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- æ February 16, 1987PEOPLEChicago Seven
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- Their courtroom showdown with Establishment became etched in
- American history, and when it was over, it had made
- counterculture celebrities of the Chicago Seven, a.k.a. Rennie
- Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman,
- Jerry Rubin and Lee Weiner (Bobby Seale, originally the eighth
- defendant, was tried separately). Now, exactly 17 years after
- the acquittal on charges stemming from the 1968 Democratic
- Convention protests, the recalcitrant nonconspirators reunited
- for the Chicago Conspiracy Trial, an HBO drama that uses actors
- as well on-camera comments by the real-life participants. "We
- haven't had this many together since 1973," jokes Hoffman. "It
- takes the curt system or Hollywood to get us together." Still,
- reassembling the old gang in California was no easy task.
- Hayden, a state assemblyman and husband of Jane Fonda, and
- Froines, an associate professor at UCLA's School of Public
- Health, live in the Golden State. But Seale came from
- Philadelphia, where he is studying for a double master's in
- political science and African-American studies at Temple. Davis
- runs a high-tech financing firm in Colorado; Weiner is a fund
- raiser for progressive causes in Washington; Rubin is getting
- ready to open a restaurant in New York City; Hoffman has been
- lecturing and writing (Steal This Urine Test is due in
- September). Dellinger was the only one who could not make the
- reunion photo session. His reasons, though, were pure. He was
- on trial for unlawful entry in the Capitol Rotunda last August
- while protesting aid to the Nicaraguan contras.
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