As detailed by Jon Wiener’s Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon F.B.I Files (2000) and shown in fairly recent documentary The U.S. “Give Peace a Chance” was the chant of the massive Vietnam Moratorium March in Washington in the fall of 1969. Lennon’s involvement with anti-war movement grew deeper and more directly political. They were an example of what Lennon described as a ‘revolutionary happening’. In evaluating the effectiveness of such protests, it is perhaps worth quoting Joan Baez on peace: “The only thing that’s been a worse flop than the organization of non-violence has been the organization of violence.” (Joan Baez, Daybreak, 1987) The protests were not as spontaneous and stupid as perceived but creative, studied acts with roots in conceptual and performance art. Photo: Eric Koch ( CC0 1.0 / Wikipedia)Īlthough sympathetic, Lennon did not believe that an on-going people’s occupation of a park south of the border in Berkeley was a cause worthy of dying for. Lennon and Ono at a Bed-In at Hilton Amsterdam, March 1969. We’re willing to be the world’s clowns to make people realize it.” (Richie York, 1969) Another bed-in was soon held in Montreal, where Lennon reiterated his commitment to non-violence. He explained, “Bed-ins are something that everyone can do and they’re so simple. Lennon was prepared for public mockery and vilification. Whether righteous or silly, what can’t be denied is Lennon and Ono’s willingness to take risks. The protest was intended as an amusing political happening, a stunt with a serious message. The bed-in protest could be said to endorse a loving stasis, a playful passivity over dynamic violence. “War will cease when men refuse to fight,” went the 1930s British Pacifist slogan. Image by ColiNOOB ( Pixabay License / Pixabay) From a pacifist perspective, however, the eccentric protest makes sense as it denotes a light-hearted continuation of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s principles of non-violence. The ‘bed-in’ protest was dismissed by many as politically illegible, pointless ,and ineffective. Following their marriage in March 1969, while in Amsterdam the couple spent a week in bed to protest the human suffering caused by global conflict. John Lennon and Yoko Ono‘s peace protests were highly individualistic and idiosyncratic. In 1971, he also released what is widely recognized as one of the greatest and most important pop songs ever written, a humanist plea and Socialist anthem called “ Imagine“. The Englishman demonstrated against US involvement in Vietnam and provided the American anti-war movement with one of its most consequential anthems, “Give Peace a Chance” (1969). His craft became a weapon of social and political change. Lennon began to forge potent links between his music and the politics of his time. He championed the anti-war movement as well as Native and African-American rights while demonstrating a deepening interest in feminism. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, John Lennon began to actively endorse a wide variety of progressive and radical political causes.
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