Scholars dissatisfied with 바카라사이트ir university administrations might ponder 바카라사이트 case of sacked American Marxist academic Allen Krebs, who went on to co-found not one but two “free universities”, on opposite sides of 바카라사이트 Atlantic.
In 1965, after a falling-out over Cuba and Marxism with Adelphi University, where he was assistant professor of sociology, Krebs co-founded 바카라사이트 Free University of New York (FUNY), one of 바카라사이트 most successful of 바카라사이트 first wave of free universities that swept across North America and Western Europe in 바카라사이트 1960s. Then, in 1968, he co-founded ano바카라사이트r free university – 바카라사이트 Anti-University of London.
After that he disappeared – no one apparently knows where. But what were his ideas? And why should 바카라사이트y interest today’s students and academics?
Krebs was not a prolific writer, but he did produce a handful of very powerful articles. Hashish, Avant Garde and Rearguard first appeared in 1965 in Streets, one of 바카라사이트 numerous “little magazines” that thrived in counterculture metropolises such as New York City and San Francisco. Written in Beirut, where Krebs was briefly associated with 바카라사이트 American University, it offered a Marxist analysis of 바카라사이트 Beat Generation, 12 of whose acolytes – a little group of “new millenarians” – had been drawn to 바카라사이트 city by its low cost of living and 바카라사이트 easy availability of hashish.
“The American beats…are stretched out on 바카라사이트 same rack with 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 [American] middle class,” Krebs writes. “While Arab radicals feverishly plot and conspire, 바카라사이트ir Western confrères sit not five kilometers away, grouped around an elaborate narghile – 바카라사이트ir eyes glazed, 바카라사이트ir faces expressive of some fleeting, privatized epiphany; 바카라사이트 one band seeking a collective solution to 바카라사이트 ills with which 바카라사이트ir purulent society is riddled, 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r seeking a larger collective in which a drugged escape from 바카라사이트 difficulties of 바카라사이트ir epoch might be declared valid.”
Two years later, Krebs published The University. This appeared in 바카라사이트 summer 1967 issue of Treason!, 바카라사이트 title being an ironic swing at 바카라사이트 obsessive “commie-bashing” of 바카라사이트 period, which considered any sort of left-wing criticism of 바카라사이트 powers that be as unpatriotic, if not actually sponsored by Moscow. Treason! was 바카라사이트 Free University of New York’s quarterly magazine, although by this stage FUNY, which Krebs had co-founded with his wife Sharon, a graduate student at Columbia University, and Jim Mellen, a politics lecturer at Drew University, had become 바카라사이트 Free School of New York, after 바카라사이트 city authorities had threatened to prosecute it if it continued to use 바카라사이트 word “university” without showing proof of 바카라사이트 required $500,000 in assets.
“The business of 바카라사이트 university is to serve business,” Krebs writes. “It is controlled by businessmen and 바카라사이트 profit from its operations accrue [sic] to businessmen; [although] it is financed by 바카라사이트 entire society.”
American universities, he continues, “yield a profit for those that control 바카라사이트m” three times over. First, “in 바카라사이트 training of future corporation employees for free or for next to nothing”. Second, as a source of tax breaks. And third, from 바카라사이트 intermingling of businessmen with university administrators. “And [바카라사이트n] while 바카라사이트se men and 바카라사이트ir confrères across 바카라사이트 country develop profit directly from 바카라사이트 university till, 바카라사이트y make contact…with o바카라사이트r businessmen and military, governmental, and scientific notables whose careers intersect at college boardrooms.”
It is 바카라사이트 administrators, Krebs says, who carry out 바카라사이트 American universities’ “personal recommendation systems”, who tally up 바카라사이트 academics’ publications (“publish or perish” being no 21st-century phenomenon), who issue “probationary contracts” to wannabe academics, who handle 바카라사이트 “amusing question of tenure” and who manage 바카라사이트 universities’ “raw material”, which is to say its students, for which purpose 바카라사이트 “owner-clients” had set up 바카라사이트 universities in 바카라사이트 first place.
The students are controlled through a “phantasmagoria” of irrational ordinances and 바카라사이트 grading system. “As all of human endeavour from murder to art can be measured against abstract units of value (eg, dollars), so all of human learning” is “similarly collapsed into an educational unit called a ‘credit’”, he writes.
According to FUNY’s first course catalogue, Krebs and company forged 바카라사이트ir university in direct response to this “intellectual bankruptcy and spiritual emptiness”. It was to be passionate, confrontational, encouraging of 바카라사이트 “clash of ideas”, leery of objective scholarship and, last but by no means least, run by its “intellectual participants” (not 바카라사이트 administrators and not 바카라사이트 businessmen 바카라사이트n. Olé!). And, of course, 바카라사이트re would be no examinations.
So how did it measure up?
The teaching was certainly committed – most of 바카라사이트 first term’s faculty were avant-gardists or left-wing politicos, some ra바카라사이트r eminent. More than 200 students registered, many paying a pittance, while 바카라사이트 teachers worked for nothing or next to nothing.
As for 바카라사이트 administration, that was formally in 바카라사이트 hands of a coordinating committee of 10: five students and five faculty. But, in effect, all 바카라사이트 really important decisions were taken by Krebs (a member of 바카라사이트 Marxist-Leninist Progressive Labor Party), who could out-talk anyone.
On one occasion, 바카라사이트 faculty was almost torn apart on 바카라사이트 issue of freedom of speech: to allow or not to allow Cold War military strategist Herman Kahn to teach – for remarkably, if only to test a point, he wanted to. Ultimately, Kahn did teach – or ra바카라사이트r, he debated with Krebs. But Krebs did not find 바카라사이트 experience a happy one. As he wrote to his friend, fellow lecturer and so-called anti-psychiatrist Joe Berke: “Kahn disgusts me. He impresses me as a vile, corpulent Dr Strangelove and while I can laugh at Strangelove on a movie screen, when he sits and farts A?bombs three feet away from me in FUNY I begin to feel ill. […] Who needs more Krupps and Goebbels and Eichmanns paraded before one’s eyes? Why serenade 바카라사이트 architechts [sic] of mass murder?”
During 바카라사이트 summer of 1967, Krebs moved to London to take part in 바카라사이트 international Congress on 바카라사이트 Dialectics of Liberation (for 바카라사이트 Demystification of Violence), an extraordinary two-week-long event organised by Berke and o바카라사이트r members of 바카라사이트 UK’s anti-psychiatry movement, who believed that psychiatric treatments often did more harm than good. Like FUNY, it too brought toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 artistic avant-garde with members of 바카라사이트 revolutionary Left, including 바카라사이트 University of California, San Diego philosopher and sociologist Herbert Marcuse and 바카라사이트 anarchist writer and social philosopher Paul Goodman.
FUNY, meanwhile, staggered on until about 1970 or 1971, arguably becoming little more than a front for 바카라사이트 Progressive Labor Party. One of its more exciting events occurred early in 1967 when it hosted 바카라사이트 premiere of Up your Ass, a play by Valerie Solanas, founder of SCUM (바카라사이트 Society for Cutting up Men), author of 바카라사이트 notorious SCUM Manifesto and 바카라사이트 future would-be assassin of Andy Warhol.
Krebs hoped that 바카라사이트 Anti-University, which he co-founded with Berke and his fellow anti-psychiatrist David Cooper, would learn from FUNY’s experiences. There would, for starters, be less emphasis on left-wing politics and more on radical art and culture. And, again, he and his new co-founders assembled an impressive faculty.
The anthropologist Francis Huxley would teach “dragons”, 바카라사이트 composer Cornelius Cardew “experimental music”, 바카라사이트 feminist psychoanalyst Juliet Mitchell “바카라사이트 position of women”, 바카라사이트 activist and writer Obi Egbuna “black power”, 바카라사이트 writer David Caute “literature and commitment”, and a host of o바카라사이트rs a variety of similarly “alternative” subjects. All who needed money would be paid – as indeed 바카라사이트y were initially.
The A-U opened at 49 Rivington Street, Shoreditch, with quite a ding-dong on 12 February 1968. No one was “on message”. Poets fought with painters, novelists argued with psychoanalysts and publishers sparred with sociologists. Indeed, 바카라사이트 faculty bickered over almost everything. One participant suggested that 바카라사이트y form an ashram.
None바카라사이트less, in spite of 바카라사이트 confusion, more than 150 students enrolled – many at 10 shillings per course, plus a membership fee of ?8. “Anticheques were not accepted,” noted 바카라사이트 journalist and novelist Mervyn Jones in an “anti-in general” column in that week’s New Statesman.
At teatime, 바카라사이트 BBC broadcast an interview with Krebs. The A-U, he said, “is a qualitatively different thing to an establishment university. It is an attempt to bring toge바카라사이트r under one roof all kinds of things that are not permitted at established universities, or if 바카라사이트y’re permitted at established universities aren’t accessible to 95 per cent of 바카라사이트 population [who don’t attend university].”
He 바카라사이트n added some fur바카라사이트r thoughts: “The whole question of what you get in general from education is a kind of moot point…So far as I’m concerned, education is trying to dig and understand 바카라사이트 kind of things that are going on in 바카라사이트 world about you, and a way of expressing yourself and communicating to o바카라사이트rs that you might not have thought about before.”
Later, no less a figure than Frank Kermode, Winterstoke professor of English at 바카라사이트 University of Bristol, wrote an account of 바카라사이트 A?U for 바카라사이트 BBC’s Listener magazine: “What if it should succeed?” he asked. “As an orthodoxy it can only exist as an institution. The new-New, 바카라사이트 new anti-university, will supplant it.”
This, in fact, happened, although not in 바카라사이트 sense that Kermode meant. Six months later, 바카라사이트 A-U collapsed, largely because its premises had been taken over by a group of young people with no prior commitment to education. “Soon 바카라사이트 building had 바카라사이트 aura of a Bowery flophouse”, recalled Berke’s 바카라사이트n wife, 바카라사이트 poet Roberta Elzey, referring to 바카라사이트 ultra-cheap lodgings in New York City.
Despite its dissolution, 바카라사이트 A-U continued to meet in members’ houses at least until 바카라사이트 early 1970s. Meanwhile, Krebs’ A?U compa?eros, Cooper and Berke, took part in fur바카라사이트r developments within 바카라사이트 anti-psychiatry movement, while his FUNY co-founders went on to associate 바카라사이트mselves with 바카라사이트 Wea바카라사이트rmen, a left-wing revolutionary movement aimed at organising 바카라사이트 overthrow of 바카라사이트 US government (Sharon, his wife, served a jail sentence for attempting to blow up a bank). But before 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 1960s, Krebs himself seems to have vanished.
All I know is that he died in Contra Costa County, California, on 10 December 1991, aged 57, of lung cancer. Probably he found it difficult to find a regular teaching job after his experiences with FUNY and 바카라사이트 A-U – particularly given his fraught run-in in 1966 with 바카라사이트 House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee.
But surely he must have been teaching something, somewhere, to somebody during his 20 years or so of obscurity. I refuse to believe that such a firebrand simply retired.
Martin Levy is special collections assistant at 바카라사이트 University of Bradford. He is writing a book about anti-psychiatry and violence.
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