Abbie Hoffman Biography

Though to some his attention-grabbing tactics made him a clown, he successfully turned flower children into potent political activists.

The Jewish Hoffman grew up in a conservative, non-Jewish working class neighbourhood in Worchester.

As a teenager he was known as a tough character about the town. He became a civil rights activist when at university in Brandeis and Berkeley.

In 1967 Hoffman became a household name. In August he led anti-capitalists demonstrators into the New York Times Stock Exchange.

To illustrate the base nature of the money business, the protestors dropped fistfuls of dollars from the gallery onto the traders below. The brokers spilt from their ranks, scrambling frantically over one another in a near-riot to snatch the green bills.

Later in the year, Hoffman organised the 'Exorcism of the Pentagon', a massive anti-war demonstration. With 50,000 people, he marched to the pentagonal monolith, surrounded it and the crowd attempted to levitate the building with their combined psychic force.

Hoffman named his followers The Yippies (the Youth International Party) and held the Festival of Life in 1968 to disrupt the Democratic National Convention. The festival ended in a riot and arrests; the case was known as the Chicago Seven. Hoffman was acquitted of all charges.

A full-time activist for the next five years, Hoffman was arrested for cocaine dealing in 1973. Facing a mandatory life sentence, he hid for six years, tried to cover his identity with plastic surgery and had several nervous breakdowns.

He re-emerged in 1980 to serve a brief prison term and then returned to activism. But the political mood of the campus had changed: it was the 80’s and capitalism was cool.

Hoffman killed himself in 1989.