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Stew Albert
Born	(1939-12-04)December 4, 1939 Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York
Died	January 30, 2006(2006-01-30) (aged 66) Portland, Oregon
Known for	Political activism, writing
Spouse	Judy Gumbo

Stewart Edward "Stew" Albert (December 4, 1939 – January 30, 2006) was an early member of the Yippies, an anti-Vietnam War political activist, and an important figure in the New Left movement of the 1960s.

Born in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, New York, to a New York City employee, he had a relatively conventional political life in his youth, though he was among those who protested the execution of Caryl Chessman. He graduated from Pace University, where he majored in politics and philosophy, and worked for a while for the City of New York welfare department.

Among the many activities he participated in with the Yippies were throwing money off the balcony at the New York Stock Exchange, the Exorcism of the Pentagon, and the 1968 Presidential campaign of a pig named Pigasus. He was arrested at the disturbances outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Chicago Seven case. His wife, Judy Gumbo Albert, claimed, according to his New York Times obituary, this was because he was working as a correspondent for the Berkeley Barb. Later, he would work closely with the Berkeley Tribe underground newspaper and lived at the Tribe's commune when he was not traveling for political engagements.

In 1970, he ran for sheriff of Alameda County, California, in revenge for "getting my balls sprayed with hot, painful chemicals as a welcome-to-prison health measure" after being arrested in 1969. Although he lost to the incumbent, Frank Madigan, Albert garnered 65,000 votes, in an ironic twist, in a race with the sheriff who had supervised his earlier incarceration during the Vietnam Day Committee anti-draft protests in downtown Oakland.

After the Weather Underground helped Timothy Leary escape from a California prison, where he had been imprisoned for possessing L.S.D., Albert helped arrange for Leary to stay with Eldridge Cleaver in Algeria. In 1971, he was subpoenaed before several grand juries investigating the political bombing of the U. S. Capitol by the Weather Underground in March 1971, as well as a conspiracy by the Piggy Bank Six to bomb several branches of First National City Bank in Manhattan the previous year. He was not charged in either case. In the early 1970s, he and his wife sued the FBI for planting an illegal wiretap in his house. They won a $20,000 settlement and, in 1978, two FBI supervisors were fired for this action.

In 1984, he and his wife moved to Portland, Oregon. They co-edited an anthology, The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade, that collected material that originated in the Civil Rights Movement, Students for a Democratic Society, the anti-war movement, the counterculture, and the women's movement.

In the 2000 film Steal This Movie! Albert is played by Donal Logue.

See also

• List of peace activists

Sources

• The Spies Who Thought We Were Messy by Stew Albert
• Almost Sheriff Yippie by Stew Albert
• Associated Press obituary 1 February 2006

External links

• stewalbert.com

• 1939 births
• 2006 deaths
• American anti–Vietnam War activists
• People from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
• Deaths from liver cancer
• History of the San Francisco Bay Area
• Yippies
• Deaths from cancer in Oregon
• Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area
• Activists from New York (state)
• New Left