On November 19, 2023, Bob Wells, friend, mentor and comrade to many Venetians beginning in the Free Venice movement of the 1960’s passed away in the Bay area.

This is a thumb nail sketch of how Bob Wells came be a part of Free Venice California, some of the people he met there and some of the things he did, told mostly in his own words. What follows was taken mainly from a three-issue interview with Bob, published in the Free Venice Beachhead in the Fall of 1981. The interview was conducted by the revered Venice scholar and radical activist Dr. Arnold Springer. Just before the pandemic, I visited Dr. Springer in his Venice home to deliver a copy of Bob’s book, Into the Territory.

When I arrived at Dr. Springer’s home, he was in the process of inspecting the proofs of the third and final volume of his massive history of Venice, which he termed “his life’s work”. I rang the bell and he eventually emerged from the back of the house, seeming irritated at the intrusion until I mentioned the name of Bob Wells. Then he lit up and invited me inside. Many years had passed since he’d spoken to Bob, yet he was deeply moved by the gift of Bob’s book and eager to hear more about his old comrade. He told me, “Bob was the most effective activist in Venice,” referring to the heyday of the Free Venice movement in the late 1960s and 70s.

Bob’s time in Venice was a period of radical transformation spawned not just through personal self-searching, as it surely was, but through friendships and collaborations that lasted for the rest of his life. Perhaps the most important legacy Bob left us is his instinctive belief in, and gravitation towards community.

In the Springer/Wells interviews in the 1981 Beachhead, Bob describes his orientation during his early adulthood as politically conventional.

Bob: “I went through the State University in New Jersey as a Jeffersonian republican. I thought at the time that the hedge against conformism was the democratic principles built into the system. Free speech, etc. I believed that the U.S. system was the best expression and guarantee of that. College was driving me crazy so I quit in 1954 and joined the Navy. I thought I was going to Korea but wound up in Indo China which none of us at the time had heard of. I was in Haiphong the day the Viet Minh took over from the French.”

In 1964, Bob was working for a judo magazine called Black Belt. The magazine offered Bob a job in LA, and he and his wife Cydel and their two kids headed for the west coast.

Bob: “We ended up in Culver City because it was near work. We got a car, just started driving around, and we found Venice. We didn’t know what it was called. It just looked like the place to be.

“So, I was living in the fog when alone came the struggle around the Venice West Café.”

The Venice West Café has become famous in Beat lore as a jazz, poetry and art venue. Run by John and Anna Haag, future founders of the Peace and Freedom Party in Venice, the café had become a hot bed of new culture and increasingly a meeting place of left political folks involved in local struggles and the rapidly coalescing anti-war movement. Meanwhile, everyone from law enforcement to local government to developers’ groups (Venice Civic Union) began to cast a disapproving eye on what was happening in Venice. The police responded with indiscriminate drug raids, evictions, and infiltrations of political groups. The arch-conservative Santa Monica Evening Outlook (known in Venice as the “Evening Outrage”) began publishing editorials criticizing what they thought were subversive activities taking place at the Venice West Café as well as in Venice generally. Bob the inveterate writer of letters-to-the editor responded to the paper’s reactionary views with a barrage of epistles.

Bob: “That kind of triggered my Jeffersonian prejudices. I guess I had a lot of built-up frustration and welcomed the opportunity to unload all of that on the Outlook “I took on the Outlook in the Outlook, and they printed my stuff. Through that I met John Haag.”

“In 1965 there was a big teach-in on Viet Nam at UCLA. It sounded like the same thing that had gone on in Algeria to me. I had been prepared to go in with guns blazing in Viet Nam . . . so I decided to go to UCLA and check it out.

“I remember one of the speakers, Mas Kojima. He just laid out the facts. I looked up some of the books he mentioned and there, sure enough were all of the facts.

“So, I changed sides. My loyalties changed to the rebels against the French, and therefore against the Americans. What the hell were we doing there? I was pissed because I had been suckered and almost to the point where I was ready to pull the trigger in Viet Nam.”

The war in Viet Nam was beginning to split the Democratic party. When the Democratic California governor, Pat Brown, summarily fired a fellow Democrat who had come out against the war, an insurgent caucus developed called Californians for New Politics.

“A boycott movement was organized, mainly in Berkely and L.A. The L.A. part was based mainly in Venice. It was John Haag and Rick Davidson, a guy named Mike Marcus, Jane Gordon and some others whose names I’ve forgotten. This eventually became the Peace and Freedom Party.”

Arnold Springer: “So you made your connection with Venice people through this insurgent movement?”

Bob: “Yes. I knew John Haag through the Venice West thing and through him I met other people.”

The intensity and pervasiveness of the cultural and political change taking place in the late sixties isn’t easy to grasp these days. Bob Wells was in the midst of it, organizing the community around a variety of issues (poverty, police harassment, resistance to predatory development) while integrating issues such as the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights movement into the local struggle. He wrote constantly for the Beachhead. His views rapidly radicalized.

Sometime in the late 60s, Bob and Rick Davidson received a message from someone in the Weather Underground (sorry for the vagueness) that next to the local Safeway there were books stashed under a mattress that should be studied. Bob and Rick retrieved the books, On November 19, 2023, Bob Wells, friend, mentor and comrade to many Venetians beginning in the Free Venice movement of the 1960’s passed away in the Bay area.

This is a thumb nail sketch of how Bob Wells came be a part of Free Venice California, some of the people he met there and some of the things he did, told mostly in his own words. What follows was taken mainly from a three-issue interview with Bob, published in the Free Venice Beachhead in the Fall of 1981. The interview was conducted by the revered Venice scholar and radical activist Dr. Arnold Springer. Just before the pandemic, I visited Dr. Springer in his Venice home to deliver a copy of Bob’s book, Into the Territory.

When I arrived at Dr. Springer’s home, he was in the process of inspecting the proofs of the third and final volume of his massive history of Venice, which he termed “his life’s work”. I rang the bell and he eventually emerged from the back of the house, seeming irritated at the intrusion until I mentioned the name of Bob Wells. Then he lit up and invited me inside. Many years had passed since he’d spoken to Bob, yet he was deeply moved by the gift of Bob’s book and eager to hear more about his old comrade. He told me, “Bob was the most effective activist in Venice,” referring to the heyday of the Free Venice movement in the late 1960s and 70s.

Bob’s time in Venice was a period of radical transformation spawned not just through personal self-searching, as it surely was, but through friendships and collaborations that lasted for the rest of his life. Perhaps the most important legacy Bob left us is his instinctive belief in, and gravitation towards community.

In the Springer/Wells interviews in the 1981 Beachhead, Bob describes his orientation during his early adulthood as politically conventional.

Bob: “I went through the State University in New Jersey as a Jeffersonian republican. I thought at the time that the hedge against conformism was the democratic principles built into the system. Free speech, etc. I believed that the U.S. system was the best expression and guarantee of that. College was driving me crazy so I quit in 1954 and joined the Navy. I thought I was going to Korea but wound up in Indo China which none of us at the time had heard of. I was in Haiphong the day the Viet Minh took over from the French.”

In 1964, Bob was working for a judo magazine called Black Belt. The magazine offered Bob a job in LA, and he and his wife Cydel and their two kids headed for the west coast.

Bob: “We ended up in Culver City because it was near work. We got a car, just started driving around, and we found Venice. We didn’t know what it was called. It just looked like the place to be.

“So, I was living in the fog when alone came the struggle around the Venice West Café.”

The Venice West Café has become famous in Beat lore as a jazz, poetry and art venue. Run by John and Anna Haag, future founders of the Peace and Freedom Party in Venice, the café had become a hot bed of new culture and increasingly a meeting place of left political folks involved in local struggles and the rapidly coalescing anti-war movement. Meanwhile, everyone from law enforcement to local government to developers’ groups (Venice Civic Union) began to cast a disapproving eye on what was happening in Venice. The police responded with indiscriminate drug raids, evictions, and infiltrations of political groups. The arch-conservative Santa Monica Evening Outlook (known in Venice as the “Evening Outrage”) began publishing editorials criticizing what they thought were subversive activities taking place at the Venice West Café as well as in Venice generally. Bob the inveterate writer of letters-to-the editor responded to the paper’s reactionary views with a barrage of epistles.

Bob: “That kind of triggered my Jeffersonian prejudices. I guess I had a lot of built-up frustration and welcomed the opportunity to unload all of that on the Outlook “I took on the Outlook in the Outlook, and they printed my stuff. Through that I met John Haag.”

“In 1965 there was a big teach-in on Viet Nam at UCLA. It sounded like the same thing that had gone on in Algeria to me. I had been prepared to go in with guns blazing in Viet Nam . . . so I decided to go to UCLA and check it out.

“I remember one of the speakers, Mas Kojima. He just laid out the facts. I looked up some of the books he mentioned and there, sure enough were all of the facts.

“So, I changed sides. My loyalties changed to the rebels against the French, and therefore against the Americans. What the hell were we doing there? I was pissed because I had been suckered and almost to the point where I was ready to pull the trigger in Viet Nam.”

The war in Viet Nam was beginning to split the Democratic party. When the Democratic California governor, Pat Brown, summarily fired a fellow Democrat who had come out against the war, an insurgent caucus developed called Californians for New Politics.

“A boycott movement was organized, mainly in Berkely and L.A. The L.A. part was based mainly in Venice. It was John Haag and Rick Davidson, a guy named Mike Marcus, Jane Gordon and some others whose names I’ve forgotten. This eventually became the Peace and Freedom Party.”

Arnold Springer: “So you made your connection with Venice people through this insurgent movement?”

Bob: “Yes. I knew John Haag through the Venice West thing and through him I met other people.”

The intensity and pervasiveness of the cultural and political change taking place in the late sixties isn’t easy to grasp these days. Bob Wells was in the midst of it, organizing the community around a variety of issues (poverty, police harassment, resistance to predatory development) while integrating issues such as the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights movement into the local struggle. He wrote constantly for the Beachhead. His views rapidly radicalized.

Sometime in the late 60s, Bob and Rick Davidson received a message from someone in the Weather Underground (sorry for the vagueness) that next to the local Safeway there were books stashed under a mattress that should be studied. Bob and Rick retrieved the books, organized a small group, and began to study Prairie Fire.

Bob left Venice in 1981 – the Beachhead reported his farewell party. He continued to evolve in his lifelong pursuit of revolutionary change. He never relinquished the struggle. He believed that local struggles for justice and equity were synonymous with the struggle of all oppressed peoples worldwide.

Springer: “So, Free Venice was a powerful learning experience for you? You matured politically during this time?”

Bob: “Yes. I would say so. The Venice movement was like a ball of twine that has opened up and the strings are going in all directions.”

Bob Wells has left us a living legacy. His spirit and his voice remain a tangible reality. He continues to animate and inspire us. Thank you, Bob Wells

Steve Effingham

Special thanks to Jim Smith for directing me to the Beachhead archives, an invaluable source for information on the rich culture of resistance that took root and still lives in Venice. .