Along with the name Youth International Party , the organization was also simply called Yippie ! , as in a shout for joy ( with an exclamation mark to express exhilaration ) . " What does Yippie ! mean ? " Abbie Hoffman wrote . " Energy – fun – fierceness – exclamation point ! " The Yippies held their first press conference in New York at the Americana Hotel March 17 , 1968 , five months before the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago . Judy Collins sang at the press conference . The '' Chicago Sun-Times '' reported it with an article titled : " Yipes ! The Yippies Are Coming ! " The Yippie " New Nation " concept called for the creation of alternative , counterculture institutions : food co-ops ; underground newspapers and zines ; free clinics and support groups ; artist collectives ; potlatches , " swap-meets " and free stores ; organic farming/permaculture ; pirate radio , bootleg recording and public-access television ; Squatting ; free schools ; etc . Yippies believed these cooperative institutions and a radicalized hippie culture would spread until they supplanted the existing system . Many of these ideas/practices came from other ( overlapping and intermingling ) counter-cultural groups such as the Diggers , the San Francisco Mime Troupe , the Merry Pranksters/Deadheads , the Hog Farm , the Rainbow Family , the Esalen Institute , the Peace and Freedom Party , the White Panther Party and The Farm . There was much overlap , social interaction and cross-pollination within these groups and the Yippies , so there was much crossover membership , as well as similar influences and intentions
1968 Democratic National Convention
1968 Democratic National Convention
Youth International Party