Bill Berkowitz DataCenter and right-wing movements collection, 1970-2019

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Summary

Creators:
Berkowitz, William R., 1939-
Abstract:
Research files of Bill Berkowitz concerning politically conservative issues and right-wing movements. Included are the articles, pamphlets, reports, research, and other documents he used during his time working with DataCenter.
Extent:
48.21 Linear Feet (48 cartons, 1 half-size document box)
Language:
The collection is in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Bill Berkowitz DataCenter and right-wing movements collection, ARC Mss 95. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background

Scope and content:

Research files of Bill Berkowitz including pamphlets, articles, periodicals, copies of committee reports, newsletters, and clippings concerning conservative and right-wing political opinions relating to issues such as abortion, gay marriage, education, economics, and religion. There are also files concerning political and religious figures, organizations, and legislation with significant material from Berkowitz' time working at DataCenter.

Biographical / historical:

Born and raised in New York City, Berkowitz holds a degree in English from the University of Kansas, located in Lawrence, Kansas. During the Vietnam War he co-founded Reconstruction (later named Vortex), the first alternative newspaper in Kansas. During the Persian Gulf War, he edited a three-volume series of Persian Gulf Readers that was distributed to more than 10,000 people at anti-Persian Gulf War rallies in the Bay Area.

Bill Berkowitz has been tracking and monitoring conservative political and social movements in the United States for more than thirty-five years. In 1977, after going to Cuba on two separate trips organized by the Venceremos Brigade, working as an organizer for the United Farmworkers of America (UFW) during the union's first California elections, and as the first Promotion Director for the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), he helped found the DataCenter, a research library and information center for social activists and investigative journalists located in Oakland, California.

In 1994, Berkowitz became founding editor of DataCenter's CultureWatch newsletter, which was one of the first national publications systematically tracking the conservative movement from the mid-1990s through the 2000 presidential election. During his twenty-four years at the DataCenter, Berkowitz focused on religious and secular right wing movements and U.S. military involvement in Latin America and the Middle East, helping put together a series of Press Profiles (collections of the "best of the press") on such topics as the Reagan Administration's policies in Central America, the Right-to-Know, and the growth of the New Right in the U.S.

Shortly after leaving the DataCenter in 2000, he was the author of "Prospecting Among the Poor: Welfare Privatization," an examination of the results of the Clinton Administration's Welfare Reform legislation. Over the past 18 years, Berkowitz has written more than 1,500 articles and columns for such venues as Z Magazine, Inter Press Service, Media Transparency, Talk2Action, Dissident Voice, Working Assets' WorkingForChange, In These Times, The Progressive, The Nation and other print and online publications. He has also been interviewed on a number of radio programs.

In 2005, Berkowitz was given the Journalism Award by the Before Columbus Foundation. In his introduction to the award, playwright and author Ishmael Reed described him as "the Paul Revere of the American left whose job has been to get the left out of Starbucks and self-realization retreats and to awaken progressives, liberals, and everybody-to-the-left-of-center to the personalities and institutions behind what might be the most dangerous drift toward Fascism in our country's history."

"Bill Berkowitz." Z Writer. Accessed February 25, 2020. https://zcomm.org/author/billberkowitz/.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Bill Berkowitz, 2019.
Processing information:

Original file arrangement has been retained.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following series: CultureWatch, [New Right] Issues, Klanwatch, Neoconservative, Organizations, Pamplets, Persons, Political Correctness, Right-Wing Politics. Files are arranged in alphabetical order with the exception that some files were arranged under their subject (e.g. Education) rather than the title of the file.

Physical location:
Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Bill Berkowitz DataCenter and right-wing movements collection, ARC Mss 95. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Location of this collection:
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
Contact:
(805) 893-3062
special@library.ucsb.edu
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