I just got off the phone with my mother. We talk everyday now, which is a new thing. Various topics come up. A lot of times I will try to talk about whatever I can to take her mind off the chemotherapy and this whole process of cancer in general. Today we started talking about when she lived in Chicago in the 60’s. She mentioned that the neighborhood she grew up in years before that became the neighborhood where early parts of the Black Panther Movement organized. We also talked about the Days of Rage. This was a huge planned riot to “bring the war home” and was meant to wake the country up. Bill Ayers, who helped organized it, said “The Days of Rage was an attempt to break from the norms of kind of acceptable theater of ‘here are the anti-war people: containable, marginal, predictable, and here’s the little path they’re going to march down, and here’s where they can make their little statement.’ We wanted to say, “No, what we’re going to do is whatever we had to do to stop the violence in Vietnam.’”.
My Mother remembered being there, watching it happen, but was out of that frame of mind and wasn’t sure why it was happening. She and I talked more about it, and I mentioned to her that it was organized by the Weather Underground. She said, “Who are they?” I was really surprised she hadn’t heard of them, but so many of the people in our society don’t know what has happened to shape where we are today. So now we’re gonna continue on in the blog’s of revolutions in the 60’s and talk about who the Weather Underground was and what they did.
The Weather Underground was originally called the Weathermen and was a group organized by SDS (students for a Democratic society) SDS’s were based on college campus’s and were primarily made up of college students that wanted to be involved in activism. The Weathermen split from the SDS to form a more radical group that was focused on making a change now, whatever it takes. It took its name from the lyric “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” from the Bob Dylan song “Subterranean Homesick Blues”.
The group is notable for a campaign from 1969 through the middle 1970s of bombings, riots, and a jailbreak. The “Days of Rage”, the group’s first public demonstration on October 8, 1969, was a riot in Chicago coordinated with the trial of the Chicago Seven. In 1970 the group issued a “Declaration of a State of War” against the United States government, under the name “Weather Underground Organization” (WUO). The bombing attacks were mostly against government buildings, along with several banks. Most were preceded by communiqués that provided evacuation warnings, along with statements regarding the particular matter which motivated the attack. For the bombing of the United States Capitol on March 1, 1971, they issued a statement saying it was “in protest of the US invasion of Laos.” For the bombing of The Pentagon on May 19, 1972, they stated it was “in retaliation for the US bombing raid in Hanoi.” For the January 29, 1975 bombing of the United States Department of State Building, they stated it was “in response to escalation in Vietnam.”

Weatherman was referred to in its own time and afterwards as “terrorist”. The group fell under the auspicies of FBI-New York City Police Anti Terrorist Task Force, a forerunner of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The FBI, on its website, describes the organization as having been a “domestic terrorist group”, but no longer an active concern. Others either dispute or clarify the categorization, or justify the group’s violence as an appropriate response to the Vietnam war. In his 2001 book about his Weatherman experiences, Bill Ayers stated his objection to describing the WUO (Weather Underground Organization) as “terrorist”. Ayers wrote: “Terrorists terrorize, they kill innocent civilians, while we organized and agitated. Terrorists destroy randomly, while our actions bore, we hoped, the precise stamp of a cut diamond. Terrorists intimidate, while we aimed only to educate. No, we’re not terrorists.” Dan Berger, in his book about the Weatherman, Outlaws in America, comments that the group “purposefully and successfully avoided injuring anyone… Its war against property by definition means that the WUO was not a terrorist organization.”

To learn more go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_(organization)

People have many opinions on Weather Underground and their actions. Some feel they were good intentioned youth going radically in the wrong direction, while others think they were revolutionaries changing the structure of the system itself, causing the government to start to fear the people they had walked on for years prior. Regardless of one’s opinion about the group and their actions, I think it is an important part of history we could learn from in any direction. I think it’s important for us to look at revolutionary movements like this, to examine what went right and what went wrong. Taking from it things that we could use today to help shape and form a more positive, compassionate, awakened society.
Here are two documentaries about the Weather Underground so you can formulate your own opinion.

The first was made in 1976 while the group was still living underground.

The second was made a few years ago and takes a reflective look back at the events that shaped the group and what happened. It has interviews with many of the former members that are still around today, all have a very different opinion about their actions.

Here’s an interesting Q and A I found with the filmmakers of that particular movie.

Do you think a group like the Weather Underground will emerge again?

This is a hard question to answer. There are obviously a number of striking parallels between the late 1960s-early 1970s and today: the U.S. is stuck in a quagmire halfway around the globe. There is a growing movement against war and inequality, with lots of young people taking to the streets. Yet at the same time, there are very significant differences between then and now. I think that the level of both frustration and of upheaval in 1969—the year the Weather Underground was formed—was enormously more than what is in the air today. The group was formed in many ways because the large, peaceful non-violent movements for change hadn’t seemed to work. Today, I think that the big, non-violent movements against the war and for global justice are working—they are building slowly and the jury is still out on what their ultimate effect will be. So, I would hope that a group like the Weather Underground wouldn’t emerge right now. Perhaps in four years, if the war is still festering, that will be a different story.

How have viewers reacted to THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND?

It’s been interesting to see how people have reacted to the film. In general people have reacted less negatively than I would have imagined. Perhaps audiences have appreciated the fact that we tried very hard to be as accurate, fair and even-handed as possible. It’s been striking how viewers of different generations have reacted differently to the film. Most people over 40 remember the Weather Underground and often have strong feelings—either pro or con—about the group. But almost nobody under 40 has ever heard of the WU; so for younger people, their reaction is often just amazement that something like this could have taken place.

What kind of impact do you hope your program will have?

The goal of THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND is not so much to give answers but to raise questions. By exploring this controversial subject with depth and balance, we hope to encourage a broad debate of some of the most important issues of our time. What would real social justice look like, not just in America, but throughout the world? What is our responsibility as Americans for the inequalities of globalism? How do we as a society define violence and terrorism? And can violence ever be justified in the pursuit of social change? These are questions that defy black-and-white notions of right and wrong, good and evil. They evoke the full complexity of human behavior and the subjective nature of modern morality. We have entered a new era in this country since September 11th. We feel very strongly that there must be a real and open discussion about the current “terrorism” and the issues that it raises if we are to have any hope of creating peace and justice in the future.

Last, here is a speech last year by former weather underground leader Bernardine Dohrn. Bernardine Dohrn, a close friend of Bert Garskof, speaks at the MSU SDS Reunion at which Garskof was the keynote speaker and the guest of honor.

Here’s a timeline of the group’s history.

1962: Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, holds its first convention in Port Huron, MI, calling for progressive alliances among activist groups.

1964: The Civil Rights Act passes, while America’s involvement in the war in Vietnam escalates.

1965: Berkeley Free Speech Movement spurs massive student protests against the Vietnam War. The first SDS anti-war march in Washington attracts 15,000 people.

1966: Huey Newton and Bobby Seale form the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California.

1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy are assassinated. Anti-war demonstrations turn violent at the Chicago Democratic Convention and shut down Columbia University.

1969: Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark die in a Chicago police raid. The Weathermen form.

1970:

March: Three Weathermen are killed when bomb manufacturing goes awry. The organization becomes the Weather Underground as key players including Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Kathy Boudin go into hiding.

June: New York City police headquarters are bombed and the Weathermen take credit, issuing a communiqué from underground.

July: Thirteen Weathermen are indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to engage in acts of terrorism. A New York bank is bombed in retaliation.

September: Timothy Leary issues a statement from the underground after escaping from prison with the help of the Weathermen.

1971: 50,000 anti-war protesters march on Washington, D.C.

1973: Cease-fire accord in Vietnam.

1977: Weathermen Mark Rudd and Cathy Wilkerson emerge from years of hiding and surrender to the police, receiving two years of probation and three years in prison, respectively.

1980: Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers resurface from the underground, pleading guilty to bail-jumping charges from a 1969 anti-war protest. Dohrn is fined $1,500 and given three years’ probation.

1981: The unofficial end of the Weather Underground occurs when Kathy Boudin resurfaces to participate in an armed robbery in Nanuet, New York, which results in the shooting deaths of three men. Boudin is sentenced to 22 years in prison, and is released in 2003.

Next week we’ll talk about what happened in Paris around the same time.

So this time last year I was spending thanksgiving with my folks.

My mom and I were talking about her past and such, and stumbled onto a topic that I didn’t expect.  At one point in her life she was a social worker in Chicago. She had told me about it many times before, but nothing really in detail.  During this time she befriended a man named Huey P. Newton.  Huey Newton was the co founder of the Black Panther Party.  Click to learn more about huey.  This was really interesting to me, because I’ve never seen this side of my mother.  She began to talk about all the things she worked with, what she fought for, it was awesome.  She and I had never been close, but at that point, I was proud to be her son.  

We began to talk about what went on then and what was happening around her.  She said, “Sean, it was beautiful, the revolution was here”.  That sentence struck me, because if it WAS there, then what happened?  If it was here, where did it go?  

This caused me to research more and more about the Black Panther Party, and what was going on during that time of “revolution” in the 60’s.  During that time, revolution became the name of the game.  The world changed, more than many of us know.  As always, we can learn from history, from what has happened.  We are always told that things won’t work, but if we learn that they had, then we can learn from example and make it happen again.   I’m going to dedicate the next few blog posts to different things that were going on at the time, from Fred Hampton to the Weather Underground to Paris Uprising of ‘68.

So this week I’m starting with the Black Panther Party, and more importantly, Fred Hampton.  You can read more about him here.

I found some documentaries reguarding his murder that are pretty amazing.  We need to be aware of what has happened around us.  Sit down, check them out, and research more.  Click on the next button when you’ve finished part one, and it should take you to part two. I’m adding more links to the interest section tonight for you to check out.  

So I’m sitting in a airport in Dallas Texas as I right this.

It’s funny, cause at airports no one wants to look at eachother in the eye.  Try it sometime.  Sit in your little metal/plastic chair, smile and look at around.  Instead of shifting your head and looking the other way when someone looks in your direction, keep looking at them and smile, acknowledge their existence.  They hate it.  People will think your crazy, some weird happy go lucky mutant.  Well, at least that’s what happens to me.  

At conventions now I try to set up somewhat of a information table.  I put posters up and have a few pamphlets out.  I’m not one to cram any ideas down anyone’s thought, or tell anyone what to think.  All I would say is that we NEED to THINK.  This is the first convention where I’ve had alot of people ask about it, primarily other artists or vendors, which was awesome.  I love getting to talk to people about positive things.  But usually the conversation became one led by “what if’s” and “when’s”, instead of practical practice.  I think as a people we enjoy challenging our minds with large theories and ideas of “what if the world went such and such way?”, or debating until the cow’s come home.  All of that is well and good, but we are missing out on the key element that needs to happen at this point, and that’s practice.  If we feel the need to label that practice, let’s label it “positivity”.  

A good way to apply that to our everyday life is the airport staring contest.  Take that theory of not backing down and smiling, and spread it further.  First with your food from a restaurant.  My friends back home always get their left overs from a restaurant to give it to the “home bums” that hangout in downtown Mobile.  One simple action can create a large result to someone that is in need of the simple things we can give.  So then we take that to the next step and look at where we are spending our money and what we are contributing to.  We have alot of “ma and pa” stores in Mobile.  You walk in and you know the sweet old lady running the register and the man cooking in the back.  Understanding where our money goes, we see that when we buy food from them, we are helping pay their bills and contributing to helping their lives.  When we go to an obscure corporate chain like McDonalds, we are lining the pockets of someone that has no connection to us and isn’t part of our community.   They serve no contribution to our society.  If everyone in our society became a focus, our vision would change. If we start to look at the large picture, with new eyes, airport staring contest eyes, start to really pay attention, we will see alot more.  If we step back and look globally, we will see thousands of different things that we never heard of or were never told. One good example is something that we never really hear about, the amount of people that are living in political prisons, unfairly imprisoned for what they believe. Here are two examples for you.

Leonard Peltier (born September 12 1944) is a Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement. In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two FBI Agents who died during a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There is considerable debate over Peltier’s guilt and the fairness of his trial. Some supporters and organizations, including Amnesty International, consider him to be a political prisoner. Amnesty International said, for example, that “Although he has not been adopted as a prisoner of conscience, there is concern about the fairness of the proceedings leading to his conviction and it is believed that political factors may have influenced the way the case was prosecuted.” Numerous lawsuits have been filed on his behalf but none has succeeded. Peltier is currently incarcerated at the United States penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peltier

Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook on April 24, 1954) is an American who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Prior to his arrest he was a Black Panther Party activist, cab driver, and journalist. Since his conviction, his case has received international attention and he has become a controversial cultural icon. Supporters and opponents disagree on the appropriateness of the death penalty, whether he is guilty, or whether he received a fair trial. During his imprisonment he has published several books and other commentaries, notably Live from Death Row. As of 2008, his legal appeals are still unsettled and he is a prisoner at State Correctional Institution Greene near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Learn more at www.mumia.org

This can be taken to any part of one’s everyday life.  If we were to step back, look at the big picture, and realize that every decision we make can make a positive difference to the world that we are contributing to.  Instead of accepting that “that’s just how it is” we can change it.  Society seems like a scary machine that is much larger than us, but we are every part to that machine, and we can change how it works.  I’ve had a discussion before with someone about the tattoo industry, surprise surprise.  I voiced by opinion on how there are negative elements that we need to take out.  Their reply was, “that’s just the way the industry is, deal with it.”   NO, that is no the way life is.  WE have the power to change that.  Nothing in life is that way, we are at the helms of the big ship, and we can change the course.  The key element is realizing it’s starts with small changes in your everyday life.  If we start by being willing to connect again with human kind, the decisions we need to make will be obvious.  And let’s say everyone is right, and we cant change the world, what’s the harm in trying?

Here’s an interesting video set to godspeedyoublackemperor’s “dead flag blues”