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Berkowitz (Bill) DataCenter and right-wing movements collection
ARC Mss 95
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Title: Bill Berkowitz DataCenter and right-wing movements collection
Identifier/Call Number: ARC Mss 95
Language of Material: The collection is in English.
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Physical Description:
48.21 Linear Feet
(48 cartons, 1 half-size document box)
Creator:
Berkowitz, William R., 1939-
Date (inclusive): 1970-2019
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.
Physical Location: Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
The collection is open for research.
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.
[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.
Gift of Bill Berkowitz, 2019.
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/.
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.
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.
Original file arrangement has been retained.
Louise Ramey collection of Christian fundamentalist ephemera, ARC Mss 12. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa
Barbara Library.
W.S. McBirnie pamphlets, ARC Mss 79. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library.
Christian Identity and Far Right-Wing Politics collection, ARC Mss 83. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa
Barbara Library.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Conservatism
Right and left (Political science)
Social justice -- Research
Articles
Clippings (information artifacts)
Files (Document groupings)
Newsletters
Pamphlets
Periodicals
Berkowitz, William R., 1939- -- Archives
Data Center (Oakland, Calif.) -- Archives