THERE will still be a Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago when the Democrats go back next week for their first convention in the Windy City since the mayhem of August, 1968. This one is the son of the mayor whose police clubbed and gassed the Yippies and Vietnam anti-war protesters back then.
The T-shirts with the police department logo and the words "We kicked your fathers' ass in 1968. Wait till you see what we do to you" are just a joke - we hope.
The veteran reporters of 1968 have been re-living that traumatic week. Mary McGrory of the Washington Post recalls the shock of stepping out of the Hilton hotel and watching police clubbing skulls until the blood flowed. Other reporters were among those on the receiving end as the chant went up "The whole world is watching."
Ms McGrory also reported from Senator Eugene McCarthy's apartment on the 23rd floor of the Hilton, which had been turned into an emergency ward for the injured. Police burst in late one night and arrested the senator's aides, accusing them of "hurling missiles" down on the forces of law and order.
Eugene McCarthy, now 80, says "I can still smell the tear gas." He believes that the Democratic Party "has still not recovered from Chicago". The former senator has not been invited to this year's convention.
McCarthy's challenge to President Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire democratic primary began the dramatic events which made 1968 such an unforgettable year in American politics. Johnson offered to negotiate with Hanoi and then announced he would not run again for president, Bobby Kennedy threw his hat in the ring and was assassinated. So was Martin Luther King.
The counter-culture Yippies, led by Abbie Hoffman, called for a "Festival of Life" to be held in Chicago at the same time as the convention. The longer established anti-war protest movements converged on the city also.
Mayer Daley called in the National Guard and the regular army to contain the protesters, who were not allowed to camp in Lincoln Park. The convention rejected an anti-war motion by McCarthy and the Kennedy forces, and as George McGovern was being nominated by Senator Abraham Ribicoff, TV pictures of the fiercest clashes were shown in the hall.
Senator Ribicoff paused and then denounced the "Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago." The cameras then caught Daley mouthing an angry curse, which lip readers later translated as "F--- you, you Jew son of a bitch".
But in 1996 all is sweetness and light. Mayor Daley jnr will join with 1968 activist Tom Hayden in a "healing concert". Mr Hayden, who is a delegate this time, was one of the "Chicago Seven" tried on rioting charges after the 1968 convention.
