Weathermen and women - the Weather Underground

[Rastafari]

Is anybody familiar with this organization, which was relentlessly pursued by the FBI in the 70's and 80's (especially after the attempted Reagan Assasination).

They were extremely violent communists based in San Fransisco and only had about 200 in number.
I find them highly interesting, but there is nothing written on them I can find.

[Rastafari]

oh, btw, this wasn't the John Hinckley Jr. assasination.
This was the woman who's gun broke as she shot him point-blanc

[redstar2000]

Gather around, folks, and I'll tell you a tale...

I not only knew some of those people, I was once involved in a brawl with them (it was a draw).

The June 1969 National Convention of Students for a Democratic Society was convulsed by a three-way split among contending Leninist groups.

The largest of the three was led by the then-Maoist Progressive Labor Party...their faction in SDS was called the Worker-Student Alliance. After the split, they went on to operate a "rump"-SDS for another three years before dissolving it.

The opposition to PLP in SDS was called the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM), and while they could unite against PLP, they themselves were really two factions that later went their separate ways.

The older of the two--called "RYM I"--was inspired directly by the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, and, after their "War Council" in Flynt, Michigan (October 1969), decided to go underground and start a guerilla campaign. Their slogan was "bring the war home".

RYM II, on the other hand, was actually more "orthodox Maoist" than their rivals in the PLP; they set forth on a course that more or less quickly led them into Bob Avakian's new "Revolutionary Communist Party".

RYM I became known as the Weather Underground and their leadership was called the Weather Bureau. Their projects revolved entirely around the manufacture and placing of rather modest bombs (three of them blew up a New York City townhouse--and themselves--when they attempted to build a really powerful bomb). Their targets were essentially symbolic; they'd place a bomb in the women's bathroom in a large corporate building...and once, even in the visitor's bathroom in the U.S. capital building. (It was a joke among their critics that they were a front for the plumbers union.)

They were not "based" in any particular city, but had "safe houses" scattered widely across the U.S. They also had sympathizers that would arrange for their public statements to be circulated to the media (which ignored them) and to the left (which sometimes printed them and sometimes didn't...but no one really discussed them).

It would not be an exaggeration to say that they achieved a small degree of "mythical folk-hero" status among some disaffected kids of that era. Grace Slick and Paul Kantner of the musical group Jefferson Starship wrote a couple of songs about them, for example.

But one should not exaggerate; they never did the kind of stuff that Italy's "Red Brigades" pulled off. It was symbolic resistance that the Weather Underground was interested in, not serious damage to ruling class operations/personnel.

This might have been an unconscious reflection of their political heritage in SDS; for all their Leninist rhetoric, they really believed it was their task to "arouse the masses", not "do it for them".

They more or less fell apart in the late 1970s...and, one by one, were successfully hunted down and arrested by the FBI. Since they never caused any fatalities (except to three of their own members), their prison terms were modest. When they were released, they more or less accomodated themselves to "the new world order"--two of their leaders are now tenured professors at universities in the Chicago area.

The best account that I ever came across of "life in the Weather Underground" is Vida by Marge Piercy. At the end, with her lover arrested and she in flight, disguised as an old lady, Vida reminds herself...

"The wind that raised us up will rise again."

Considering some of the posts one occasionally sees on this board...there's definitely a breeze.

:cool:

(Edited by redstar2000 at 12:16 am on July 3, 2003)

[Dhul Fiqar]

Hella cool!

Now tell us how you got in a fight with them, hehe :)

--- G.

[Dhul Fiqar]

Oh, and btw, what do you feel about their tactics?

It seems to me that low casualties, symbolic attacks and etc. might be a good way to go. However, it seems rather ineffective to attack bathrooms, although admittedly it's a low-risk target.

--- G.

[Rastafari]

Jesus christ thank you Red Star, you are by far one of the most qualified members on the site.
Oh, and Starship sort of sucked, but Jefferson Airplane was great


"It doesn't take a weatherman to tell which way the wind will blow"

[Rastafari]

oh, and my favorite was always 3/10 of a mile on surrealistic pillow, but I digress.

I believe between the Weather Underground and Carlos the Jackal, Marxism has rarely seen better "terrorists" on US soil...

[redstar2000]

I was an innocent bystander, Dhul. :biggrin:

From a tactical standpoint, I have mixed feelings.

The best Weather Underground target that I remember was a monument to the Chicago police who were killed in the Haymarket battle back in the 1880s (the police opened fire on demonstrating workers...who shot back). This monument to the pigs was in a public park. The Weather Underground blew it up. The Chicago Police Department had it patched back together and reinstalled in the park, whereupon the WU blew it up again. This time, the once-more repaired statue was installed in the lobby of a Police Department building where, I'm told, it can be seen to this day.

I suppose if one selected one's targets with sufficient care--monuments to the more odious symbols of tyranny and imperialism--and were quite careful to avoid injuries or deaths, it might have a modest effect in the right direction.

But bomb-making is not for beginners and even the geekiest techno-nerd can get into some real difficulties...crashing a bomb is very different from crashing a computer.

My impression is that "successful" bombers--like the so-called "unibomber"--have to spend some years in experimenting before they are able to safely construct reliable bombs...at the constant risk of exposure and arrest, of course. In the U.S., even the possession of explosive materials can result in felony charges. In fact, it would not surprise me if even possessing written materials and/or computer files on the "how to" of bomb building is now punishable by law.

In sum, I don't think the "pay-off" is worth the risk. The WU didn't arouse the masses...though they certainly led the FBI a merry chase; I think the last ones were caught sometime in the 1990s.

The "new frontier" of guerilla warfare is clearly the internet. "Knock out" the Federal Reserve Board network or the New York Stock Exchange system and watch American capitalism flounder in deep shit.

Easier said than done, of course...but a hell of a lot safer than fucking around with explosives and a lot more than symbolically damaging to the capitalist system.

Or, you could convince someone that you know well that communist ideas are better than capitalist ideas...no "folk hero" status there, just one more tiny step towards the revolution...

:cool:

PS: It's my opinion that the Jefferson Starship's "Stairway to Cleveland"---with its great line "Fuck you! We do what we want!"---may have been the greatest rock and roll song ever written.