Activisism Works!

Don't tell me there's no hope. We need to tell our history to the youngsters and keep the faith. From Crooks & Liars & YouTube comes raw truth from the cultural revolution of the 70s. Magnificent moments include John & Yoko performing, Allen Ginsburg chanting and best of all, John Sinclair's beautiful daughter running into his arms exclaiming "Daddy's FREE!":
“20 To Life: The Life and Times of John Sinclair”
By: Mark Groubert on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 10:01 PM - PST
Documentary reviewed by Mark Groubert
“Apathy isn’t it. And we can do something. So flower power didn’t work. So what! We start again.”
John Lennon
John Sinclair Freedom Rally, Crisler Arena, Michigan - December 10, 1971.
If it was up to Richard Nixon, 20 To Life: The Life and Times of John Sinclair, a documentary by Steve Gebhardt, would never have seen the light of day. Hired as the private experimental filmmaker for John Lennon and Yoko Ono back in 1971, Gebhardt was working on a full-length music video to help promote Lennon’s upcoming album, Imagine when he and Lennon heard about the benefit concert to help free political activist John Sinclair from prison.
Sinclair, head of the White Panther Party, manager of the seminal rock band the MC5 and one of the leading radical elements of the Midwest had been targeted by Detroit undercover cops who arrested him for passing two joints. Facing 20 years to life and actually sentenced to 9 1/2 years for the crime, Sinclair became the focus of a huge benefit concert at the Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan featuring John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seeger, Phil Ochs, MC-5, Allen Ginsberg, Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels and others.
Over 20,000 people attended the show.
Having already spent nearly three years behind bars, John Sinclair was freed from prison just three days after the event.