Some leftist history

[housewolf]

From DailyKos - read the whole article and get a sense of one radical faction of the left in the 60's & 70's. Good read.


I finally saw the award winning 2003 documentary on The Weather Underground, the 1970's dissident/terrorist organization which aspired to a sort of third world revolution in the US. Not the most realistic movement in the history of the New Left. The Weather Underground had its roots the early sixties civil rights and anti-war movements, chiefly in the faction ridden Students for a Democratic Society led by the noted historian of the New Left--and a favorite writer of mine--Todd Gatlin.

There seems to be about as many opinions on the Weather Underground as there were in the Sixties. Most Conservatives believe them to be nothing more than terrorists. Those in the far left--especially the Trotskyite/Nadar true believers--seem to hold a only thinly disguised admiration for them.

<snip>

The weathermen, each of them giftedly bright, charismatic, and personally attractive would eventually win the battle for control of the S.D.S. Over next year, the manner in which they wielded power would become progressively more radical and threatening to the federal government, specifically to J. Edgar Hoover.

<snip>

However, before they went underground, they staged one final anti-war conference to discuss strategy and tactics for further militancy with the other members of the S.D.S. leadership. Gatlin describes it as a descent into madness. At the conference, Mark Rudd spoke of pigs and destruction. "It's a wonderful feeling to hit a pig. It must be a really wonderful feeling to kill a pig or blow up a building," he said. Jeff Jones declared, "We're against everything that's good and decent in honky America. We will burn and loot and destroy. We are the incubation of your mother's nightmare."

<snip>

At the end of the film, Mark Rudd, looking back on his actions and thinking at the time says, "These are things that I am not proud of, and I find it hard to speak publically about them. And to tease out what was right and what was wrong. I think part of the Weatherman phenomenon that was right was our understanding of the position of the United States is in the world. It was this knowledge that we just couldn't handle. It was too big. We didn't know what to do. In a way, I still don't know what to do with this knowledge. I don't know what needs to be done now. And its still eating away at me just as it did thirty years ago."

<snip>

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/8/01927/77742

[Enquiringkitty]

1. I remember them!! In some people's minds, the government

would never have taken the anti-war movement seriously if it hadn't been for them. Unfortunately, to get a government to pay attention you have to have a show of force. That's all Bush understands so it might take something like that if he tries to go to far.

[Jim__]

2. The dilemma

In the sixties and early seventies, there is no question that the US in the war in Vietnam was killing thousands of innocent people. How should US citizens react to that? How can you effectively oppose it? The Weather Underground chose violent resistance. Suppose for a minute they had won. Do you think the world would have changed? Do you think their successors wouldn't be ready to go to war to defend their victory?

I see the same dilemma today. How do we stop the killing?

[Igel]

3. A student government bulletin board in 1995/96 had something

like the following posted:

"The SDS is being organized! Sign up for the SDS!"

Administrators and grad students did double takes and finally asked what they hell they were doing. The undergrads said they had a right to the SDS, it would help student government. After a short fight, it was finally unabbreviated: Student Democratic Senate.

Not one of the had a clue what the old SDS was.

And they wonder why people didn't like them:

"It's a wonderful feeling to hit a pig. It must be a really wonderful feeling to kill a pig or blow up a building," he said. Jeff Jones declared, "We're against everything that's good and decent in honky America. We will burn and loot and destroy. We are the incubation of your mother's nightmare."

More glorification of violence.

[Selatius]

4. SDS was a great student organization

The Weather Underground should not be thought of as being representative of the SDS as a whole but merely as a splinter group, a very militant one at that.

As far as I know, the SDS still exists on a few campuses across the country, but it's nowhere near the level it was back then. Personally, I chose the path of peace and non-violent resistance a long time ago. Violence is the absolute last resort after all other remedies have failed.