with my career path but always gave me a foundation of support spiritually, emotionally, and financially that I could not have finished this project without. Nothing makes me prouder about this project than having made you proud. Thank you always for everything, Mom and Dad. To the Almighty and to the Lord, thank You for every day of life that You give, Your unending mercies and grace, and for sustaining me through this work. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER Page 1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. 1 2. MIGRATIONS, URBAN CRISIS, AND THE ROOTS OF THE MULTIRACIAL RADICAL SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA.................................................................................................................... 24 3. THE “VIETNAM TURN”: THE BAY AREA RADICAL TRADITION, ANTI- IMPERIALISM, AND THE 1967 SPRING MOBILIZATION AGAINST THE WAR..................................................................................................................... 61 4. ANTI-IMPERIALISM AT HOME: THE POLITICAL PRISONER MOVEMENTS TO FREE HUEY P. NEWTON AND ANGELA Y. DAVIS... 89 5. TO LIBERATE CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY: NAIROBI COLLEGE, VENCEREMOS COLLEGE, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF- DETERMINATION IN THE SOUTHERN SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA 142 6. SELF-DETERMINATION WITHIN THE SYSTEM?: THE DILEMMAS OF INTERNATIONALIST RADICALS ENTERING LOCAL ELECTORAL POLITICS IN 1970S BERKELEY AND OAKLAND...................................... 178 7. CONCLUSION: THE DECLINE AND LEGACY OF INTERNATIONALIST RADICALISM IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA............................... 217 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................... 228 vi CHAPTER ONE Introduction