Title: Charles S. Young Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1972-1980

Creator:

• Young, Charles S., 1959-

Call Number: Mss 657; PH Mss 657

Quantity: 1.0 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 7 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers, mainly 1973-1976, collected by Charles S. Young, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison pertaining to the activities of several left-wing organizations active in Madison. Included are minutes, agendas, notes, position papers, speeches, handbills, and posters pertaining to the Madison Anti-Imperialist Organization, the Attica Brigade, the Revolutionary Student Brigade, and other groups. Photographs consist of images of several banners.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00657

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Charles “Chip” Young was a journalism student who attended the University of Wisconsin from 1977 through 1984. Young was active in the Revolutionary Student Brigade and later in the Progressive Student Organization, and for a time he lived at 403 Washburn, an address at which members of those organizations had resided for several years. In the attic of this building he found several cartons of records and banners pertaining to the political activities of the early residents of the house. After apparently spending some time in organizing the material, Young presented it to the Historical Society in 1984. He also provided much of the information herein on the Madison history of the documented organizations.

The records date to the early 1970's, a period when the left-wing of the anti-war movement in Madison was fragmented and discouraged. During the spring of 1972 various groups including the Wisconsin Student Association, the Asian-American student group, the “Red Ed” education project, the Revolutionary Union (an SDS splinter group), and the Radical Teaching Assistants United Around the 9-Point Peace Plan organized against the war as what they called the United Front. Eventually anti-imperialist elements from the United Front coalition organized into the Movement for Political and Economic Democracy. Because of internal disunity former members of the Revolutionary Union eventually left MPED and formed the Madison Anti-Imperialist Organization on February 7, 1973. Later that year several members of MAIO attended a national convention of the Attica Brigade and, in an effort to link various other radical groups, eventually became part of that organization. On May 5, 1973 Madison hosted a convention of mid-western Attica Brigade chapters and soon after publicly began to identify itself as the Madison chapter of the Attica Brigade.

The national Attica Brigade was formed in New York in 1971 in order to take part in a mass anti-war demonstration. However, unlike any of the other anti-war groups its dissent was not focused on Vietnam alone but on the entire U.S. foreign policy question. Gradually the definition of imperialism was even further expanded to include protest against internal oppression. Thus the Madison Attica Brigade was not only active in anti-war teach-ins and demonstrations, but also in feminist and Black activities and particularly in protests against state budget cuts and tuition hikes. For reasons not documented in the collection many members of the Attica Brigade moved into the Revolutionary Student Brigade, the youth arm of the Revolutionary Communist Party. According to Young this took place in Madison around 1974. Subsequent evolutions of this element of the Madison radical student movement are traced on the following chart which was provided by Charles Young:

Students for a Democratic Society (disintegrated because torn by factionalism)

Revolutionary Union (one of the Maoist factions of SDS; became the national revolutionary organization)

Attica Brigade (developed from Attica prison revolt support group into the student organization of the RU, in 1971/1972.)

Madison Anti-Imperialist Organization (started in 1971 in Madison, then incorporated into AB)

Revolutionary Student Brigade (formed around 1974, eventually becoming the youth group of the Revolutionary Communist Party)

Revolutionary Communist Party (formed by the RU as the new Communist national party, 1976. RCP split in 1978 into a continuing RCP and the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters)

Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee (an RCP front group, active 1976-1978)

Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade (a re-named version of RSB, formed in 19??)

Revolutionary Workers Headquarters: Madison RWH took on the old name of RSB and evolved into the Revolutionary Student Union, Progressive Student Organization, and Progressive Student Network (circa 1980, loosely tied to national PSN)

The Charles S. Young Papers are a collection of very uncertain provenance. They are difficult to describe because of the short-lived, fluid, and contentious nature of the groups which they document, and because the organizational work done to them prior to donation to the Historical Society destroyed any of the clues about their origin which may have existed. The majority of the collection consists of handbills, posters, position papers, and other kinds of distributions. Taken together, the collection does not seem to represent official records, although there are files of organizational records comprised of primary source documentation such as handwritten meeting minutes, agendas, and notes and some speeches. Quite possibly, the collection represents the personal collection of an unidentified member. Despite the uncertain history of the papers, the collection contains rare and important documentation on the activities of the anti-war movement in Madison and on the evolution and discord within the Communist Party.

Because the papers were received in a highly confusing order, the collection has been reorganized primarily by organization and by issue, together with a small quantity of miscellany.

ORGANIZATIONAL FILES consist of agendas, minutes, position papers, speeches, notes, and miscellany arranged by organization name. Where possible, the organizations have been arranged chronologically, although there are several files on miscellaneous organizations which could not be dated. The majority of the files pertain to the Madison Anti-Imperialist Organization and the Madison Attica Brigade, with the files on the Revolutionary Student Brigade, although still substantial, consisting of less primary source material. A large number of publications and newsletters, including RSB's Seize the Times, have been separated to the Historical Society Library.

Material which could not be identified by organization, which related to more than one Madison organization, or which related to Madison organizations and organizations in other cities is filed alphabetically as ISSUE FILES. These files consist primarily of posters, handbills, and other informational distributions.

MISCELLANY consists of unidentified notebooks and draft speech material created by an unidentified Madison activist and various distributions and handbills.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Charles S. Young, 1984. Accession Number: M84-296, M84-412

Processing Information

Processed by Grace Hayek (archives student, 1985) and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1986.

Mss 657	Series: Organizational Files
Box   1 Folder   1	United Front, circa 1972
	Madison Anti-Imperialist Organization, 1973
Box   1 Folder   2	Minutes
Box   1 Folder   3	Miscellany
	Attica Brigade, 1973-1974
Box   1 Folder   4	Minutes
	Conferences
Box   1 Folder   5	1973, January
Box   1 Folder   6	1973, March 31
Box   1 Folder   7	1973, May 5 (Madison regional conference)
Box   1 Folder   8	1973, May 26-27
Box   1 Folder   9	1974, June 15-17
Box   1 Folder   10	National Interim Committee and Regional Interim Committee minutes
Box   1 Folder   11	Posters and handbills
Box   1 Folder   12-13	Position papers and speeches
Box   1 Folder   14	Work summary reports (National)
	Revolutionary Student Brigade, 1975-1978
Box   1 Folder   15	Handbills
Box   1 Folder   16	National convention, May 24-26, 1975 (Madison)
Box   1 Folder   17	Position papers and miscellaneous internal communications
Box   1 Folder   18	Posters
	Other organizations
Box   1 Folder   19	Columbia Anti-Imperialist Movement, 1973, undated
Box   1 Folder   20	Revolutionary Union, undated
Box   1 Folder   21	Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee, undated
Box   1 Folder   22	Youth in Action, 1976, undated
	Series: Issue Files	⇧
Box   2 Folder   1	Armstrong, Karl, undated
Box   2 Folder   2	Budgetary cutbacks/open admissions, 1973
Box   2 Folder   3	China, 1975-1976
Box   2 Folder   4	Communist Party reorganization, 1975
Box   2 Folder   5	Election activities, 1976
Box   2 Folder   6	Farah Support Committee, undated
Box   2 Folder   7	Indochina, 1974
Box   2 Folder   8	International Women's Day, 1975
Box   2 Folder   9	MATC, 1975
Box   2 Folder   10	Meatcutters' union strike, 1975
Box   2 Folder   11	Menominee Indians, 1975
Box   2 Folder   12	Miners' union strike, undated
Box   2 Folder   13	Nixon, 1974
Box   2 Folder   14	Nuclear weapons, 1978-1979, undated
Box   2 Folder   15	Palestine, 1975
Box   2 Folder   16	Police brutality, undated
Box   2 Folder   17	Recruiting on campus, 1974-1975
Box   2 Folder   18	Rich Off Our Backs, 1976
Box   2 Folder   19	South Africa, 1977
Box   2 Folder   20	Teaching Assistants Association, 1975-1980
Box   2 Folder   21	Throw the Bum Out, 1974
	Series: Miscellany, undated	⇧
Box   2 Folder   22	Speech drafts
Box   3 Folder   1	Meeting notes of unidentified Madison activist and handouts and other materials for Marxist study group
Box   3 Folder   2-3	Miscellaneous handbills and distributions
PH Mss 657	Photographs of banners