hot sauce, history

It's precisely 30 years since Marcuse announced, right here at UC Irvine in April 1975, that the anti-authoritarian Left had yielded to authoritarian group personality. Today, by way of illustrating the reactionary tendency of late capitalism, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Huey Newton's widow resurrects the Black Panthers' memory with her 'Burn Baby Burn' barbecue sauce. That phrase, of course, recalls the Watts riots of 1965 - or it would, were it not for the return of history as marketing... What's more, "the nonprofit Huey P. Newton Foundation is rolling out the hot sauce and its Spirit of '66 clothing line in advance of events commemorating the Panthers' 40th anniversary in October 2006" - because the hip-hop market will buy it!