Barb bash: a 50-year anniversary for Berkeley’s radical rag

There was no Internet to crowdsource protests in Sproul Plaza, no Twitter to urge opposition to the Vietnam War and the draft, or Instagram to rally support for the Black Panthers. For five of the most tumultuous years in Berkeley’s history, the little rag known as the Berkeley Barb was the unofficial house organ of the counterculture.

The five years between 1965 and ’70 indelibly forged the Barb’s legacy as one of the most important alternative newspapers in the history of modern journalism. Overall, the Barb lasted just 15 years, but its legend lives on after 50, and a lefty reunion is coming to town to prove it.

Starting next Sunday, the underground weekly, which made its debut Aug.