John Lennon and Yoko Ono meet Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman

John Lennon and Yoko Ono met the political activists Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman on 5 June 1971.

Rubin and Hoffman were co-founders of the Youth International Party (YIP), and were among the Chicago 7 defendants charged by the US Department of Justice following anti–Vietnam War and other 1960s counterculture protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Abbie and Anita [Hoffman] and me are standing under the arch in Washington, and then we see them walking towards us… It’s love at first sight. Great vibes. The greatest. We dug his sense of humor; we were knocked out by her sincerity… we sat in Abbie’s apartment for five hours and told each other at a high speed rate what each of us had been doing… all five of us were amazed at how we had been into the same kind of things all these years with no communication or contact.

Four years later, Lennon was less complimentary towards Rubin and Hoffman.

I never see them. They vanished in the woodwork… Jerry has been nothing but trouble and a pain in the neck since I met him. I decided, as he didn’t lead the revolution, I decided to quit answering the phone.