Bill Zimmerman (activist)

Last updated
Bill Zimmerman
Bill Zimmerman.jpg
BornDecember 26, 1940
Chicago IL
NationalityAmerican
Other namesWilliam B. Zimmerman
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
OccupationPolitical Consultant
Years active1976-2016
Known forPolitical campaign manager and media consultant, writer/author, political activist.

Bill Zimmerman is an American political consultant and author who was an anti-war activist during the Vietnam War.

Contents

Life

Bill Zimmerman worked briefly for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi in 1963, [1] [2] then joined the civil rights and antiwar movements while being trained as a research scientist at the University of Chicago. [3] He received a Ph.D. in 1967 and taught at Brooklyn College (1967–69) and the University of Chicago (1970–71). [4]

Zimmerman left academia when he learned that his research might have military applications. [4] He was a full-time antiwar activist from 1971 to 1975. [3] [4] In 1976, he managed Tom Hayden’s US Senate campaign in California [5] [6] and produced advertising for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. [7] Subsequently, he founded two national political consulting firms, Zimmerman, Galanty, Fiman & Dixon (1981-1988) [8] and Zimmerman & Markman (1991-2016). [9] Both served Democratic candidates, progressive ballot initiatives, and public interest organizations.

Political activism

While a student at the University of Chicago, Zimmerman marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and joined antiwar demonstrations, including the seizure of the university’s administration building in 1966. [2] [4] As a professor at Brooklyn College, he sat in to block US Navy recruiters, [10] helped lead a student/faculty strike, [11] organized students and faculty for the March on the Pentagon, [4] and worked for open admissions for Black and Puerto Rican students. [12]

Leaving science to protest weapons research, [9] Zimmerman helped form Science for the People, a national organization of scientists that questioned the military and commercial applications of new knowledge. [13] He led militant protests at the annual conventions of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago in 1970 [14] and in Philadelphia in 1971. [15]

Zimmerman was a coordinator of the 1971 Mayday protests in Washington DC. [2] Later in 1971 and throughout 1972, he built Boston-based Medical Aid for Indochina into a national antiwar organization and became its executive director. [2] [3] Zimmerman went to North Vietnam in May 1972 to film civilian bomb damage, producing the documentary, Village By Village, [16] [17] part of which was broadcast by CBS News on Sixty Minutes . [18] Following the bombing of Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital, [19] Zimmerman led the US effort to rebuild the facility. [20]

When armed American Indian Movement protesters took over Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in early 1973, and FBI agents and US Marshals laid siege to the village, [21] Zimmerman organized an airborne food drop. [22] Three airplanes flying in formation, with Zimmerman piloting the lead aircraft, parachuted 1,500 pounds of food into the village. [2] [6]

In 1974, Zimmerman joined Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda in Santa Monica to help lead the Indochina Peace Campaign, a national organization lobbying Congress to cut off military funding for the government of South Vietnam. [2] [6] Military appropriations were reduced in 1974 and 1975, and the war in Vietnam ended. [2]

In 1974, Zimmerman also partnered with radical civil rights attorney, Joan Andersson, to assist Black Panther co-founder, Huey Newton, then a fugitive, flee to Cuba where he was safe from extradition. [6] The collaboration led to their long-lasting marriage. [6] [2]

In 1981, Zimmerman and Andersson recruited actor Ed Asner, producer Bert Schneider, and other celebrities to join Medical Aid for El Salvador (MAES), an organization that worked to prevent US military intervention and assist civilians injured in areas controlled by the revolutionaries. [23] [24]

Political consulting

In 1977, after managing Tom Hayden’s California U.S. Senate campaign, [5] Zimmerman started Loudspeaker, a political media partnership. [7] In 1980, he managed Barry Commoner’s Citizens Party campaign for the presidency. [25]

In 1981, Zimmerman joined Sidney Galanty and Jack Fiman to form the political consulting and media firm, Zimmerman, Galanty & Fiman, joined in 1984 by Daniel Dixon. [8] [13] They created winning campaigns for Proposition 12, the nuclear freeze ballot initiative in California, [8] [26] Congressman Lane Evans of Illinois, [27] Governor Toney Anaya of New Mexico, [8] [13] Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago, [28] [29] Sen. Gary Hart in the 1984 California presidential primary, [30] and many other candidates. [13]

In 1983, the firm began to film The Jane Fonda Workout videotape series. [8] [31] In 1986, Zimmerman briefly managed California Chief Justice Rose Bird’s ill-fated attempt to remain in office. [31] [32] In 1987, his firm joined Countdown ’87, a public education and lobbying campaign that helped cut off Congressional funding for the Contra War in Nicaragua. [33] [34]

Zimmerman managed the successful Proposition 103 campaign in 1988, the California ballot initiative that lowered auto insurance rates and regulated the state’s property-casualty industry. [35] [36] [37]

With Pacy Markman, he formed Zimmerman & Markman in 1991. Their company helped pass a 1994 ballot initiative that established physician-assisted suicide in Oregon. [9] They worked in El Salvador for presidential candidate, Ruben Zamora, [37] and managed Proposition 63 in 2004, the California ballot initiative that raised taxes on million-dollar earners to expand mental health programs for the homeless. [9] Beyond election work, the firm provided strategic communications for the American Civil Liberties Union, Greenpeace, People for the American Way, and numerous other public interest groups. [9]

In 1996, the firm began a six-year association with George Soros and other funders to reform the nation’s drug laws. [38] With Zimmerman managing and the firm providing advertising, Zimmerman & Markman first passed California Proposition 215 in 1996 to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana, then won similar victories in 1998 in Alaska, Nevada, Washington, and Oregon. [39] In 2000, the company played the same role in passing California Proposition 36, which prevents the incarceration of minor drug possession offenders and mandates state-sponsored drug treatment instead. [40]

In 2003, Zimmerman & Markman became media consultants to the still fledgling on-line organization, MoveOn.org, and over the next five years helped increase their membership from a few hundred thousand to over 3 million by producing some 50 TV commercials that were critical of the Iraq War, President George W. Bush, and Republicans in Congress. [9]

Books

Articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pete Wilson</span> Governor of California from 1991 to 1999

Peter Barton Wilson is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from California from 1983 to 1991 and as the 36th governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the 29th mayor of San Diego from 1971 to 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1994 California Proposition 187</span> Ballot initiative

California Proposition 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public education, and other services in the State of California. Voters passed the proposed law at a referendum on November 8, 1994. The law was challenged in a legal suit the day after its passage, and found unconstitutional by a federal district court on November 11. In 1999, Governor Gray Davis halted state appeals of this ruling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Hayden</span> American social and political activist, author, and politician (1939–2016)

Thomas Emmet Hayden was an American social and political activist, author, and politician. Hayden was best known for his role as an anti-war, civil rights, and intellectual activist in the 1960s, authoring the Port Huron Statement and standing trial in the Chicago Seven case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1986 California Proposition 64</span> California ballot proposition concerning the rights of AIDS patients

Proposition 64 was a proposition in the state of California on the November 4, 1986, ballot. It was an initiative statute that would have restored Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) to the list of communicable diseases. The measure was defeated by a margin of 71% to 29%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 California Proposition 14</span> 1964 California ballot proposition

California Proposition 14 was a November 1964 initiative ballot measure that amended the California state constitution to nullify the 1963 Rumford Fair Housing Act, thereby allowing property sellers, landlords and their agents to openly discriminate on ethnic grounds when selling or letting accommodations, as they had been permitted to before 1963. The proposition became law after receiving support from 65% of voters. In 1966, the California Supreme Court in a 5–2 split decision declared Proposition 14 unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that decision in 1967 in Reitman v. Mulkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marvin Braude</span> American politician

Marvin Braude was a member of the Los Angeles City Council for 32 years, between 1965 and 1997—the third-longest-serving council member in the history of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Galanter</span> American politician

Ruth Galanter is an American politician, environmentalist and consultant with a background in urban planning. She served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1987 to 2003.

The Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which became the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, was a coalition of American antiwar activists formed in November 1966 to organize large demonstrations in opposition to the Vietnam War. The organization was informally known as "the Mobe".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 California Proposition 8</span> Ballot proposition and state constitutional amendment passed in November 2008

Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage; it passed in the November 2008 California state elections and was later overturned in court. The proposition was created by opponents of same-sex marriage in advance of the California Supreme Court's May 2008 appeal ruling, In re Marriage Cases, which followed the short-lived 2004 same-sex weddings controversy and found the previous ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Proposition 8 was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by a federal court in 2010, although the court decision did not go into effect until June 26, 2013, following the conclusion of proponents' appeals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 California Proposition 11</span> Ballot measure in California

Proposition 11 of 2008 was a law enacted by California voters that placed the power to draw electoral boundaries for State Assembly and State Senate districts in a Citizens Redistricting Commission, as opposed to the State Legislature. To do this the Act amended both the Constitution of California and the Government Code. The law was proposed by means of the initiative process and was put to voters as part of the November 4, 2008 state elections. In 2010, voters passed Proposition 20 which extended the Citizen Redistricting Commission's power to draw electoral boundaries to include U.S. House seats as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 California Proposition 7</span> 2008 California ballot proposition

California Proposition 7, would have required California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025. In order to make that goal, levels of production of solar, wind and other renewable energy resources would more than quadruple from their current output of 10.9%. It would also require California utilities to increase their purchase of electricity generated from renewable resources by 2% annually to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements of 40% in 2020 and 50% in 2025. Current law AB32 requires an RPS of 20% by 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 California Proposition 10</span> Ballot measure in California

California Proposition 10, also known as the California Alternative Fuels Initiative, was an unsuccessful initiated state statute that appeared on the November 2008 ballot in California. Proposition 10 was funded by Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a corporation owned by T. Boone Pickens. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. is the nation's leading operator of natural gas vehicle fueling stations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 California Proposition 20</span> Approved Congressional Redistricting Initiative

A California Congressional Redistricting Initiative, Proposition 20 was on the November 2, 2010 ballot in California. It was approved by 61.2% of voters. Election officials announced on May 5 that the proposition had collected sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot. The measure is known by its supporters as the VOTERS FIRST Act for Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 California Proposition 39</span> Ballot measure in California modifying corporate tax burdens

Proposition 39 is a ballot initiative in the state of California that modifies the way out-of-state corporations calculate their income tax burdens. The proposition was approved by voters in the November 6 general election, with 61.1% voting in favor of it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 California Proposition 47</span> Reduction of some crimes to misdemeanours

Proposition 47, also known by its ballot title Criminal Sentences. Misdemeanor Penalties. Initiative Statute, was a referendum passed by voters in the state of California on November 4, 2014. The measure was also referred to by its supporters as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. It recategorized some nonviolent offenses as misdemeanors, rather than felonies, as they had previously been categorized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Glazer</span> American politician

Steven Mitchell Glazer is an American politician and former political advisor serving as a member of the California State Senate from the 7th Senate District, which includes most of Contra Costa County and eastern portions of Alameda County in the East Bay.

<i>Introduction to the Enemy</i> 1974 American film

Introduction to the Enemy is a 1974 American documentary film about Vietnam, filmed and directed by Haskell Wexler. Shot in the spring of 1974 and released before the end of the year, the film examines the human costs of the Vietnam War. The camera follows American actress Jane Fonda and her husband Tom Hayden, already known in their home country for antiwar activism, as they make inquiries regarding the war's effects and legacy among Vietnamese people from all walks of life.

California voters passed Proposition 103 on November 8, 1988. It in effect made insurance companies require "prior approval" from the California Department of Insurance before implementing property and casualty insurance rates. It passed with 51% of the vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campaign for Economic Democracy</span>

Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED) was a California-based political action committee founded by activist and politician Tom Hayden along with his wife, actress and activist Jane Fonda. The CED was formed to promote New Left issues such as rent control, reduction of water pollution, investing in solar power and fighting against nuclear power, advocating labor rights, women's rights and various anti-war initiatives. The CED helped Hayden shift his radical left image more to the center, to reduce opposition and allow him to win his political campaigns. At the same time, pressure from the CED was intended to move the Democratic Party to the left. The CED successfully passed rent control laws in 1979 in Santa Monica, and they backed the 1986 California Proposition 65 to reduce toxins discharged into public water sources.

References

  1. ↑ Lyon, Danny (January 10, 2018). "Memories of Mississippi". The New York Review of Books.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Talbot, David (2021). By the light of burning dreams : the triumphs and tragedies of the second American revolution. Margaret Talbot, Arthur Allen (First ed.). New York, NY. ISBN   978-0-06-282039-6. OCLC   1242946482.
  3. 1 2 3 "ZELIG OF THE LEFT: BILL ZIMMERMAN with Lawrence Weschler" .brooklynrail.org. Retrieved 2017-10-28. "In his vividly engaging memoir of his activist life during the ’60s and ’70s, Troublemaker, published by Doubleday earlier this year...Bill Zimmerman casts himself as a virtual Zelig of the Left, showing up improbably in all sorts of amazing places..."
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Gitlin, Todd (February 14, 2012). "Actions". The New Republic.
  5. 1 2 Hayden, Tom (1988). Reunion: A Memoir. New York: Random House. ISBN   0-394-56533-9.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Brownstein, Ronald (2021). Rock me on the water : 1974 : the year Los Angeles transformed movies, music, television, and politics (First ed.). New York, NY. ISBN   978-0-06-289921-7. OCLC   1153060118.
  7. 1 2 Hendrix, Kathleen (January 10, 1980). "A Loudspeaker for Leftist Causes, Ad Agency at Grassroots". The Los Angeles Times.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Mitchell, John L. (October 23, 1983). "Firm Specializes in Messages of the Political Left -- Also Tapes Fonda". Los Angeles Times.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Barabak, Mark Z. (July 21, 2005). "MoveOn's Brains Aim Straight for Heart". Los Angeles Times.
  10. ↑ Bigart, Homer (October 21, 1967). "Protest Ties Up Brooklyn Campus". New York Times.
  11. ↑ Hofman, Paul (October 24, 1967). "Brooklyn Students Reject Compromise". New York Times.
  12. ↑ Meyers, Bart (December 13, 1974). "Justice Will Die Without Activism". Brooklyn College Kingsman.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Mankin, Eric (May 13–19, 1983). "Smart Media From The Left". L.A. Weekly.
  14. ↑ Wilford, John Noble (December 30, 1970). "Knitting Needle Thrust Interrupts One Dissident". New York Times.
  15. ↑ Wilford, John Noble (December 28, 1971). "Humphrey Urges Halt In Bombing". New York Times.
  16. ↑ "[Village by Village, A Report on the Bombing of North Vietnam] | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  17. ↑ "Village by Village: A Report on the Bombing of North Vietnam" (1972) , retrieved 2021-06-27
  18. ↑ Witherspoon, Wendy (April 26, 2011). "Author Spotlight: Bill Zimmerman". Los Angeles Magazine.
  19. ↑ "Largest Hospital in Hanoi Reported Damaged in Raid". New York Times. December 23, 1972.
  20. ↑ "Talk of the Town: White Blossom". The New Yorker. February 10, 1973.
  21. ↑ Waldron, Martin (March 27, 1973). "U.S. Marshal Shot At Wounded Knee". New York Times.
  22. ↑ Oliphant, Thomas P. (April 18, 1973). "Surprise airlift drops food to Wounded Knee holdouts". The Boston Globe.
  23. ↑ Oney, Steve (July 1984). "Stars Over Central America". California Magazine: 74–78, 120.
  24. ↑ York, The New School 66 West 12th Street New; Ny 10011 (3 December 2011). "Flying Seminar: OWS meets Bill Zimmerman – Picture Gallery". Transregional Center for Democratic Studies. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  25. ↑ Weinrub, Bernard (October 16, 1980). "One Word Is Worth a Thousand Speeches for Citizens Party Candidate". pp. The New York Times.
  26. ↑ Dembart, Lee (October 2, 1980). "TV Drive for Nuclear Freeze Measure Opens". pp. The Los Angeles Times.
  27. ↑ Walsh, Joan (June 12, 1985). "Electronic Convert". In These Times.
  28. ↑ Greider, William (May 26, 1983). "The Strategy of Guilt". Rolling Stone. Vol. 13–16.
  29. ↑ Talbott, Basil (January 23, 1983). "How PR men steer the mayoral race". The Chicago Sun-Times.
  30. ↑ Wilkie, Curtis (May 21, 1984). "Hart aides weigh tougher campaign against Mondale". The Boston Globe.
  31. 1 2 Oates, Marylouise (March 29, 1985). "He'll Be Blitzing for Bird and Countering Contras". The Los Angeles Times.
  32. ↑ Robinson, Michael (April 21, 1985). "A hard look / Big money raises worries of conflict in race for high court". The San Francisco Examiner.
  33. ↑ Rosenthal, Andrew (August 14, 1987). "U.S. Group Will Oppose Drive to Aid the Contras". The New York Times.
  34. ↑ Johnson, Julie (January 31, 1989). "Opponents of Fund for Contras to Start Broadcast Campaign". The New York Times.
  35. ↑ Reich, Kenneth (November 9, 1988). "Voters Splitting Evenly on Nader's Prop. 103". The Los Angeles Times.
  36. ↑ Reich, Kenneth (December 1, 1988). "Prop. 103 Backers Seek Probe of Mailing". The Los Angeles Times.
  37. 1 2 Crogan, Jim (April 15, 1994). "The Revolution (Well, the Reform) Will Be Televised". The LA Weekly.
  38. ↑ Bank, David (May 30, 2001). "Soros, Two Rich Allies Fund a Growing War on the War on Drugs". The Wall Street Journal.
  39. ↑ Freyman, Russ (January 1999). "The New Politics of Pot". Governing.
  40. ↑ Ricci, James (December 17, 2000). "One Small Victory in the Nation's War on Drugs". The Los Angeles Times Magazine.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.