Berkeley Tribe
Encyclopedia
The Berkeley Tribe was a radical counterculture underground newspaper
published in Berkeley, California
from 1969 to 1972. After a staff dispute with publisher Max Scherr
split the Berkeley Barb
in July 1969, about 40 members of the Barb staff resigned and started the Tribe as a rival paper, after putting out a one-shot issue called Barb on Strike. They called themselves the Red Mountain Tribe, after a favorite brand of cheap California wine. The Tribe quickly positioned itself as both more radical and more countercultural than Scherr's Barb, and was initially successful, with a circulation of 53,000 copies. The Tribe was published weekly from its first issue in July, 1969 until February 1972, when it went biweekly for its final issues, folding in May. Like the Barb it was sold on the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley by hippie street vendors. It belonged to both the Underground Press Syndicate
and the Liberation News Service
.
One of the paper's early managers was Lee Felsenstein
, a Barb staffer who had joined the general exodus to form the Tribe. Felsenstein later left to return to UC Berkeley and finish his degree in engineering, becoming one of the inventors of the personal computer.
In November 1969, record companies began to withdraw their advertising and the Tribe lost $17,000 a month in revenue, making it difficult to pay both their printers and their street vendors. In the meantime a sharp drop in readership occurred, with sales plummeting from 60,000 copies to 29,000 in the space of a single month in November, according to Tribe business manager Lionel Haines. This was followed by a staff split in December, with about 14 of the more pacifistic, culturally oriented hippie
staff leaving, after a fight with the more confrontational New Left
staff who were pushing to make the paper more political, along the lines of the Weather Underground
. The reorganized staff published communiques from the Weathermen
and a special Black Panthers edition. In the 6 March 1970, issue the Tribe informed its readers in a collective editorial that the time had come to "pick up the gun" to combat police and military oppression, urging its Berkeley readers to buy weapons and form "People's Militia" units for self-defense. A few weeks later the newspaper's front page consisted of a single quotation in large type from Ronald Reagan
(at that time governor of California): "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with." The Tribe continued publishing until 1972, but by the end the arcane, jargon-ridden North Korean style revolutionary politics that by then dominated the paper had alienated much of the Tribes former audience.
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
published in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
from 1969 to 1972. After a staff dispute with publisher Max Scherr
Max Scherr
Max Scherr was an American underground newspaper editor and publisher known for his iconoclastic 1960s weekly, the Berkeley Barb....
split the Berkeley Barb
Berkeley Barb
The Berkeley Barb was a weekly underground newspaper that was published in Berkeley, California, from 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers of the late 1960s, covering such subjects as the anti-war and civil-rights movements as well as the...
in July 1969, about 40 members of the Barb staff resigned and started the Tribe as a rival paper, after putting out a one-shot issue called Barb on Strike. They called themselves the Red Mountain Tribe, after a favorite brand of cheap California wine. The Tribe quickly positioned itself as both more radical and more countercultural than Scherr's Barb, and was initially successful, with a circulation of 53,000 copies. The Tribe was published weekly from its first issue in July, 1969 until February 1972, when it went biweekly for its final issues, folding in May. Like the Barb it was sold on the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley by hippie street vendors. It belonged to both the Underground Press Syndicate
Underground Press Syndicate
The Underground Press Syndicate, commonly known as UPS, and later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate or APS, was a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines formed in mid-1966 by the publishers of five early underground papers: the East Village Other, the Los Angeles Free Press, the...
and the Liberation News Service
Liberation News Service
Liberation News Service was a New Left, Underground press news service which published news bulletins from 1967 to 1981.-History:The Liberation News Service was co-founded in the summer of 1967 by Ray Mungo and Marshall Bloom after the two of them were separated from the United States Student...
.
One of the paper's early managers was Lee Felsenstein
Lee Felsenstein
Lee Felsenstein is an American computer engineer who played a central role in the development of the personal computer...
, a Barb staffer who had joined the general exodus to form the Tribe. Felsenstein later left to return to UC Berkeley and finish his degree in engineering, becoming one of the inventors of the personal computer.
In November 1969, record companies began to withdraw their advertising and the Tribe lost $17,000 a month in revenue, making it difficult to pay both their printers and their street vendors. In the meantime a sharp drop in readership occurred, with sales plummeting from 60,000 copies to 29,000 in the space of a single month in November, according to Tribe business manager Lionel Haines. This was followed by a staff split in December, with about 14 of the more pacifistic, culturally oriented hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
staff leaving, after a fight with the more confrontational New Left
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
staff who were pushing to make the paper more political, along the lines of the Weather Underground
Weather Underground (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
. The reorganized staff published communiques from the Weathermen
Weather Underground (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
and a special Black Panthers edition. In the 6 March 1970, issue the Tribe informed its readers in a collective editorial that the time had come to "pick up the gun" to combat police and military oppression, urging its Berkeley readers to buy weapons and form "People's Militia" units for self-defense. A few weeks later the newspaper's front page consisted of a single quotation in large type from Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
(at that time governor of California): "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with." The Tribe continued publishing until 1972, but by the end the arcane, jargon-ridden North Korean style revolutionary politics that by then dominated the paper had alienated much of the Tribes former audience.