Up Against the Wall Motherfucker,often shortened asThe MotherfuckersorUAW/MF,was aDadaistandSituationistanarchistaffinity groupbased inNew York City.This "street gang with analysis" was famous for itsLower East Sidedirect action.
 1967 poster by Black Mask proclaiming "Up against the wall motherfucker", which later became the name of the group | |
| Predecessor | Black Mask |
|---|---|
| Formation | January 1967 |
| Location | |
History
editThe Motherfuckers grew out of aDada-influencedart groupcalled Black Mask with some additional people involved with the anti-Vietnam WarAngry Arts week,held in January 1967.[1]Formed in 1966 by Ben Morea, a painter of Catalan origins,[2]and the poet Dan Georgakas, Black Mask produced abroadsideof the same name and declared that revolutionary art should be "an integral part of life, as inprimitive society,and not an appendage to wealth ".[3]In May 1968, Black Mask changed its name and went underground. Their new name, Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers, came from a poem byAmiri Baraka.Abbie Hoffmancharacterized them as "the middle-class nightmare... an anti-media phenomenon simply because their name could not be printed".[4]
- 1967 – Forced their way intoThe Pentagonduring an anti-warprotest.[5]
- 1967 – Flung blood, eggs and stones at U.S. Secretary of StateDean Ruskwho was attending aForeign Policy Associationevent in New York.[6]
- January, 1968 – "Assassinated" poetKenneth Koch(usingblanks).[7]
- February, 1968 - Dumped uncollected refuse from the Lower East Side into thefountainatLincoln Centeron the opening night of a gala "bourgeois cultural event" during a NYC garbage strike (an event documented in theNewsreelfilmGarbage).[8][9]
- 1968 – Organized and produced free concert nights in theFillmore Eastafter successfully demanding that ownerBill Grahamgive the community the venue for a series of weekly free concerts. These "Free Nights" were short-lived as the combined forces of NY City Hall, the police, and Graham terminated the arrangement.[10]
- December 12, 1968 - Created a ruckus at theBoston Tea Party:after theMC5opened for theVelvet Undergroundone of the Motherfuckers got on stage and started haranguing the audience, directing them to "...burn this place down and take to the streets...". This got "The Five" banned from the venue.[11]
- December 18, 1968 - Rioted at an MC5 show at the Fillmore East. Some "beat (Graham) with a chain and broke his nose". This got the Detroit band banned from all venues controlled by Graham and his friends.[12]
- Cut the fences atWoodstock,allowing thousands to enter for free.[5]
Associations
editValerie Solanas,aradical feministand would-beassassinofAndy Warhol,was friends with Morea and associated with the Motherfuckers.[3]In the filmI Shot Andy Warhol,the gun used in her attack is alleged to have been taken from Morea.
When Morea was asked in a 2005 interview byJohn McMillianofThe New York Presshow he had been able to rationalize supporting Solanas, Morea replied, "Rationalize? I didn't rationalize anything. I loved Valerie and I loathed Andy Warhol, so that's all there was to it." He then added "I mean, I didn't want to shoot him." He then added: "Andy Warhol ruined art."[5]
Prior to becoming the Motherfuckers, theSituationist Internationalaccepted Morea's group as its New York chapter.[13]
Influence as a slogan
editThe phrase was taken from the poem, "Black People!" byAmiri Baraka(LeRoi Jones): "The magic words are: Up against the wall, mother fucker, this is a stick up!" This, in turn, was a reference to a phrase "supposedly barked by Newark cops to Negroes under custody."[14]The poem had appeared inThe New York Timesin 1968 andMark Rudd,an organizer forColumbia University'sStudents for a Democratic Society,provocatively quoted the line in an open letter tothe university president.[15]
Most of the lyrics for the 1969 song "We Can Be Together",by theacid rockbandJefferson Airplane,were taken virtually word-for-word from a leaflet written by MotherfuckerJohn Sundstrom,and published as "The Outlaw Page" in theEast Village Other.[16]The lyrics read in part, "We are all outlaws in the eyes of America. In order to survive we steal, cheat, lie, forge, fuck, hide, and deal... Everything you say we are, we are... Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker!" The song marked the first use of the word "fuck" on U.S. television, when the group played it uncensored onThe Dick Cavett Showon August 19, 1969.[17]This song also helped popularize the phrase as acounterculturerallying cry, over and beyond the immediate impact of the anarchist group.
At various times, the line became popular among several groups that came out of the sixties, fromBlack Pantherstofeministsand even "rednecks."In 1968,David Peeland the Lower East Side included the song "Up against the Wall, Motherfucker" on their album entitledHave a Marijuana.In the 1970s, Texas country singer-songwriterRay Wylie Hubbardadapted the famous phrase for a song he wrote entitled "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother". The phrase was also used as a song title on the albumPenance Soireebythe Icarus Line.
The line was famously shouted byPatty Hearstduringthe robbery of Hibernia Bankin San Francisco.[18]
Simulation game
editIn 1969, Columbia University history majorJim Dunnigan,who would later foundSimulation Publications,Inc., published a simulation game in the March 11, 1969 edition of theColumbia Spectator[19]namedUp Against the Wall, Motherfucker![20]The game was based on recent disturbances at Columbia University and allowed the players to play either as protestors or administration with victory determined by winning over various stakeholder groups.
References
edit- ^Neumann, Osha (2008).Up Against the Wall Motherf**kers: A Memoir of the '60s, With Notes for Next Time.Seven Stories. p. 43.ISBN978-1-58322-849-4.
- ^Morea Name Meaning: Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of the places named Morea in Navarre, Lleida, or Badajoz provinces
- ^abHinderer, Eve (June 7, 2004)."Ben Morea: art and anarchism".Archived fromthe originalon April 25, 2009.RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
- ^Jezer, Marty (1993).Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel.Rutgers University Press. pp. 131–132.ISBN0-8135-2017-7.
- ^abcMcMillian, Jon (June 5, 2005)."Garbage Guerrilla".Archived fromthe originalon October 12, 2007.RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
- ^Greenberg, David (July 5, 2018)."Here's What Happened the Last Time the Left Got Nasty".Politico.Archivedfrom the original on 2020-08-24.RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
In 1967, when Secretary of State Dean Rusk tried to attend a banquet of the Foreign Policy Association in New York, a radical group called Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers (often called "the Motherfuckers" for short) threw eggs, rocks and bags of cows' blood
- ^Neumann, Osha (2008).Up Against the Wall Motherf**kers: A Memoir of the '60s, With Notes for Next Time.Seven Stories. p. 5.ISBN978-1-58322-849-4.
- ^"Garbage".Roz's Newsreel Archives.RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
- ^"Garbage NY Newsreel / Motherfuckers, 1968 – YouTube".YouTube.31 January 2014.
- ^Hahne, Ron; Morea, Ben (2011).Black Mask & Up Against the Wall Motherfucker: The Incomplete Works of Ron Hahne, Ben Morea, and the Black Mask Group.PM Press. pp.133–140.ISBN978-1604860214.
- ^Unterberger, Richie (2009).White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day by Day.Jawbone Press. p. 217.ISBN978-1906002220.
- ^"Remembering Bill Graham & the Fillmore East".
- ^Haden-Guest, Anthony (1998).True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World.Atlantic Monthly Press. p. 30.ISBN978-0-87113-725-8.
- ^Perlstein, Rick (2008).Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.p. 238.ISBN9781451606263.
- ^Bradley, Stefan M. (2010).Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s.University of Illinois Press. p. 63.ISBN978-0-252-09058-5.
- ^Tusman, Lee (ed.).Really Free Culture: Anarchist Communities, Radical Movements and Public Practices.p. 166.
- ^"We Can Be Together by Jefferson Airplane".RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
- ^"American Experience—More about the film Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst—Transcript".PBS.Archived fromthe originalon October 3, 2005.RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
- ^Dunnigan, Jim(March 11, 1969)."A few theoretical remarks".Columbia Daily Spectator.Vol. 1, no. 10.Columbia University.RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
- ^"Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker!".modcult. December 16, 2014. Archived fromthe originalon October 30, 2015.RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
Further reading
edit- Black Mask & Up Against The Wall Motherfucker.Unpopular Books.1993.ISBN1-873176-70-8.
- "The Brown Paper Bag Theory of Affinity Groups".Archived fromthe originalon June 7, 2008.RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
- Casey, Caitlin (2017). "Up against the Wall Motherfucker: Ideology and Action in a 'Street Gang with an Analysis'".In Goyens, Tom (ed.).Radical Gotham: Anarchism in New York City from Schwab's Saloon to Occupy Wall Street.Urbana: University of Illinois Press. pp. 161–179.ISBN978-0-252-08254-2.
- McMillian, Jon (June 5, 2005)."Garbage Guerrilla".Archived fromthe originalon October 12, 2007.RetrievedDecember 26,2019.
- Neumann, Osha (2008).Up Against the Wall Motherf**ker: A Memoir of the '60s, With Notes for Next Time.Seven Stories.ISBN978-1-58322-849-4.
- Benvega, Luca (2014).The cultural workers. Fenomeni politico culturali e contestazione giovanile negli anni '60(in Italian). Bepress.ISBN978-8896130407.
- Ben Morea's blog
