Remember "Tanya" and the "SLA?" The last of the left wing "terrorist" threats. [View All]

[Mojeoux]

Way before Patty Hearst, became "Tanya," this poor woman was initially brutally kidnapped. On the first day of demands the SLA said her life was at stake if the Hearst Family did NOT give food to the poor. Bizarrely enough, at the time the SLA would only trust the Jim Jones Churches. The JJ churches were still in SF at the time and I had no idea who they were at all.

One of those churches was around the corner from my flat on 22nd. Way before they were scheduled to open up there were already about 100 people gathered outside and it was starting to drizzle. I walked over and asked if they needed help. I told them I had experience feeding large groups of people. I came in and helped them sort out bags with portions of all the different groceries that had been delivered. When they opened both doors at once it seemed to cause confusion and people began mobbing in, going through the bags and re-packing their own. I went to the back kitchen to let them know the situation and immediately realized that the kitchen was being robbed. The huge stack of big boxes of frozen chickens, 24 in a box was way down, and huffy guys were carrying them to a truck outside.
I jumped up on the last of the stack and appealed to them that people had been waiting in the rain for the chickens! They lifted the box and tipped me off like nothing and a nice guy who helped me from falling too hard, whispered to me, "Don't get knifed over chickens, man."

In a daze I went up the side stairs of the main church area. When the crowd in front found out about the robbery in the kitchen, things got really crazy. I watched below as people fought over canned goods while veggies and fruit were being squished underfoot and babies were crying. Then and there I knew, deep in my heart that it was all jacked up because of the evil energy of the "Blood Money." IMO most of the left had this same epiphany about the SLA and the futility of violence and threats as useful tools for positive change. I walked out of there without even a can of Dinty-Moore Stew.

Years later we found out how heinous Jim Jones and his church could be and it was discovered that they were the ones who had stolen all the chickens! Left wing ideologies were kind of janky at the time, but good people have given these ideas a great deal and many years of concentration and debate. it has all come down to.....non-violence and civil rights. We knew this all along.

One more time.................. Non Violence and Civil Rights.



Here is an old article about the SLA with the famous photo of "Tanya" with her guns in front of the SLA snake symbol, I guess.