132-521: Weathermen may refer to: Weather Underground , American political movement commonly called "the Weathermen", 1969–1977 The Weathermen (band) , a semi-satirical Belgian electronic and pop group The Weathermen (hip hop group) , an American collective Combat Weathermen , US Air Force tactical observer/forecasters with ground combat capabilities Jonathan King , an English singer-songwriter who used
264-562: A Worker Student Alliance . By 1968 and 1969 they would profoundly affect SDS, particularly at national gatherings of the membership, forming a well-groomed, disciplined faction which followed the Progressive Labor Party line. At the beginning of the convention, two position papers were passed out by the National Office leadership, one a revised statement of Klonsky's RYM manifesto, the other called "You Don't Need
396-423: A "smash monogamy" campaign, in which couples (whose affection was deemed unacceptably possessive, counterrevolutionary or even selfish) were to be split apart; collectives underwent forced rotation of sex partners (including allegations that some male leaders rotated women between collectives in order to sleep with them) and in some cases engaged in sexual orgies. This formation continued during 1969 and 1970 until
528-506: A Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows". The latter document outlined the position of the group that would become the Weathermen. It had been signed by Karen Ashley, Bill Ayers , Bernardine Dohrn , John Jacobs , Jeff Jones , Gerry Long, Howie Machtinger , Jim Mellen , Terry Robbins , Mark Rudd , and Steve Tappis. The document called for creating a clandestine revolutionary party. The most important task for us toward making
660-506: A belief which he claimed they held because they were insulated from the violence which afflicted blacks and the poor. He predicted a successful revolution, and declared that youth were moving away from passivity and apathy and toward a new high-energy culture of "depersonalization" brought about by drugs, sex, and armed revolution. "We're against everything that's 'good and decent' in honky America," Jacobs said in his most commonly quoted statement. "We will burn and loot and destroy. We are
792-563: A centralized organization of revolutionaries, a "Marxist–Leninist Party" supported by a mass revolutionary movement to support international liberation movements and "open another battlefield of the revolution." The theoretical basis of the Revolutionary Youth Movement was an insight that most of the American population, including both students and the supposed "middle class," comprised, due to their relationship to
924-533: A child together. The Weathermen's bombing campaign restarted the next fall where it had begun: on the anniversary of the first bombing in October, they again blew up the police memorial statue in Chicago's Haymarket Square. Later that fall they regained some credibility among the radical college left of the era when they facilitated Timothy Leary 's escape from prison. It continued for six years, subsiding once
1056-409: A dull roar from the basement and watched as the carpeted floor broke in several places beneath her, letting through a red glow as shards of broken wood and plaster erupted from it. After a second explosion, the floor collapsed and Wilkerson recalls nothing for a while afterwards. Anne Byrne Hoffman was returning from an errand via taxi. The driver overshot 18 West 11th, putting her two houses away from
1188-482: A few days later over assault charges against them from the Days of Rage, were upstairs cleaning the house in preparation for Wilkerson's parents' return that evening. Other members were preparing their disguises for that night. Shortly before noon, Gold left to get some cotton balls Robbins needed, according to Wilkerson. She began ironing a sheet and heard Boudin beginning to shower upstairs. A few minutes later, she heard
1320-407: A few hundred people. According to Bill Ayers in 2003, "The Days of Rage was an attempt to break from the norms of kind of acceptable theatre of 'here are the anti-war people: containable, marginal, predictable, and here's the little path they're going to march down, and here's where they can make their little statement.' We wanted to say, "No, what we're going to do is whatever we had to do to stop
1452-465: A friend. The lower floors of the townhouse had been destroyed, and much of the front facade blown out. Other buildings on the street had windows blown out, including the Hoffman home. Inside the remains of the townhouse, Wilkerson regained awareness, covered in dust and soot. She called for Robbins. Oughton and Robbins were killed by the blast. Gold was returning to the townhouse and was crushed by
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#17327720823451584-485: A leader of the 1968 Kent State University student rebellion and a founder of the Weathermen, who would be indicted the following month along with 11 others for organizing and inciting riots during the Days of Rage. Neighbors positively identified Wilkerson as one of the two women who had been led out of the wreckage. Boudin was not positively identified as the second survivor until some weeks later. Both women were charged with illegal possession of dynamite, as no one in
1716-466: A nationwide revolt against the government. Weather members aimed to mobilize people into action against the established leaders of the nation and the patterns of injustice which existed in America and abroad due to America's presence overseas. They also aimed to convince people to resist reliance upon their given privilege and to rebel and take arms if necessary. According to Weatherman, if people tolerated
1848-628: A noncommissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix in South Jersey that night, and the administration building at Columbia University . The unexploded dynamite found in the ruins could have destroyed all the houses on both sides of the block had it detonated in the blast. Robbins and Oughton were in the basement building the bomb intended for Fort Dix, later described as the largest explosive device ever found in Manhattan, when it exploded prematurely; Gold had just returned from running an errand and
1980-409: A relatively sophisticated program of armed propaganda was adopted. This consisted of a series of bombings of government and corporate targets in retaliation for specific imperialist and oppressive acts. Small, well-constructed time bombs were used, generally in vents in restrooms, which exploded at times the spaces were empty. Timely warnings were made, and communiqués issued explaining the reason for
2112-508: A socialite, theater producer and former wife of Henry Fonda , also lived nearby. The Weathermen purchased a large quantity of dynamite and a number of electric fuses for $ 60 ($ 500 in modern dollars ) in New Hampshire in early March. After a meeting they designated three targets, including a noncommissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix , which was due to take place on March 6. It was reported that "arguments went on day and night" in
2244-567: A van outside so that as many 250 guests could dance all night inside. Dietz sold 18 West 11th to Wilkerson and his second wife in 1963; the next year Wilkerson celebrated his 50th birthday with another lavish party similar to Dietz's, a masked ball with 50 guests that continued past midnight; Cathy Wilkerson and her sister, both daughters from their father's previous marriage, were among the guests. Mel Gussow , theater critic for The New York Times during that period, who lived next door at 16 West 11th, remembers on several occasions returning from
2376-628: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Weather Underground The Weather Underground was a far-left Marxist militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan . Originally known as the Weathermen , the group was organized as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) national leadership. Officially known as
2508-572: The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion , the organization adopted a new paradigm of direct action set forth in the communiqué New Morning, Changing Weather , which abjured attacks on people. The shift in the organization's outlook was in good part due to the 1970 death of Weatherman Terry Robbins , Diana Oughton and Ted Gold , all graduate students, in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion. According to Dan Berger
2640-543: The Progressive Labor Party (PLP). During the factional struggle, National Office leaders such as Bernardine Dohrn and Mike Klonsky began announcing their emerging perspectives, and Klonsky published a document titled "Toward a Revolutionary Youth Movement " (RYM). RYM promoted the philosophy that young workers possessed the potential to be a revolutionary force which could overthrow capitalism, if not by themselves then by transmitting radical ideas to
2772-608: The Venceremos Brigade , a program which involved U.S. students volunteering to work in the sugar harvest in Cuba, is highlighted as a common factor in the background of the founders of the Weather Underground, with China a secondary influence. This experience was cited by both Kathy Boudin and Bernardine Dohrn as a major influence on their political development. Terry Robbins took the organization's name from
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#17327720823452904-563: The Weather Underground (Weathermen), an American leftist militant group, were making bombs in the basement of 18 West 11th Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood, when one of them exploded. The resulting series of three blasts completely destroyed the four-story townhouse and severely damaged those adjacent to it, including the then home of actor Dustin Hoffman and theater critic Mel Gussow . Three Weathermen— Ted Gold , Diana Oughton and Terry Robbins —were killed in
3036-685: The Weather Underground Organization ( WUO ) beginning in 1970, the group's express political goal was to create a revolutionary party to overthrow the United States government, which WUO believed to be imperialist . The FBI described the WUO as a domestic terrorist group, with revolutionary positions characterized by Black Power and opposition to the Vietnam War . The WUO took part in domestic attacks such as
3168-517: The Days of Rage riots the Weatherman held the last of its National Council meetings from December 26 to December 31, 1969, in Flint, Michigan . The meeting, dubbed the "War Council" by the 300 people who attended, adopted Jacobs' call for violent revolution. Dohrn opened the conference by telling the delegates they needed to stop being afraid and begin the "armed struggle." Over the next five days,
3300-544: The Ex Weatherman (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Weathermen . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Weathermen&oldid=1200021542 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
3432-592: The Fort Dix bombing, a Columbia University building, and several other bombings in Detroit that were planned for the same date but were foiled by the Detroit Police with the help of informant Larry Grathwohl . The Wilkersons decided not to rebuild the house since they had already been planning to sell it. In 2000, when Gussow wrote about the anniversary of the explosion for The New York Times , Wilkerson
3564-559: The Midwest, and one in New York City. The New York City collective was led by Jacobs and Terry Robbins, and included Ted Gold , Kathy Boudin , Cathy Wilkerson (Robbins' girlfriend), and Diana Oughton . Jacobs was one of Robbins' biggest supporters, and pushed the Weathermen to let Robbins be as violent as he wanted to be. The Weatherman national leadership agreed, as did the New York City collective. The collective's first target
3696-672: The October 1968 SDS National Council meeting in Boulder, Colorado . The resolution, titled "The Elections Don't Mean Shit—Vote Where the Power Is—Our Power Is In The Street" and adopted by the council, was prompted by the success of the Democratic National Convention protests in August 1968 and reflected Jacobs' strong advocacy of direct action . As part of the "National Action Staff", Jacobs
3828-409: The October 1969 Days of Rage protests in Chicago, which led to several arrests of the group's leadership for incitement to riot . They were preceded by the first Weatherman bombing, which destroyed a memorial statue to the city police killed in the 1886 Haymarket affair ; no arrests have ever been made. The three groups worked entirely independently, and competed to carry out the boldest attacks in
3960-649: The Pentagon was "in retaliation for the U.S. bombing raid in Hanoi ". On September 28, 1973, an ITT Inc building in New York City was bombed for the involvement of this company in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état . The WUO announced that its January 29, 1975 bombing of the United States Department of State building was "in response to the escalation in Vietnam". The WUO began to disintegrate after
4092-523: The Progressive Labor view which viewed students and workers as being in separate categories which could ally, but should not jointly organize. FBI analysis of the travel history of the founders and initial followers of the organization emphasized contacts with foreign governments, particularly the Cuban and North Vietnamese and their influence on the ideology of the organization. Participation in
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4224-460: The United States reached a peace accord in Vietnam in 1973, and it was defunct by 1977. Some members of the WUO joined the May 19th Communist Organization and continued their activities until that group disbanded in 1985. The group took its name from Bob Dylan 's lyric "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows", from the song " Subterranean Homesick Blues " (1965). That Dylan line
4356-491: The United States, the prominence of the Black Panther Party, together with a series of "ghetto rebellions" throughout poor black neighborhoods across the country. We felt that doing nothing in a period of repressive violence is itself a form of violence. That's really the part that I think is the hardest for people to understand. If you sit in your house, live your white life and go to your white job, and allow
4488-708: The Vietnam War as well as from the civil rights movement of the 1960s. One of the factors that contributed to the radicalization of SDS members was the Economic Research and Action Project that the SDS undertook in Northern urban neighborhoods from 1963 to 1968. This project was aimed at creating an interracial movement of the poor that would mobilize for full and fair employment or guaranteed annual income and political rights for poverty class Americans. Their goal
4620-470: The Vietnam War ended. The FBI put Boudin and Wilkerson on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list; they remained at large for a decade. Wilkerson surrendered in 1980 and served 11 months of a three-year sentence on the dynamite possession charge, the only criminal prosecution resulting from the explosion. Boudin was apprehended in 1981 for her role in the Brink's armored car robbery and served until 2003. She
4752-415: The Vietnam War. The Weathermen strongly sympathized with the radical Black Panther Party . The police killing of Panther Fred Hampton prompted the Weatherman to issue a declaration of war upon the United States government. We petitioned, we demonstrated, we sat in . I was willing to get hit over the head, I did; I was willing to go to prison, I did. To me, it was a question of what had to be done to stop
4884-473: The Weatherman attempted to regroup and resume their demonstrations. About 300 protesters marched through The Loop , Chicago's main business district, watched by a double line of heavily armed police. The protesters suddenly broke through the police lines and rampaged through the Loop, smashing the windows of cars and stores. The police were prepared, and quickly isolated the rioters. Within 15 minutes, more than half
5016-547: The Weathermen and the goal of revolution. Personal property was either renounced or given to the collective, with income being used to purchase the needs of the group and members enduring Spartan living conditions. Conventional comforts were forbidden, and the leadership was exalted, giving them immense power over their subordinates (in some collectives the leadership could even dictate personal decisions such as where one went). Martial arts were practiced and occasional direct actions were engaged in. Critical of monogamy, they launched
5148-410: The Weathermen blew it up as well on October 6, 1970. The city rebuilt the statue once again, and Mayor Richard J. Daley posted a 24-hour police guard to protect it, but the Weathermen destroyed the third one, as well. The city compromised and rebuilt the monument once more, but this time they located it at Chicago Police Headquarters. One of the first acts of the Weathermen after splitting from SDS
5280-417: The Weathermen had experience with explosives, and Robbins and Wilkerson did not even understand the basics of electricity. They worked up a simple timer and trigger device that lacked any safety features, and packed the dynamite with sharp roofing nails. Robbins was unwilling to deviate from the way he had been told to build the bomb, and unwilling to listen to suggestions from anyone else. Robbins had chosen
5412-677: The Weathermen to be taken seriously by their putative allies in the Black Panthers as revolutionary opponents of the Vietnam War and institutionalized racism, since the group's previous bombings had generally done little more than inconvenience their targets. The self-destructive failure of their plot had the opposite effect: most of the members left, and most support from the greater radical left-wing community evaporated. Those who remained, including Wilkerson, learned more about explosives and bombmaking; their campaign continued for another six years. A new, modernist house similar in appearance
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5544-403: The Weathermen's Days of Rage there the preceding October, were charged with unlawful possession of dynamite. After their bail in the Chicago case was revoked when they failed to show up for trial shortly after the explosion, Boudin and Wilkerson remained fugitives from justice for a decade. Wilkerson voluntarily surrendered in 1980 and served 11 months in prison on the charge. Boudin eventually
5676-912: The Weathermen's overall assertion that worldwide revolution was imminent, such as the tumultuous Cultural Revolution in China; the 1968 student revolts in France , Mexico City and elsewhere; the Prague Spring ; the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ; the emergence of the Tupamaros organization in Uruguay ; the emergence of the Guinea-Bissauan Revolution and similar Marxist -led independence movements throughout Africa; and within
5808-520: The actions. Shortly before the Days of Rage demonstrations on October 6, 1969, the Weatherman planted a bomb which blew up a statue in Chicago commemorating the deaths of police officers during the 1886 Haymarket Riot . The blast broke nearly 100 windows and scattered pieces of the statue onto the Kennedy Expressway below. The city rebuilt the statue and unveiled it on May 4, 1970, but
5940-426: The authoritative figures who had oppressed them, including cops, principals, and bosses. Weather aimed to develop roots within the class struggle, targeting white working-class youths. The younger members of the working class became the focus of the organizing effort because they felt the oppression strongly in regard to the military draft, low-wage jobs, and schooling. Schools became a common place of recruitment for
6072-447: The backyard garden. Gussow was not the only luminary in the neighborhood. Actor Dustin Hoffman (who can be seen in the documentary The Weather Underground (2002) standing on the street after the explosion ), his then wife Anne Byrne and her daughter Karina from a previous marriage, whom Hoffman had adopted, lived below them in 16 West 11th; the building was owned by painter Jane Freilicher and her husband Joe Hazan. Susan Wager ,
6204-474: The belief that all white babies were "tainted with the original sin of "skin privilege", declaring "all white babies are pigs" with one Weatherwoman telling feminist poet Robin Morgan "You have no right to that pig male baby" after she saw Morgan breastfeeding her son and told Morgan to put the baby in the garbage. Charles Manson was an obsession within the group and Bernardine Dohrn claimed he truly understood
6336-483: The belief that doing so would increase support for the group and its actions. Machtinger's group carried out the first Weather Underground bombing, with explosives detonating shortly after midnight on February 13, 1970, during shift change at the Berkeley, California , police headquarters. The pair of bombs caused considerable property damage and injured several officers, one severely, but did not kill any, disappointing
6468-417: The blast, while two survivors, Kathy Boudin and Cathy Wilkerson , were helped out of the wreckage and subsequently fled. Responding firefighters initially believed the blast to have been an accidental gas explosion , but police suspicions were aroused by the two survivors' apparent disappearances, and by that evening other bombs the Weathermen had built were found. They had been meant for several targets:
6600-567: The bomb when it exploded was used as a laundry room. David Langworthy died in 1983; his wife lived at 18 West 11th until her own death in 2012. Their family sold the house for $ 9.25 million in December 2012. The new owner, financier Justin Korsant, planned to renovate the house extensively, including gutting the interior completely and redoing the facade, but after public opposition the LPC rejected
6732-531: The cause , but a police detective on the scene called Albert Seedman , his superior, and said it seemed unnaturally destructive for a gas explosion. Seedman arrived on the scene and set up a command post with senior firefighters and the FBI . Seedman found it suspicious that the two women known to have survived had not returned to the scene and could not be located. Gussow, arriving on the scene later, worried that 16 West 11th would also be destroyed. Firefighters allowed
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#17327720823456864-608: The center of their political theory. Weather warned that other political theories, including those addressing class interests or youth interests, were "bound to lead in a racist and chauvinist direction". Weather denounced other political theories of the time as "objectively racist" if they did not side with the international proletariat; such political theories, they argued, needed to be "smashed". Members of Weather further contended that efforts at "organizing whites against their own perceived oppression" were "attempts by whites to carve out even more privilege than they already derive from
6996-420: The chaos in search of survivors. The latter had heard Wilkerson in the ruins, but after she left he was knocked over by the shockwave from the third blast. Boudin was still naked from the shower and Wilkerson was wearing only jeans as her blouse had been blown off, but neither was seriously injured. Wilkerson told Susan Wager , who described them as "dazed and trembling", that there had been two other people in
7128-468: The city. News of the blast had a similarly disruptive effect on the other two Weatherman groups; some of the other members thought the explosion had been the result of the police targeting the group. Its total membership declined by two-thirds and it lost much of its support. In May, after the remaining members gathered in San Francisco to confer, Bernadine Dohrn issued a statement in the name of
7260-449: The collapsing facade. Wilkerson regained awareness and heard Boudin nearby on the edge of what was now a crater in the basement; the two were able to link hands and escape just as a fire built up behind them. Just after they got out, the fire built up into another explosion, blowing out the wall of Hoffman's house and knocking his desk into the crater. A police officer and an off-duty New York City Housing Authority patrolman rushed into
7392-586: The country and tell women the truth, recruit the local people, poor and working-class people, in order to build a new society. Berger explains the controversy surrounding recruitment strategies saying, "As an organizing strategy it was less than successful: white working class youths were more alienated than organized by Weather's spectacles, and even some of those interested in the group were turned off by its early hi-jinks." In 2006, Dan Berger (writer, activist, and longtime anti-racism organizer) states that following their initial set of bombings, which resulted in
7524-482: The country that you live in to murder people and to commit genocide , and you sit there and you don't do anything about it, that's violence. The Weathermen were outspoken critics of the concepts that later came to be known as " white privilege " (described as white-skin privilege) and identity politics . As the civil disorder in poor black neighborhoods intensified in the early 1970s, Bernardine Dohrn said, "White youth must choose sides now. They must either fight on
7656-694: The crowd had been arrested. The Days of Rage cost Chicago and the state of Illinois about $ 183,000 ($ 100,000 for National Guard expenses, $ 35,000 in damages, and $ 20,000 for one injured citizen's medical expenses). Most of the Weathermen and SDS leaders were now in jail, and the Weathermen would have to pay over $ 243,000 for their bail . Greenwich Village townhouse explosion 40°44′03″N 73°59′45″W / 40.734289°N 73.995889°W / 40.734289; -73.995889 The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion occurred on March 6, 1970, in New York City , United States. Members of
7788-415: The dance at Fort Dix as their target; other reports indicate that only some were intended for the dance, with the rest to be detonated inside the administration building at Columbia University . The morning of March 6, he and Oughton were making final preparations in the same subbasement where James Wilkerson restored furniture, while Boudin and Wilkerson, both of whom were due to appear in court in Chicago
7920-512: The design. It was built later that year although not without some controversy at the time; in 2019, Curbed called it "an architectural sore thumb". Under the Langworthys' ownership, the house became locally famous for the seasonally themed Paddington Bear displays Norma Langworthy maintained in the front window after having received the first bear as a housewarming gift in 1980. The subbasement where Oughton and Robbins had been building
8052-417: The explosion had been a bombing, although he could not determine what the motive might have been. That night, with enough of the fire out to enter the site, Gold's crushed body was found; after his identity was confirmed two days later, students at Columbia University , his alma mater, tried to lower a flag on campus to half-staff in his memory when they heard the news. The police brought in cranes to lift
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#17327720823458184-482: The explosion. She had just stepped out of the vehicle when the first explosion occurred; had the driver stopped at the right address she and he would have been exposed to the full force of the blast. She ran into her house and found the sitter and the family dog terrified; outside the fire had already begun. Gussow's wife and son were at the Fifth Avenue corner; she ran to the house herself after leaving her son with
8316-565: The family would open an old book or drawer and still be able to smell the fire. Arthur Levin, the resident of 20 West 11th, returned to that house and still lived there as of 2014. Flowers have been placed in front of the house every March 6 in memory of those killed. "For me, March 6 never passes," Bill Ayers told the Times in 2014, saying he had been the one placing them some years. "For all of us who were part of it, it’s particularly very important to me we don't forget our friends.” Wilkerson told
8448-468: The fire department had devoted so much of its resources to saving a wealthy person's home compared to what they sent to burning tenement houses in poor minority neighborhoods. Kathy did not reply; she left that night and her family would not see her, nor have any idea of her whereabouts, for over a decade. Firefighters worked through the rest of the day to extinguish the flames, fed by natural gas from ruptured lines. They initially thought that had been
8580-450: The group declaring war on America, warning that they would "attack a symbol or institution of American injustice" within the next two weeks, and confirming that Gold, Oughton and Robbins had been among its membership. The statement named Robbins as the third body and described Gold, Oughton, and Robbins as revolutionaries "no longer on the move". The remaining Weathermen resolved to improve their bombmaking skills and began doing research on
8712-554: The group went underground and a more relaxed lifestyle was adopted as the group blended into the counterculture . Life in the collectives could be particularly hard for women, who made up about half the members. Their political awakening had included a growing awareness of sexism, yet they often found that men took the lead in political activities and discussion, with women often engaging in domestic work, as well as finding themselves confined to second-tier leadership roles. Certain feminist political beliefs had to be disavowed or muted and
8844-636: The home of the SDS's head office. The collectives set up under the Weather Bureau drew their design from Che Guevara 's foco theory, which focused on the building of small, semi-autonomous cells guided by a central leadership. To try to turn their members into hardened revolutionaries and to promote solidarity and cohesion, members of collectives engaged in intensive criticism sessions which attempted to reconcile their prior and current activities to Weathermen doctrine. These " criticism self-criticism " sessions (also called "CSC" or "Weatherfries") were
8976-418: The house at the time. Wager took the two into her house and gave them fresh clothing, including her favorite coat and boots. Both women showered, changed and fled the scene before they could be questioned. Wilkerson later said they took the subway. Boudin went to her nearby family home, where her mother found her when she returned that evening. Jean Boudin talked about the fire and how it made her angry that
9108-593: The house had the permit required by New York state law. They forfeited their bail on the Chicago assault charges by failing to appear for trial ten days later. The police were at a loss to find them; Mark Rudd , another veteran of the 1968 Columbia protests who had joined the Weathermen, did it with one phone call. The next morning he held a meeting of the New York group at a coffeehouse on 14th Street . He made sure they all had safe places to stay and, that weekend, took them for firearms practice upstate to get them out of
9240-482: The house to Howard Dietz , a Broadway lyricist and film studio executive, leaving the new owner a note wishing him the best of times in "the little house on heaven street." Dietz, composer of the standard " Dancing in the Dark ", lived there for more than three decades, with three different wives, becoming known among his neighbors for the lavish parties he threw, where the furniture would sometimes be removed and stored in
9372-412: The imperialist nexus". Weather's political theory sought to make every struggle an anti-imperialist, anti-racist struggle; out of this premise came their interrogation of critical concepts that would later be known as "white privilege". As historian Dan Berger writes, Weather raised the question "what does it mean to be a white person opposing racism and imperialism?" At one point, the Weathermen adopted
9504-592: The incubation of your mother's nightmare." Two major decisions came out of the War Council. The first was to go underground and to begin a violent, armed struggle against the state without attempting to organize or mobilize a broad swath of the public. The Weather Underground hoped to create underground collectives in major cities throughout the country. In fact, the Weathermen eventually created only three significant, active collectives; one in California, one in
9636-556: The iniquity of white America, with the Manson family being praised for the murder of Sharon Tate ; Dohrn's cell subsequently made its salute a four-fingered gesture that represented the "fork" used to stab Tate. Shortly after its formation as an independent group, Weatherman created a central committee, the Weather Bureau, which assigned its cadres to a series of collectives in major cities. These cities included New York, Boston, Seattle , Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Chicago ,
9768-402: The instruments of production, the working class , thus the organizational basis of the SDS, which had begun in the elite colleges and had been extended to public institutions as the organization grew could be extended to youth as a whole including students, those serving in the military, and the unemployed. Students could be viewed as workers gaining skills prior to employment. This contrasted to
9900-469: The interest of the oppressed peoples of the world." "The goal is the destruction of U.S. imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism" The Vietnamese and other third world countries, as well as third world people within the United States play a vanguard role. They "set the terms for class struggle in America ;..." The role of the "Revolutionary Youth Movement" is to build
10032-570: The jailbreak of Timothy Leary in 1970. The " Days of Rage " was the WUO's first riot in October 1969 in Chicago, timed to coincide with the trial of the Chicago Seven . In 1970, the group issued a "Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government under the name "Weather Underground Organization." In the 1970s, the WUO conducted a bombing campaign targeting government buildings and several banks. Some attacks were preceded by evacuation warnings, along with threats identifying
10164-401: The key so the Weathermen could have a central place to work from. She told her father, who was planning to sell the house soon so he and his English-born wife could move back to her native country, she needed a place to recuperate from the flu, and he gave her the key. The Wilkersons' Greek Revival townhouse at 18 West 11th Street was built in 1845, part of a group of contemporary houses on
10296-556: The late 1960s, United States military action in Southeast Asia escalated, especially in Vietnam. In the U.S., the anti-war sentiment was particularly pronounced during the 1968 U.S. presidential election . The origins of the Weathermen can be traced to the collapse and fragmentation of the Students for a Democratic Society following a split between office holders of the SDS, or the "National Office", and their supporters and
10428-523: The lyrics of the Bob Dylan song " Subterranean Homesick Blues ," which featured the lyrics "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." The lyrics had been quoted at the bottom of an influential essay in the SDS newspaper, New Left Notes . By using this title the Weathermen meant, partially, to appeal to the segment of U.S. youth inspired to action for social justice by Dylan's songs. The Weatherman group had long held that militancy
10560-677: The masses, and join in the people's day-to-day struggles in every way possible. In the year 1960, over a third of America's population was under 18 years of age. The number of young citizens set the stage for a widespread revolt against perceived structures of racism, sexism, and classism, the violence of the Vietnam War and America's interventions abroad. At college campuses throughout the country, anger against "the Establishment's" practices prompted both peaceful and violent protest. The members of Weatherman targeted high school and college students, assuming they would be willing to rebel against
10692-684: The media later it was the largest explosive device ever seen in Manhattan; had it detonated it would likely have destroyed the entire block. With the possibility of other unexploded bombs remaining in the ruins, police evacuated the rest of the block and called in the bomb squad . Searchers discovered a 1916 37-mm anti-tank shell. In the following days, they searched the rubble brick-by-brick and uncovered 57 sticks of dynamite, four 12-inch (300 mm) pipe bombs packed with dynamite, and 30 blasting caps . The pipe bombs and several eight-stick packages of dynamite had fuses already attached. They also found timing devices rigged from alarm clocks, more maps of
10824-433: The media that "[t]he people in the house were obviously putting together the component parts of a bomb and they did something wrong." The search for bodies continued for nine days after the explosion, and at Seedman's suggestion Wilkerson's parents made a televised appeal to their missing daughter to avoid needlessly risking the lives of searchers. They asked her to "let us know how many more people, if any, are still left in
10956-508: The most distressing part of life in the collective. Derived from Maoist techniques, it was intended to root out racist, individualist and chauvinist tendencies within group members. At its most intense, members would be berated for a dozen or more hours non-stop about their flaws. It was intended to make group members believe that they were, deep down, white supremacists by subjecting them to constant criticism to break them down. The sessions were used to ridicule and bully those who didn't agree with
11088-473: The movement. In direct actions, dubbed Jailbreaks , Weather members invaded educational institutions as a means by which to recruit high school and college students. The motivation of these jailbreaks was the organization's belief that school was where the youth were oppressed by the system and where they learned to tolerate society's faults instead of rise against them. According to "Prairie Fire", young people are channeled, coerced, misled, miseducated, misused in
11220-408: The much greater violence that was going on. At an SDS convention in Chicago on June 18, 1969, the National Office attempted to persuade unaffiliated delegates not to endorse a takeover of SDS by Progressive Labor who had packed the convention with their supporters.It was at the 1966 convention of SDS that members of Progressive Labor Party began to make their presence known for the first time. The PLP
11352-572: The neighborhood where they had lived as newlyweds on the condition they build the house he had designed. They insisted on additional steel support since their previous townhouse, on Philadelphia's Main Line , had burned down after being struck by lightning. Since the property is in the city-designated Greenwich Village Historic District, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission had to approve
11484-475: The newspaper that she did not. James Merrill , the poet who had lived in the house as a young child, lamented the bombing in his 1972 poem "18 West 11th Street", contrasting his own opposition to the war with what he believed to have been the Weathermen's vain decision to oppose it violently and destroying his childhood home along with themselves in the process. No aspect of the house could be salvaged; it had to be completely torn down. Beams were built across
11616-491: The next two days, the Weathermen held no rallies or protests. Supporters of the RYM II movement, led by Klonsky and Noel Ignatin, held peaceful rallies in front of the federal courthouse, an International Harvester factory, and Cook County Hospital. The largest event of the Days of Rage took place on Friday, October 9, when RYM II led an interracial march of 2,000 people through a Spanish-speaking part of Chicago. On October 10,
11748-505: The organization, and local chapters soon disbanded. At the War Council, the Weathermen had decided to close the SDS National Office, ending the major campus-based organization of the 1960s which at its peak was a mass organization with 100,000 members. The thesis of Weatherman theory, as expounded in its founding document, You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows , was that "the main struggle going on in
11880-689: The other members. Bombs left by the Midwestern group outside Detroit police headquarters were discovered before they detonated. In New York, the Weathermen at first attacked police stations and the house of a judge with Molotov cocktails . Robbins wanted to do something bigger, and began planning. When he learned from Cathy Wilkerson that her father, a radio executive with whom she had a difficult relationship, would be away from his Greenwich Village townhouse for several weeks while he vacationed in St. Kitts with her stepmother, he asked her if she could get
12012-441: The participants met in informal groups to discuss what "going underground" meant, how best to organize collectives, and justifications for violence. In the evening, the groups reconvened for a mass "wargasm"—practicing karate , engaging in physical exercise, singing songs, and listening to speeches. The War Council ended with a major speech by John Jacobs. Jacobs condemned the "pacifism" of white middle-class American youth,
12144-499: The particular matter that the attack was intended to protest. Three members of the group were killed in an accidental Greenwich Village townhouse explosion , but none were killed in any of the bombings. The WUO communiqué issued in connection with the bombing of the United States Capitol on March 1, 1971, indicated that it was "in protest of the U.S. invasion of Laos ". The WUO asserted that its May 19, 1972 bombing of
12276-400: The party line and force them into acceptance. However, the sessions were also almost entirely successful at purging potential informants from the Weathermen's ranks, making them crucial to the Weathermen's survival as an underground organization. The Weathermen were also determined to destroy "bourgeois individualism" amongst members that would potentially interfere with their commitment to both
12408-467: The police but broke into small groups; more than 1,000 police counter attacked. Many protesters were wearing motorcycle or football helmets, but the police were well trained and armed. Large amounts of tear gas were used, and at least twice police ran squad cars into the mob. The rioting lasted about half an hour, during which 28 policemen were injured. Six Weathermen were shot by the police and an unknown number injured; 68 rioters were arrested. For
12540-455: The practice of making revolution; a movement with a full willingness to participate in the violent and illegal struggle. At this convention the Weatherman's faction of the Students for a Democratic Society, planned for October 8–11, as a "National Action" built around John Jacobs' slogan, "bring the war home". The National Action grew out of a resolution drafted by Jacobs and introduced at
12672-565: The pseudonym "Weathermen" "The Weathermen", a song on Live at Tonic (Marco Benevento album) , released in 2007 "Weathermen", a song on the 2004 album Flowers in the Pavement , by Australian group Bliss n Eso New Weathermen Records, an imprint of Ferret Music , an American independent record label See also [ edit ] And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders , 1993 album by Dutch band
12804-459: The revolution, and the work our collectives should engage in, is the creation of a mass revolutionary movement, without which a clandestine revolutionary party will be impossible. A revolutionary mass movement is different from the traditional revisionist mass base of "sympathizers". Rather it is akin to the Red Guard in China, based on the full participation and involvement of masses of people in
12936-556: The rubble out; every fragment was taken to the Gansevoort Street pier to be analyzed. The next day the tenants of 16 West 11th were allowed to re-enter and collect more items. The Hoffmans and the Wilkersons were allowed to search through the piles of debris, which the actor recalls as being five feet (150 cm) high, in search of their own misplaced property. There, Anne Hoffman found a coat, which she initially thought
13068-485: The ruins of our home", saying "more lives would be needlessly lost and only you have the key". Wilkerson did not respond to the appeals. Fingerprint records were required to identify the dismembered remains of Gold, a leader of the Columbia University protests of 1968 , and Oughton, the organizer of the 1969 SDS national convention. Rumors circulated among leftists that the third body was that of Robbins,
13200-534: The school setting. It is in schools that the youth of the nation become alienated from the authentic processes of learning about the world. Factions of the Weatherman organization began recruiting members by applying their own strategies. Women's groups such as The Motor City Nine and Cell 16 took the lead in various recruitment efforts. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz , a member of the radical women's liberation group Cell 16 spoke about her personal recruitment agenda saying that she wanted their group to go out in every corner of
13332-416: The side of the oppressed or be on the side of the oppressor." The Weathermen called for the overthrow of the United States government. Weather maintained that their stance differed from the rest of the movements at the time in the sense that they predicated their critiques on the notion that they were engaged in "an anti-imperialist, anti-racist struggle". Weather put the international proletariat at
13464-535: The south side of the street between Fifth and Sixth avenues known as the Brevoort Row after its developer , Henry Brevoort. In the 20th century it was home to a series of prominent New Yorkers, starting in the 1920s with Charles E. Merrill , co-founder of the Merrill Lynch investment bank . His son, poet James Merrill , was born in the house. In 1930, when James Merrill was five, his father sold
13596-413: The space to shore up the neighboring houses. Architect Hugh Hardy bought the lot from the Wilkersons for $ 80,000, intending to build a modernist take on the original building, with part of the front facade angled, he had designed himself. After eight years in which he was unable to do so, he sold the property at cost to David and Norma Langworthy, a Philadelphia couple looking for a retirement home in
13728-455: The subject. Ron Fliegelman, the one Weatherman who had practical experience as a mechanic. "What we were dealing with was a group of intellectuals who didn't know how to do anything with their hands. I did. I wasn't afraid of [dynamite]; I knew it could be handled", he told journalist Bryan Burrough , who called him the Weathermen's "unsung hero", in 2015. He and Wilkerson, who worked with him closely, eventually became romantically involved and had
13860-429: The tenants in 16 West 11th returned to live there after the explosion. Hoffman told Gussow that the house and neighborhood was, to him, a "chrysalis", where he could take shelter from the aspects of his celebrity. Politically motivated violence "remains an abstraction until it happens to you," he told Gussow. The Gussows moved to nearby West 10th Street, where they still lived in 2000. Gussow wrote that, for years afterward,
13992-462: The tenants to re-enter the building one at a time and rescue select personal items. "In our apartment," Gussow recalled on the explosion's 30th anniversary, "the walls creaked, as if a ship had been torpedoed and was about to sink beneath the sea." His son's tricycle, recovered from the ruins, was left on the front sidewalk, leading to speculation in the media that one of the victims had been a child. Later, he recalls Hoffman trying to reassure Karina, who
14124-416: The theater late at night with his wife and seeing a formally dressed Wilkerson greeting guests at the door. Inside the house's 10 rooms, Wilkerson kept his collection of bird sculptures in the panelled library and the antique furniture he restored in the subbasement ; the house still had its original Hepplewhite furniture and fireplace mantels . Wilkerson had added a sauna and a fountain with mirror in
14256-424: The townhouse, with Kathy Boudin advocating that they kill as many people as possible with anti-personnel bombs. Diana Oughton reportedly had misgivings, although others present say she never showed them. Wilkerson wrote later that she felt powerless to stop what was going on in her father's house. Theodore Gold threatened to kill one close friend after he had a breakdown over the plan at one gathering. None of
14388-442: The tunnel network underneath Columbia, and SDS literature. Police and firefighters in the neighborhood were immediately cautioned not to use their radios for fear they might inadvertently trigger a remote fuse. Investigators described the building as a "bomb factory" and said the bombmakers were evidently wrapping dynamite in tape with nails embedded to act as shrapnel at the time of the explosion. By March 13, Seedman confirmed to
14520-409: The unjust actions of the state, they became complicit in those actions. In the manifesto compiled by Bill Ayers , Bernardine Dohrn , Jeff Jones , and Celia Sojourn, entitled "Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism," Weatherman explained that their intention was to encourage the people and provoke leaps in confidence and consciousness in an attempt to stir the imagination, organize
14652-441: The violence in Vietnam.'" The protests did not meet Ayers' stated expectations. Though the October 8, 1969, rally in Chicago had failed to draw as many as the Weathermen had anticipated, the two or three hundred who did attend shocked police by rioting through the affluent Gold Coast neighborhood . They smashed the windows of a bank and those of many cars. The crowd ran four blocks before encountering police barricades. They charged
14784-572: The war home. 'Turn the imperialists' war into a civil war', in Lenin's words. And we were going to kick ass. In July 1969, 30 members of Weatherman leadership traveled to Cuba and met with North Vietnamese representatives to gain from their revolutionary experience. The North Vietnamese requested armed political action in order to stop the U.S. government's war in Vietnam. Subsequently, they accepted funding, training, recommendations on tactics and slogans from Cuba, and perhaps explosives as well. After
14916-445: The wind blows" in Bob Dylan 's 1965 song " Subterranean Homesick Blues " had discussed what actions they might take, and against what targets. The consensus was that the police and the military were legitimate targets, representing the urban racism that their allies the Black Panthers most strongly opposed, and the Vietnam War . Members present recall that while the topic of whether their actions would necessarily involve taking life
15048-518: The women had to prove, regardless of prior activist credentials, that they were as capable as men in engaging in political action as part of "women's cadres", which were felt to be driven by coerced machismo and failed to promote genuine solidarity amongst the women. While the Weathermen's sexual politics did allow women to assert desire and explore relationships with each other, it also made them vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Weather used various means by which to recruit new members and set into motion
15180-457: The working class. Klonsky's document reflected the philosophy of the National Office and it was eventually adopted as the SDS's official doctrine. During the summer of 1969, the National Office began to split. A group led by Klonsky became known as RYM II, and the other side, RYM I, was led by Dohrn and endorsed more aggressive tactics such as direct action , as some members felt that years of nonviolent resistance had done little or nothing to stop
15312-537: The world today is between U.S. imperialism and the national liberation struggles against it", based on Lenin's theory of imperialism , first expounded in 1916 in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism . In Weatherman theory "oppressed peoples" are the creators of the wealth of empire, "and it is to them that it belongs." "The goal of revolutionary struggle must be the control and use of this wealth in
15444-404: Was Judge John Murtagh, who was overseeing the trial of the "Panther 21". The second major decision was the dissolution of SDS. After the summer of 1969 fragmentation of SDS, Weatherman's adherents explicitly claimed themselves the real leaders of SDS and retained control of the SDS National Office. Thereafter, any leaflet, label, or logo bearing the name "Students for a Democratic Society" (SDS)
15576-406: Was a Stalinist group that had turned to SDS as fertile ground for recruiting new members after meeting with little success in organizing industrial workers, their preferred base. SDS members of that time were nearly all anti-communist, but they also refused to be drawn into actions that appeared like red-baiting , which they viewed as mostly irrelevant and out of date. The PLP soon began to organize
15708-419: Was also the title of a position paper distributed at an SDS convention in Chicago on June 18, 1969. This founding document called for a "White fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other radical movements to achieve "the destruction of U.S. imperialism and form a classless communist world". The Weathermen emerged from the campus-based opposition to United States involvement in
15840-431: Was an integral part of the planning for what quickly came to be called "Four Days of Rage". For Jacobs, the goal of the " Days of Rage " was clear: 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
15972-463: Was apprehended in 1981 and pleaded guilty to felony murder and robbery in the Brink's case in exchange for a sentence of 20 years to life in prison. Robbins, recalled as an inexperienced bombmaker who refused to take any suggestions that might have improved safety and stuck to the way he had been told to build the bombs, had hoped that the bombings would do serious damage and inflict enough casualties for
16104-431: Was becoming more important than nonviolent forms of anti-war action, and that university campus-based demonstrations needed to be punctuated with more dramatic actions, which had the potential to interfere with the U.S. military and internal security apparatus . The belief was that these types of urban guerrilla actions would act as a catalyst for the coming revolution. Many international events indeed seemed to support
16236-480: Was built on the site in 1978; its value has risen into the millions. The Weather Underground had been formed from the remnants of Students for a Democratic Society in June 1969, by about a hundred activists who had come to believe that armed struggle was necessary to reform American society. At that meeting, the Weathermen, who had taken their original name from the line "You don't need a weatherman to know which way
16368-406: Was celebrating her fourth birthday that day, that everything would turn out well. "If everything will be alright," she asked, "why are you shaking so hard?" By 6 p.m. that evening Seedman had been in contact with James Wilkerson and learned his daughter had been staying at the house. The FBI told him that Cathy Wilkerson was a member of the Weather Underground, and he considered the possibility that
16500-414: Was hers, with a map in its pocket showing the tunnels under Columbia. On the morning of March 10, Oughton's mutilated and dismembered remains were uncovered; she had been shot through with the roofing nails intended to be packed with the bombs as shrapnel . That evening, police found the actual bomb she and Robbins had been building, a basketball-sized globe of blasting caps and dynamite. Seedman told
16632-431: Was in fact the views and politics of Weatherman, not of the slate elected by Progressive Labor. Weatherman contained the vast majority of former SDS National Committee members, including Mark Rudd , David Gilbert and Bernardine Dohrn. The group, while small, was able to commandeer the mantle of SDS and all of its membership lists, but with Weatherman in charge there was little or no support from local branches or members of
16764-463: Was killed by the collapse of the building's facade. Boudin and Wilkerson were on the upper floors and survived with only minor injuries. It took nine days of searching to find the explosives and bodies; Oughton and Robbins' were so badly dismembered and mutilated that they had to be identified through dental records. The two survivors, already facing assault charges in Chicago for their actions during
16896-546: Was largely avoided, beyond general agreement that they should not do so indiscriminately, their actions would likely kill police officers and military personnel. After the meeting, the Weathermen split into three groups, based in San Francisco , New York City and the Midwest , under the leadership of Howard Machtinger , Terry Robbins and Bill Ayers respectively, to plan and carry out bombings. Some participated in
17028-614: Was later hired by Columbia University as an adjunct professor; she later cofounded the school's Center for Justice and serves as its associate director. Weather Underground leadership members Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Jeff Jones have claimed the planned bombings of the Fort Dix NCO dance and the other plan to bomb a Columbia University building were a rogue operation led by more extreme Greenwich Village townhouse residents; Ayers singled out Terry Robbins. However, researchers contend Weather Underground leaders planned and approved
17160-483: Was living in Stratford-upon-Avon , England, as he and his wife had intended. "Talking to you about this subject is like talking to somebody about a bad case of poison ivy that I had many years ago," he told Gussow. "Possessions are fine, but when the chips are down, they're not all that important" compared to his daughter's welfare, he said. The two had never discussed her involvement in the plot. None of
17292-440: Was to announce they would hold the "Days of Rage" that autumn. This was advertised to "Bring the war home!" Hoping to cause sufficient chaos to "wake" the American public out of what they saw as complacency toward the role of the U.S. in the Vietnam War , the Weathermen meant it to be the largest protest of the decade. They had been told by their regional cadre to expect thousands to attend; however, when they arrived, they found only
17424-484: Was to create a more democratic society "which guarantees political freedom, economic and physical security, abundant education, and incentives for wide cultural variety". While the initial phase of the SDS involved campus organizing, phase two involved community organizing. These experiences led some SDS members to conclude that deep social change would not happen through community organizing and electoral politics, and that more radical and disruptive tactics were needed. In
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