We begin our new series on the revolutionary counterculture of the sixties by interviewing Peter Coyote, founding member of the Diggers -- an anarchist group from San Francisco whose free stores, tie-died shirts, free concerts, and activist street theater opened the gates of the Haight to tens of thousands of dropouts and helped define the sixties aesthetic. But by '67, the Diggers were already trying to escape the hippie movement by forming a network of revolutionary communes.

Joining Andy for the interview is Sean Lovitt, researcher sixties revolutionary groups and author of Mimeo Insurrection: The Sixties Underground Press and Long Hot Summer of Riots

Topics discussed include: The SF Mime Troop and their controversial minstrel show, the formation of the Diggers, the alleged insurrectionary activities, the Hells Angels, psychedelic drug culture and conspiracies, and the movements against war and for racial justice then and now.

For Part 2 of the series visit Patreon.com/TheAntifada

Check out Peter Coyote's books Sleeping Where I fall and Rainman’s Third Cure

And Diane di Prima's Revolutionary Letters

Intro song: Patti Smith - Citizen Ship

Outro Song - My Chemical Romance - Desolation Row