Liberation Magazine (1956–1977) was a monthly magazine, of the New Left compared with Dissent (magazine), and Studies on the Left.[1]
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"Liberation" was founded, published, and edited by David Dellinger, A. J. Muste from 1956–1975 out of New York. A. J. Muste brought funding from the War Resisters League.[2][3]
For Bayard Rustin the magazine was a major commitment of time and energy, raising money and meeting every week with Muste.[4]
He wrote to Martin Luther King,[5] who later wrote for the magazine.
The New Left positions of the magazine compared with Dissent (magazine), and Studies on the Left.[6]
The magazine supported the Cuban Revolution, with the article C. Wright Mills' Listen Yankee,[7] leading to Roy Finch's resignation from the editorial board.[8]
The magazine supported SDS, and anti-Vietnam War.[9]
The magazine supported unilateral Nuclear disarmament, FOR organizers, and worked as a clearinghouse of activists, non-violence.[10]
Louis Ginsberg, father of Allen Ginsberg, had a poem published in it.[11]
In the 1970s it became increasingly "collectivized." By 1977 the magazine was edited by Jan Edwards and Michael Nill out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Following Dellinger's departure was gone, it went the way of most left publications of that era and concentrated on the personal as political. It presumably ceased publication not long thereafter. For many years, though, "Liberation" was a thoughtful and provocative addition to the pacifist left. In addition to occasional theoretical pieces, it also focused on investigative journalism. In early 1965, for example, it ran long articles by Vincent Salandria challenging the conclusions of the Warren Commission, and in 1975 it published an important article by Fred Landis on psychological warfare by the CIA in Chile.
Dave Dellinger graduated from Yale and then served time in prison for refusing to register for the draft in World War II. He was subsequently arrested numerous times for pacifist demonstrations. Dellinger was a leading figure in the movement against the war in Vietnam. At age 54 was the oldest member of the Chicago Eight, the group that was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy and incitement to riot at the Democratic convention in August 1968. His recent autobiography is titled From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter (Pantheon, 1993).[12]