• About Kathy Shaidle
  • Kathy Shaidle: Donate
  • Kathy Shaidle: Privacy policy

5 Feet of Fury

Kathy Shaidle's blog. Est. 2000

My NEW Taki’s column marks the 47th anniversary of the Hard Hat Riot

May 9, 2017 By Kathy Shaidle

Credit: Henry Gordillo

Regular 5FF readers know I commemorate it every year, but since we finally seem to be embracing Kate McMillan’s dictum that “Not showing up to riot is a failed conservative policy,” I figured it deserved a whole column (for the benefit of the uninitiated).

There’s still a lot more I want to tease out one day, but anyhow:

The paucity of photographs contributed to the event’s relative obscurity, and video of the event is even rarer. Most stuff you’ll find actually depicts nonviolent, union-authorized hard-hat demonstrations later that month, in places like Buffalo and, again, New York City. Videofreex, a hippie alternative-media collective, shot one of these May rallies, interviewing participants on both sides, but their footage is behind a paywall.

The Videofreex had been gifted their A/V equipment from CBS, which briefly assigned them to shoot radical subculture goings-on. (Surely this was Paddy Chayefsky’s inspiration for Network’s Mao Tse-Tung Hour, no?)

But if Videofreex possessed the means of media production but not distribution, the hard hats (and the era’s populist right, generally) had neither, barring the odd (in every sense) right-wing talk-radio show.

More from my site

  • No! Anyone but frickin’ Ray frickin’ Milland!No! Anyone but frickin’ Ray frickin’ Milland!
  • Bill Ayers is just Timothy McVeigh with a pulseBill Ayers is just Timothy McVeigh with a pulse
  • Calling the United Church of Canada ‘the country’s largest Protestant denomination’ is like calling Michael Jackson ‘the King of Pop’Calling the United Church of Canada ‘the country’s largest Protestant denomination’ is like calling Michael Jackson ‘the King of Pop’
  • ‘I know lots of Jews who are born Nazis…’‘I know lots of Jews who are born Nazis…’

Filed Under: Kathy Shaidle

« Jim Goad: William Shatner tells the truth about feminism. Feminists freak out.
Hey, who’s up for a 3+ hour conversation about “Mommy Dearest »
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Archives

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in