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The Weather Underground Organization The Weather Underground Organization “Bring the War Home” John Reardon April 1, 2011 Social Movements The 1960s in the United States was an amazing time in our nation’s history for numerous reasons. This decade marked the hippie or counter culture movement, anti-war movement, rise in feminism, and civil rights movement. All of these social movements were started by groups of people who were sick and tired of the same old way of life that America possessed. Ideas of acting against the norm and fighting for what you believed in was something that had never been seen in our culture until the 1960s. The astonishing aspect of these events was that the majority was influenced by the young people of America. If you were to look at the hippie revolution and their ideals of free-love, sexual experiences, drug experimentation, music, equal rights; it was all from the youth demographic. One could argue that the spark of these new ideas and thoughts was the Vietnam War; the most infamous and controversial war that the United States has ever been a part of. Personally, I am fascinated with what occurred during the 1960s. I think it is definitely a time in American culture that should be appreciated due to what it has done for our culture today. Without the free spirits, student activists, protesters, etc. our country would not be what it is composed of today. During the latter years of the 1960s, a student driven organization known as the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) emerged onto the scene. Their main goal was to actively protest against the government for the war on Vietnam. They would hold annual conventions, protest, and show their immense dedication to ending the war. Bernadine Dohrn, who was a student en route to obtaining her degree in law, was the leader of this organization. However, during their last convention in 1969, the SDS was taken over by a much more radical organization known as the Weather Underground Organization (the weatherman). This organization had one main goal in mind and that was to start a revolutionary party that would eventually overthrow the United States government. This group lasted throughout most of the seventies and was completely dissolved in 1981 when the main leaders of the group, Bill Ayers, Cathy Wilkerson, Bernadine Dohrn and Mark Rudd, came out of hiding and gave themselves up to the police. The debate on whether their actions were to be considered as revolutionist or terrorist is still something that is debated today. They believed that the people of the United States were not doing enough, that living their everyday lives while genocide was going on in Vietnam, was in its self an act of violence. It reminds me of the “bullying campaign” that I learned at a young age. If you’re allowing bad things to happen to people, you are no better than the people who are committing the violence. Just sitting back and allowing these terrible events to happen is just as bad as dropping bombs or pulling triggers. From October 8-11, 1969, the Weatherman instituted their “Days of Rage”, which was a series of demonstrations taking place in Chicago. Weather underground individual John Jacobs is quoted saying, “Weatherman would shove the war down their dumb, fascist throats and show them, while we were at it, how much better we were than them, both tactically and strategically, as a people. In an all-out civil war over Vietnam and other fascist U.S. imperialism, we were going to bring the war home. 'Turn the imperialists' war into a civil war', in Lenin's words. And we were going to kick ass." Days of rage was supposed to be a new breed of protesters, people who wouldn’t stop fighting until they got what they wanted. They were not going to be the usual activists or protesters who would be containable or could be shut up; they were willing to give up their lives for what they believed in. And they were not going to allow any form of government (the police) stand in their way. However, the numbers were not in their favor when about 800 weather underground participants and followers showed up to roughly 2000 policeman. Later on that night around 10:00pm is when the real action began when John Jacobs, Jeff Jones, and Dave Gilbert led the group of protesters to the Drake Hotel where Judge Julius Hoffman made his home. The march was indeed a violent one where the crowd would smash cars, building windows, and everything else in their path. The riot quickly came to an end when the rioters ran into police barricade. The police were better trained and ready for the attack, shooting a great amount of tear gas into the crowds as well as driving their squad cars directly through the mob. The next two days was much of the same, the protesters would march throughout Chicago’s streets destroying cars and such with the same results as the previous days. Although, just because they were stopped from rioting and many were arrested, the message had been sent, the Weatherman organization was here to stay and you’d better listen to them. The total damages from the three-day riot/protest cost the city of Chicago almost $200,000 and the organization paid almost $40,000 more than that in bails alone. Days of Rage (Terry Robbins on right) After the Days of Rage, the movement had been set in motion. The organization had determined just how they were exactly going to form and what the definition of their movement was about. The “War Council” was formed during December 26-31 in Flint, Michigan, where they would justify their actions. They wanted to be an underground movement that was going to violently act out against the government but didn’t want to be a group who would try and persuade the public’s eye. In addition, they wanted to spread their organization throughout all the major cities in the United States, but were only successful to create branches in California, the Mid West, and New York City. They had decided that their name would be derived from a Bob Dylan song: “You don’t need to know a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”. This quote meant that anyone, regardless of your political or current event knowledge could tell in some way, shape or form that a revolution was imminent. Fred Hampton, leader of the Chicago Black Panther party did not approve of what the Weatherman did during the Days of Rage. “"We believe that the Weather Underground Organization's action was anarchistic, opportunistic, individualistic, chauvinistic, and Custeristic… It's nothing but child's play - its folly." And to some extent I can agree with these comments. For example, at this point in time Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to promote non-violent protests and some parties of the Black Panthers were in agreeance with that. It was almost as if the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers were not working in sync with one another. This only led to more people speaking out against the weatherman, saying that they had destroyed all that the SDS had built. These statements caused feelings of isolation and being targeted as outcasts for the Weather Underground. Mark Rudd, who was a student at Columbia University and led the student activist party at Columbia, had a strong drive behind him to change the ways of the United States politics. His main focus on the matter can be found one of his speeches after the War Council, “black people are fighting, brown people are fighting, Vietnamese people are fighting, and it’s now time for youth people and working people in this country, for white movement, a revolutionary movement to begin to fight!” Quotes like this instilled in Weather Underground participants and their followers just how serious Rudd, Dohrn, Ayers, and other group leaders were about their movement. Soon after the death of Black Panther’s Chicago leader Fred Hampton, the Weather Underground had seen enough. They realized that the government was going to go to extreme lengths to see that they remained in control and whenever they thought they had lost even the slightest bit of power, they were going to act. Murdering Hampton was the last straw in the eyes of many Weathermen including Terry Robbins. Robbins, a student from Kenyon State College was a key leader in the Weather Underground Organization and was the one who believed that bomb making and training in weapons was the next step for the organization. In addition, Robbins was the first to conduct the planning of attack on a police officer dance at Fort Dicks. “What we wanted to do here was, to deliver the most horrific hit that the United States government had ever seen on its territory. We wanted to light it up, our slogan was to bring the war home and we really wanted to give the U.S. and the rest of the world the sense that this country was unlivable if the United States continued in Vietnam. And that was the goal of this group.” (said by Brian Flanagan, member of New York chapter of the Weathermen) On March 1970 there was an explosion in the townhouse where the bombs were being made due to a short circuiting; the three members who were constructing the bomb were killed. Those involved in the bomb building were: Theodore Gold, Terry Robbins, and Diana Oughton. Even though their plan turned against them, it was still seen through the eyes of the public that this organization had totally transformed from being student aggressive protesters to full-fledged revolutionists.
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