QandO

August 24, 2004

Weather Underground back in action
Posted by McQ

Seems like no matter what, the Vietnam era is bound and determined to remain a part of this election process. The NYPD, per the NY Post, is getting ready to do battle with ... are you ready for this? The Weather Underground.

A number of extremists with ties to the 1970s radical Weather Underground have recently been released from prison and are in New York preparing to wreak havoc during the Republican National Convention, The Post has learned.

A top-level source with extensive knowledge of police plans wouldn't disclose the names of the aging rabble-rousers but said a handful of them are already here and will play a behind-the-scenes role in attempting to disrupt the GOP gala.

"These people are trained in kidnapping techniques, bombmaking and building improvised munitions," the source said. "They've very bad people."

"They're not likely to take direct action," the source continued, "but they'll be orchestrating operations."

Originally called "The Weathermen," the anarchist organization came into existence in June 1969 as a radical splinter group of the Students for a Democratic Society.

Yes the old leftist bomb tossers of the 60s and 70s are apparently gathering in NY for the Republican Convention.

Now everyone should understand that they're going to be characterized as "anarchists" with the hope that they'll essentially be written off as apolitical. But they were anything but apolitical in the '60s and 70s. They were, and probably still remain, a violent and extreme leftist group.

Why do I say that? Well it has to do with how they described themselves:

The Weathermen, also known as the Weather Underground Organization, was a US-based, self-described "revolutionary organization of communist men and women" formed by members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), splintering that organization in the process.

A "revolutionary organization of communist men and women" isn't an anarchist group. They're an extreme leftist group. And these folks have a history. Originally a part of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), they were committed to a "New Left" as outlined in their Port Huron Agenda, a portion of which I've excerpted below. What you'll see is the SDS was primarily focused on effecting change in universities and colleges that would move them to the left:

1. Any new left in America must be, in large measure, a left with real intellectual skills, committed to deliberativeness, honesty, reflection as working tools. The university permits the political life to be an adjunct to the academic one, and action to be informed by reason.

2. A new left must be distributed in significant social roles throughout the country. The universities are distributed in such a manner.

3. A new left must consist of younger people who matured in the postwar world, and partially be directed to the recruitment of younger people. The university is an obvious beginning point.

4. A new left must include liberals and socialists, the former for their relevance, the latter for their sense of thoroughgoing reforms in the system. The university is a more sensible place than a political party for these two traditions to begin to discuss their differences and look for political synthesis.

5. A new left must start controversy across the land, if national policies and national apathy are to be reversed. The ideal university is a community of controversy, within itself and in its effects on communities beyond.

6. A new left must transform modern complexity into issues that can be understood and felt close up by every human being. It must give form to the feelings of helplessness and indifference, so that people may see the political, social, and economic sources of their private troubles, and organize to change society. In a time of supposed prosperity, moral complacency, and political manipulation, a new left cannot rely on only aching stomachs to be the engine force of social reform. The case for change, for alternatives that will involve uncomfortable personal efforts, must be argued as never before. The university is a relevant place for all of these activities.

Its a rather interesting agenda for taking over the universities of the land. Some argue the agenda has all but been achieved there, at least in such places as Berkley.

Founder of the SDS? Tom Hayden. Hayden will be in NY for the protests saying "Dissent must come alive in New York City. Dissent against an unelected government that misled us into an unnecessary war that has cost nearly 1,000 American lives and $200 billion that could have been invested in health care."

One wonders if his fellow 60's radical anti-war activist and former wife, Jane Fonda, will be there? One of Jane Fonda's fellow radical anit-war protesting buddies won't be there for sure though.

John Kerry.

Anyway, back to the Weathermen or later Weather Underground. They split from the SDS wanting to take more direct and violent action against the government than the SDS was willing to do.

In October 1969, they organized their first event, called the "Days of Rage" in Chicago. The opening salvo in the Days of Rage came on the night of October 6, when they blew up a statue dedicated to police casualties in the 1886 Haymarket Riot. Although the October 8 rally failed to draw as many participants as they had anticipated, the estimated three hundred who did attend shocked police by leading a riot through Chicago's business district, smashing windows and cars. Six people were shot and seventy arrested. Two smaller violent conflicts with police followed the next two nights.

In 1970, following the shooting of Black Panther Fred Hampton, the group issued a Declaration of War against the United States government, changing its name to the "weather underground organization", adopting fake identities, and pursuing covert activities only. These initially included preparations for a bombing of US military noncommissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix. But when three Underground members died in an accidental explosion while preparing the bomb in a Greenwich Village, New York City safe house, other cells reevaluated their plans and decided to pursue only non-lethal projects.

The group released a number of manifestos and declarations, while conducting a series of bombings, attacking the U.S. Capitol, The Pentagon, police and prison buildings, and the rebuilt Haymarket statue again, among other targets. They successfully broke LSD advocate Timothy Leary out of prison and transported him to Algeria. They remained largely successful at avoiding the police.

Bombings, jail breaks, conspiracy to commit murder, you name it ... all in the name of revolutionary communism.

So if any of the talking heads begin waxing nostalgic or pretending like these are just, you know, benign, aging old hippy war protesters and lovers of peace, well its not true. They were (and possibly still are) murderous communist rabble and left wing extremists, and the world needs to be reminded of that when their minions are battling the NYPD next week.

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