>"They were right, you know."
>-- Journalist Andy Kopkind, shortly before his death, on
>Weatherman/underground
>
I have tremendous respect for Kopkind; but if he did indeed say this, then I'm afraid his illness spread to his better political judgment. Weather was a disaster from day one; and while I found their rhetoric entertaining (especially their 1974 manifesto, "Prairie Fire), they did not accomplish much in practical political terms. They acted as a playground vanguard to a phantom revolutionary force. They had no mass base, nor did they try to forge one. They capitulated to the Panthers at a time when that organization was overtaken by reactionary thugs. They were white boys and girls playing Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro games, and by the end they were simply a sad joke.
I know that Ayers and Dohrn are doing good things now regarding education, and I'm happy to see that they outgrew their adolescent fantasies. But what were they "right" about when it mattered? I'd be interested to read a list.
DP