[lbo-talk] the beating heart of oakland commune: the kitchen

shag carpet bomb shag at cleandraws.com
Sun Dec 11 08:51:53 PST 2011


i read a book about Weather a few years ago, Outlaws of America. The Weather's argument was that they wanted to take seriously the argument that white people should stop trying to insinuate themselves into black nationalist organizations. Instead, they should form their own organisations and support their political struggles.

Thus, they wrote position papers and had debates in which they argued that their goal was to take the heat off the people being bombed in Viet Nam and elsewhere, by causing such a huge problem at home, that the u.s. government would have to turn its violence on the Weather bombings, etc. and stop dropping bombs elsewhere.

http://cleandraws.com/2009/05/10/mountain-moving-day-and-six-sisters/

<> This is for the most part nonsense. The Weathrman trash's fundamental <> principle was the invincible racism of the U.S. working class. (Note <> that <> phrasing is racist: it paints the working-class white. But Weatherman <> despite their endless anti-racist slogans was an essentially racist <> outfit.) <> They did not, as has the Black Bloc, even attempt to work with other <> left <> groups. They condemned those SDS members who supported strikes: such <> strike <> support was Opportunist, they said. One of them c laimed (personal <> conversation with me) that the only way socialism could come to the <> U.S. was <> through a lengthy occupation by the PLA. One of them, Mark Rudd, as <> been <> decently self-critical. Look up what he has to say about his own <> actions. <> <> They were incompetent and fat-headed assholes. Blowing themselves up <> was <> about the best thing they ever did. The smashed the unity of the <> anti-war <> effort. All the tendencies into which SDS degenerated were tragically <> sectarian, but Weatherman was too extravagant and stupid to be graced <> with <> any left label. <> <> Carrol <> <> Carrol <> <> -----Original Message----- <> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org <> [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] <> On Behalf Of Mike Ballard <> Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2011 9:35 PM <> To: lbo lbo <> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] the beating heart of oakland commune: the <> kitchen <> <> Weatherman said, "We are everywhere." And they were. But, there <> weren't very <> many of them. Max, I'd say about 700, if you include active <> sympathizers. <> Still, that was a lot of people, mostly kids, who took up the <> challenge of <> making a political revolution in order to help stop the Vietnam War <> and to <> participate in what the Weather Underground ideologically understood <> as a <> world revolution in the late '60s-mid '70s. That was one of the BIG <> problems <> with Weatherman. They didn't think too deeply about history or theory. <> They <> were the self-described "action faction" of Students for a Democratic <> Society (SDS). They weren't going to wait around while a bunch of <> armchair <> revolutionaries were intellectually masturbating while black, brown, <> red and <> yellow people were being oppressed by white honkeys. No sir-ree, Bob. <> They <> were going to stop the Vietnam War by, "bringing the war home" and <> align <> themselves with the oppressed peoples of the Third World and people of <> colour at home in order to meaningfully participate in the <> anti-imperialist <> peoples' war. "We chose to become guerillas", they announced as they <> watched <> television and saw what they called imperialist soldiers wreaking a <> "destruction of peoples' culture." <> ...from my review of the movie about THEM! full: <> http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com/2011/01/wobbly-times-number-99.html <> <> Hi-ho, <> Mike B) <> <> <> On 12/7/2011 11:01 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: <> <>> I very seriously want to warn people that even as a metaphor <>> references to Weatherman will lead to degradation of political <>> discourse and political thought. I am still sad that Ron Jacobs <>> wrote <>> a book on them. However you approach them, to do so is to distort <>> history and to distort current thought. <> <> This is one of my favorite lbo-talk posts of all time. <> <> SA <> <> <> ___________________________________ <> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk <> <> ___________________________________ <> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk <>

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