Analysis: Weathermen Manifesto
The "Weathermen Manifesto" emerged from the radical faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) during the late 1960s, a period marked by significant social turmoil and opposition to the Vietnam War. SDS initially engaged in nonviolent activism focused on civil rights and anti-poverty efforts, but as disillusionment grew, a group within SDS, later known as the Weathermen, advocated for more militant forms of protest. The manifesto espouses a Marxist-Leninist view of the United States as an imperialist power, arguing that systemic racism, poverty, and war are inherent to its capitalist structure. The Weathermen called for alliances with oppressed communities, particularly African Americans and third-world revolutionaries, emphasizing that true change could only come through widespread revolution, not reform.
The group’s activities escalated to include underground bombings targeting symbols of the state and capitalism, reflecting their conviction that radical action was necessary to confront perceived injustices. The manifesto highlights a sense of urgency among young activists, catalyzed by the stark contrast between America's professed ideals and the realities of oppression. It also frames youth culture as a potential source of revolutionary energy, suggesting that the disaffected young people of the era could be mobilized to challenge the status quo. Overall, the Weathermen Manifesto represents a pivotal moment in the history of American radicalism, encapsulating the frustrations and aspirations of a generation seeking profound societal change.
Analysis: Weathermen Manifesto
Date: June 18, 1969
Authors: John Jacobs; Karin Asbley; Bill Ayers; Bernadine Dohrn; Jeff Jones; Gerry Long; Howie Machtinger; Jim Mellen; Terry Robbins; Mark Rudd; Steve Tappis.
Genre: political tract
Summary Overview
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was founded in 1960 and became the largest campus group of the New Left. In its early years, SDS identified with the nonviolent civil rights movement and organized around the issues of racism, student rights, and poverty. After 1965, SDS focused on opposing the escalating war in Vietnam. SDS's actions evolved from legal protests of the war to forms of militant resistance, such as building occupations and confrontations with police. By 1969, a faction of SDS concluded that protest and resistance had accomplished little and only revolution could bring about change. This faction named itself the “Weathermen” (although it included men and women), took over SDS in 1969, and issued its “Weathermen Manifesto.” In the early 1970s, the Weathermen went underground and carried out a series of bombings to protest the war, racism, and state repression.
Defining Moment
SDS's actions evolved in the late 1960s from legal protests and teach-ins to acts of resistance. Examples included the building occupation at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1967 to demonstrate against Dow Chemical Company, manufacturer of napalm, and the Columbia Student Uprising in 1968 to protest university racism and complicity in the war. In both actions, hundreds of students were beaten by police and arrested. By 1969, a faction of SDS concluded only a revolution could bring about an end to war and racism. In June, this faction took over SDS after a divisive national meeting in Chicago.
They called themselves “Weatherman” (but became known as the “Weathermen”) after a line from a Bob Dylan song, “You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” The idea was that the Weathermen were pointing in the direction of the revolutionary winds blowing across America.
The Weathermen issued their manifesto on June 18, 1969. In it, they argued that student radicals must ally themselves with third world revolutionaries, such as those in Vietnam and Cuba, in the fight against US imperialism. White radicals needed to follow the lead of African Americans, the most oppressed people in America, and therefore the most revolutionary group. The manifesto also described America's culturally rebellious youth as ripe for revolution.
The Weathermen's first major action was billed as “the Days of Rage,” a destructive rampage through the wealthy neighborhoods of Chicago, where a few hundred Weathermen engaged in vandalism and street battles with police and were arrested.
In early 1970, the Weathermen decided to go underground (that is, into hiding) and renamed themselves the “Weather Underground Organization.” Henceforth, the organization would not number more than fifty members. Throughout the early 1970s, the Weather Underground carried out bombings of buildings they associated with the war and racism. These included a bombing of the Capitol building in 1971 and of the Pentagon in 1972. These bombings tended to destroy small sections of these buildings and were responsible for no loss of life. However, in the spring of 1970, three Weathermen were killed when a bomb they were preparing to detonate at a military dance at Fort Dix, NJ, accidentally exploded in a Greenwich Village townhouse. By 1970, members of the Weathermen joined Black Panthers on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.
Author Biography
John Jacobs, known as “JJ,” is considered the primary author of the Weathermen Manifesto. Raised in Connecticut, Jacobs, along with his close friend, Mark Rudd, was one of the major leaders of the Colombia Student Uprising in the spring of 1968. He was expelled from the Weathermen in 1970 over ideological differences. Jacobs went underground to hide from the FBI during the 1970s and held odd jobs until his death from cancer in 1997.
Document Analysis
The Weathermen Manifesto views the United States through the ideological lens of Marxism-Leninism as an imperialist, capitalist, and militaristic power that enriches its ruling class through exploitation of poor, non-white majorities around the world. Racism, poverty, and the war in Vietnam are seen as inevitable expressions of this imperialist system, which cannot be changed through reform, but only world-wide revolution. The authors condemn liberalism and pacifism as dead ends. White radicals must ally themselves with revolutionary forces in the third world, like the Viet Cong, and domestically with Black Nationalist groups, like the Black Panthers.
There are a few keys in this document to understanding why some middle-class white college students became so radicalized and ultimately resorted to violence. Many of these activists had grown up in the post-World War II era when America was celebrated as a beacon of freedom and democracy. In the 1960s, the ugliness of American racism and the brutality of Vietnam, often conveyed through television, highlighted the gap between America's high ideals and the often harsh reality. This resulted in a progressive disillusionment with America and ultimately the conclusion that America was the exact opposite of what they had been led to believe, in the words of the manifesto, “a world-wide monster.” A line that captures this disillusionment is “Vietnam is not ‘the heroic war against the Nazis’; it's the big lie, with napalm burning through everything we had heard this country stood for.”
The other key is the document's emphasis on African Americans and other oppressed non-white peoples. Throughout the 1960s, these white activists saw blacks arrested, beaten, shot, and jailed for seeking freedom. This induced a sense of guilt among many white radicals and a belief that to prove their commitment, they must be willing to put their own sheltered lives on the line. As the authors declare, “blacks experience oppression in a form that no whites do…” and thus whites cannot lead but only follow African American revolutionaries. They also state that America's “affluence… is directly dependent upon the labor and natural resources … of the Third World.” Thus, the Weathermen reject their middle-class, white privilege to make common cause with the oppressed of the third world in fighting for “a classless world: world communism.”
One area where the Weathermen broke with other ideological revolutionary groups was the role they ascribe to youth caught up in the social rebellion of the hippie counterculture. Many student radicals held hippies in disdain for focusing on lifestyle, music, and drugs rather than active politics, but the Weathermen see these alienated youth as ripe for recruitment into the revolution.
Bibliography and Additional Readings
Berger, Dan. The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. Oakland, CA: AK P, 2006. Print.
Burrough, Bryan. Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence. New York: Penguin P, 2015. Print.
Gitlin, Todd. Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. New York: Bantam, 1987. Print.
Jacobs, Ron. The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground. New York: Verso, 1997. Print.
Sale, Kirkpatrick. SDS. New York: Random House, 1973. Print.
Varon, Jeremy. Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and the Revolutionary Violence in the 1960s and 1970s. Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California P, 2004. Print.