1960s Activists Reshaped San Francisco Politics with Hardball Confrontational Tactics

San Francisco was not always associated with gay sex and far left radicalism–that is, no more than big cities in general.   But the push was on during the 1950s and 1960s to solidify liberal control and purge conservative influence.

      This was accomplished by making the city a national magnet for those with gay, bohemian, and socialistic leanings.  This increasing population pool would become a power base of liberal voters, not unlike the Democrats’ automatic and mindless “47%” strategy today.

      The other cogent strategy was to apply ruthless activism to shut down candidates for public office by attacking them at their homes and places of business.  In 1963 conservative Harry Dobbs was running for San Francisco mayor against ultra-liberal John F. Shelley (Barbra Streisand sang in his fundraiser).

       The Shelley supporters first chose a “politically correct” title that would produce a “halo” for the media and divert attention from their real purpose:  the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination.  Then they sought to attack Dobbs’ economic livelihood by picketing his place of business: Mel’s Drive-In.  They closed it down on October 19th, alternating days with Dobbs’ other eateries in Oakland and Berkeley.

     There was no negotiation with Dobbs about their demands.  The picketers decided that direct action would be more threatening and less time-consuming.  For example, in one restaurant they occupied every seat–then refused to order anything.  Fifty-nine were arrested, but who cared when most were either released without charges or given a token slap on the wrist,

      Then the Ad Hoc Committee picketed Dobbs’s home one week before the mayor election.

      Needless to say, Dobbs lost the election.  Even worse, he caved on all the demands of the Ad Hoc Committee to hire lots of “Negroes” in the better, more visible positions.  Other such businesses gave up without resistance.  The bottom-line moral: it worked.

      Jesse Jackson’s famous “extortion” tactics were one later result, demanding big bucks from large corporations. so as not to be branded with the term “racist.”  In one form or another, the practice is well in place today.  Meanwhile, San Francisco politics has no conservatives, and the whole state is mired in political desperation.