STUDENT REVOLUTIONARY CHOOSES GURU, AGED 15

When student revoluWhatever happened to the revolutionaries' who led the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)? This militant stutionary Rennie Davis dent organization reached the pinnacle of its publicity during met the Guru Maharaj Ji, the 1968 United States presidential eleçtion. It was the SDS it was a profoundly movthat led the anti-war lobby of the Democratic Party convention in Chicago. In return they were battered and gassed by ing moment. Mayor Daley's cops. Where are they now? Davis told friends that he Jerry Rubin has retired and opened a health food store.... had lighted upon the '15-yearAbbie Hoffman, who wrote 'Steal This Book', now repuold master who has come to diates_ his past and declares that his new philosophy is save the planet.' Since his 'Give It Back'.

passionate conversion, Davis Bobby Seale. the former Black Panther leader. has iust nas been touring campuses ir attempted to win office as Mayor of Oakland, California, the US to describe the way calling for 'a stronger Democratic Party'. forward. "The only thing that's stopping us from saving the Tom Hayden, recently wedded to actress Jane Fonda, has planet is our own effort,' he become an apologist for Stalinism; he supported McGovern in the last presidential election.

'Its [the Divine Light Mis• Guardiani que ring eth usiastia sy irs of Stalin and defend. Carl Davidson recently wrote a series of 'Guardian' quoting enthusiastically from sion] claims are the claims of 'Guardian' quoting enthusiastically from Stalin and defending his counter-revolutionary policies. the movement writ large. Why can we do it now and not • Rennie Davis, confidant and spokesman for Madame Binh, Rennie Davis, confidant and spokesman for Madame before? Because we're conhas been converted to the Divine Light Movement of Guru has been converted to the Divine Light Movement of nected, we've got perfect Maharaj Ji, aged 15. leadership' Rennie Davis, the one-time SDS leader, who now preaches the quackery He adds thoughtfully: 'In fact, everything we've been doing has been leading us to Maharaj Ji.' With innocence Davis puts his finger on the connecting theoretical links between middle-class protest politics and religion.

Both are helplessly idealist. No one could have predicted that Davis would have ended up with guru, bul, as ne says, this was the general direction in which he has been heading for some time.

When the Socialist Labour League made the sharpest criticisms of these "revolutionary' figures during 1968, the 'New reviled us being 'sectarian'.

To Richard Neville of „ The underground magazine 'OZ we were doctrinaire duddies living in the past. Yippie manıfesto at the time of the Chicago convention concluded with these words:

Political pigs, your days are Revolution. 'We shall win. Yippie!' With this demand the Mobilization massed OUTSICA the convention Norman Mailer explained what happened to Davis: "Then came a much larger force of police charging the area, overturning benches, busting up members of the audience, then heading for Rennie Davis at the Bullhorn. He was One of the coordinators of the Mobilization, his face was known. I been fingered and fingered again by plainclothesmen.

sit down and calm, he was attacked from behind by the • police, his head laid open in a three-inch he was unconscious for a period.' Following his acquittal in the Chicago Seven trial before Judge Julius Hoffman, Davis returned to anti-war activism. On Mav Dav 1971 he was one of the co-organizers of the Washington demonstrations which resulted in thousands of youth being detained in makeshife internment camps In January this year, Davis, who was thinking of 'going into the woods and living in a teepee', had a dream which he interpreted as directing him to Paris to the National Libe. ration Front (NLF) negotiating team. On the plane he ran into several ex-radical colleagues who had become followers of Maharaj Ji. These disciples provided him with free ticket to the Guru's ashram in India.

After stopping off in Paris (he reported that both Madame Binh and Xuan Thuy were 'very high' over the treaty), Davis continued to the ashram where an astonishing sight met his eyes:

*There were about 70 people there, and by come amazıng coincidence they were all movement people. People vould come up to me and sar "Aren't you Rennie Davis?' and I'd say "yes" and they'd say, "You know, I was arrested during May Day". There were Weathermen there, members of Marxist-Leninist student groups, women's movement people, peace movement people.

At the University of Detroit recently Davis gave a mighty oration on the beauties of his new faith.

He was introduced fessor wearing a Maharaj Ji button who, 'speaking as person on the left, hopes this thing can pull the movement on this campus together'. has just been hit by , an admin- (The university, incidentally, istrative purge radical faculty).

Davis proclaimed: 'We used to think we needed a workers' party led by theory but now we have a party of people led by Perfect Leadership.

Having quoted from the Revelations and other mystical pro reces is a love story, Davis continued: fairy tale. The little boy and the little girl will skip off hand in hand out of the forest and live happily ever after. It's great to live in this time, it's a privilege to live in America, because America will bring this knowledge to the world.

Davis makes these statements at a time when US imperialism and the Stalinist bureaucracies of Moscow and Peking are working hand in glove to stab the liberation struggles in south-east Asia, the Middle East and Africa; when the crisis-racked Nixon administration is trapped in a series of scandals which involve criminal interference with the constitutional rights of citizens; when inflation is having a catastrophic impact on the standard of living of millions of working-class families: when Nixon is planning major offensive against workers' wages and a step up in productivity to restore some semblance of value to the At this historic turning point in which the most reactionary and dangerous Republican is in the White House, Davis can say: It's great to lege to live in America large live in this time, it's a priviDavis represents large section of protesters from the 1960s who have completely capitulated to the enormous crisis now gripping US imperialism. Unable to grasp the nature of this tumultuous epoch-because they reject the Marxist understanding of capitalist society and the struggle to build a revolutionary leadership in the working class to take power- -these 'rebels' become totally disoriented, they embrace religious mumbo jumbo.

Is their departure from student struggle a passive thing and should we take it seriously? We most certainly must. The Divine Light is more than a freak sideshow. Its adherents will try to thrust its way onto the campuses to drag other students away from serious political struggle. These missionaries are ludicrous but enthusiastic opponents of Marxism and the working class.

It is a telling testimony to the strength of the Trotskyist movement internationally that for every defector to the temples of quackery, we have won many times the number to the banner of Marxism.

The headlines will be about Davis' conversion to the guru, but it is for us to take note of the strides being taken by the US Young Socialists, the Trisis Your Socialists, the Irish Young Socialists and the Australian Young Socialists. These youth have learnt from the weaknesses of the 1960s protest groups and have made a decisive turn towards the building of world revolutionary parties based on Marxism.

Tuesd 1973 NOTICE DO NOT GIVE •JAMES TO INMATES Student protestor under arrest in privileged America': Above, left to right: Jerry Rubin, health food storeman. Tom Hayden, apologist for Stalinism. Bobby Seale, stood for Mayor.

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