NAMES IN THE NEWS : Chicago 7 Sold on Capitalism?

Yippie-turned-yuppie Jerry Rubin has a new moneymaking scheme: selling an earth-colored drink packed with ingredients like kelp, ginseng and bee pollen.

The 51-year-old Rubin, an independent marketer for the Dallas-based Omnitrition International, has been recruiting salespeople for his headquarters in Wallingford. They will sell a nutritional drink called Omni IV.

“This is the best business opportunity for the average American to make a living and break out of the corporate cocoon,” Rubin said Thursday. “It’s going to be in the ‘90s what real estate was to the ‘80s.

“What I think the 1990s is going to be about is nutrition and entrepreneuring.”

The former Yippie was a member of the Chicago Seven, a group of radicals who were tried on charges of conspiring to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He turned to spiritualism in the 1970s and then became a Wall Street networker.

His recruits for the new venture include old friends. One is Bobby Seale, the Black Panther founder and a Chicago Seven co-defendant.