The Weather Underground (PBS Documentary about The Weathermen)

PBS ^ | April 2004

[PJ-Comix]

In October 1969, hundreds of young people wielding lead pipes and clad in football helmets marched through an upscale Chicago shopping district, pummeling parked cars and smashing shop windows. Thus began the “Days of Rage,” the first demonstration of the Weathermen, later known as the Weather Underground. Outraged by the Vietnam War and racism in America, this group of former student radicals waged a low-level war against the United States government through much of the 1970s, bombing the Capitol building, breaking Timothy Leary out of prison and finally evading the FBI by going into hiding. In THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, former Weathermen including Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Mark Rudd and David Gilbert speak frankly about the idealist passions and trajectories that transformed them from college activists into the FBI’s Most Wanted.

The Weather Underground emerged when Dohrn and a group of fellow University of Chicago students split with the campus-run Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, because they disagreed with the SDS’s peaceful protest tactics against the Vietnam War. Dubbing itself the Weathermen, this new organization took its name from a line in Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”—“you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”—and within months had set off bombs at the National Guard headquarters and set in motion plans to bomb targets across the country that it considered emblematic of the worldwide violence sanctioned by the U.S. government.

Using extensive archival material such as photographs, film footage and FBI documents, THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND chronicles the Weathermen’s public rise and fall and offers a rare insider look into the group’s private conflicts. Fueled by righteous anger, these white, middle-class students were also widely criticized for their controversial—some say misguided—politics. As former SDS president Todd Gitlin says: ''Like Bonnie and Clyde, many of them were attractive personally. They were into youth, exuberance, sex, drugs. They wanted action.” Ultimately, the Weathermen's carefully organized, clandestine network managed to successfully dodge the FBI for years, although the group's members would eventually reemerge to life in a country that was dramatically different than the one they had hoped their efforts would inspire.

As an exploration of the Weathermen in the context of other social movements of the time, the film also features rare footage and interviews with former SDS members and the Black Panthers, further examining the U.S. government's suppression of dissent during the 1960s and 1970s. Looking back at their years underground, former Weather Underground members paint a compelling portrait of troubled times, revolutionary times and the forces that drove their resistance home.

[PJ-Comix]

Anybody else out there catch this documentary last night? I was about to crash at 10 PM when this documentary came on the tube but I was wide awake mesmerized by this for the next 90 minutes. This fascinating documentary gives LIE to current claims that the leftist activists back then were mere "patriots." In this documentary Mark Rudd, leader of SDS and the Weathermen flat out said that their goal was COMMUNIST REVOLUTION.

The Weather Underground were the TERRORISTS of over 30 years ago. It was interesting to see the attitudes of the former Weathermen today. Mark Rudd now sounds ambiguous and confused. Bryan Flanagan was the one Weatherman who sounded genuinely remorseful and even compared the tactics of the Weather Underground to the current Al Qaeda terrorists. Bernadine Dohrn sounded still defiant as did a couple of other women. Amazingly, despite planting bombs and engaging in terrorist activities, many of these Weather (Terror) Underground members are now teaching at college campuses.

If you missed this documentary, I STRONGLY recommend you see it in the rebroadcasts. Here is a LINK to more info about tis documentary and the Weather Underground.

[rhombus]

Why is this on now? Makes you go, hmmmm.

[PJ-Comix]

I say the timing is good. We have Al Qaeda Terrorists today and this documentary was about the Weather Underground Terrorists of yesteryear.

[Always Right]

Bernadine Dohrn sounded still defiant as did a couple of other women. Amazingly, despite planting bombs and engaging in terrorist activities, many of these Weather (Terror) Underground members are now teaching at college campuses.

'despite'??? I thought terrorist experience was a prerequisite.

[roses of sharon]

I saw it and was amazed. Rush said just yesterday that the left wants to revive their "glory" days of 30 years ago, and that they want the "stuggle". Which were their exact words on this propaganda piece.

How telling that last nite, the left showed their true colors, and PBS called them "progressives" in their modern day leanings.

[Old Sarge]

I believe that this is only coming out now because of the Hate-Bush Left.

I would like to see the production schedule: when did they start making this canonizing reminiscence of the "good ol' days" of the Counter-culture? Pre-11 SEP 01? Or post-?

[genefromjersey]

People say I need to change the foil in my deerstalker hat when I mention this. Thanks for the post !

Folks here will be DELIGHTED to learn much of this virulent organization now holds considerable political power,and has unprecedented access to and influence upon the media,the nation's major schools,many of its churches,and the financial/business community.

One of its more "distinguished" (honorary) members is now running for President,and has at least a 50/50 chance of winning.

[PJ-Comix]

This documentary had the usual sympathy for the "progressives" but their own words and actions were damning. Mark Rudd himself said their goal was COMMUNIST REVOLUTION. Also it showed in detail their various bombings. Mark Rudd sounded very ambiguous, the women still sounded defiant, but most telling of all was Brian Flanagan who was genuinely remorseful and compared the Weather Underground terrorists with the terrorists of today in a very negative way.

[PJ-Comix]

Folks here will be DELIGHTED to learn much of this virulent organization now holds considerable political power,and has unprecedented access to and influence upon the media,the nation's major schools,many of its churches,and the financial/business community.

Apparently a high percentage of the Weather Underground members are now teaching on college campuses. BTW, I predict that if Bush wins this year by a landslide that a lot of DUmmies will go the Weather Underground route. A lot of DUmmies even use Weather Underground imagery in their posts.

[1066AD]

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows ..."

[Snerfling]

I was also just about to hit the sack when this show came on our PBS station. Like you, I sat there in amazement as they chronicled the rise and fall of the WU.

As other posters have noted, the real aim of the WU and other anti-war groups was not opposition to the VN war, but a communist overthrow of the US politial/economic system.

As the decades recede, it becomes more evident that the US really was in a fight against global communism (duh!). The point being that the Soviets had to be behind this to a much greater extent than previously thought.

With success in the US and fall of VN, the communists really were on a roll. Thank G-- for Ronald Reagan. Who could have guessed that after their high-water marks in the late 70s, only a decade remained before the whole facade came crashing down?

[PJ-Comix]

Thank G-- for Ronald Reagan.

There was actually a strange tribute to Ronald Reagan in this documentary. This documentary relates how bad things got by the late 70s and how bad the morale in the country became....then it switched to an image of a smiling President Reagan of the 80s. I gotta tell you, after watching all the downside stuff it actually gave me a warm glow inside to see that image of Reagan who brought CONFIDENCE back to this country. I don't know how leftist the filmakers were but one result of this documentary was an inadvertent salute to Reagan.

[68skylark]

Amazingly, despite planting bombs and engaging in terrorist activities, many of these Weather (Terror) Underground members are now teaching at college campuses.

Why is that amazing? It isn't amazing to me.

I caught part of the documentary. I could only take it in very small doses. I thought they were way out of line to give so much air time to these terrorists. The program should have given air time to the families of the people who were hurt or killed, so we get a sense for the evil and pain these traitors brought into the world.

[PJ-Comix]

Like you, I sat there in amazement as they chronicled the rise and fall of the WU.

MUST SEE viewing for all Freepers. I don't know what the intentions of the film makers were but the end result is that the Weather Underground came off as a bunch of idiots, especially with the talk from the women Weather Underground about some generic feel-good revolution. Mark Rudd hit it on the head when he said their goal was COMMUNIST REVOLUTION.

[dfwgator]

I saw that too, I thought the same thing. It almost was as if they portrayed Reagan as the savior of the country. I don't think that was their intention, but that's how it appeared to me.

[PJ-Comix]

I caught part of the documentary. I could only take it in very small doses. I thought they were way out of line to give so much air time to these terrorists.

Next time watch all of it. In the end, the Weather Underground didn't come off well at all. The women Weather Undergound members were blathering that their goal was some sort of generic revolution by the "people" but Mark Rudd state their real goal---COMMUNIST REVOLUTION.

[dfwgator]

It's like I've always said, the so-called "anti-war" movement wasn't anti-war at all. They just thought we were fighting for the wrong side.

[PJ-Comix]

It would be great if Rush discusses this documentary. The Left accuses us of "McCarthyite" tactics if we claim that the leftist activists were communists but Mark Rudd himself stated their goal: COMMUNIST REVOLUTION.

BTW, I bet some of the former Weather Underground members were pained when they saw this documentary with Mark Rudd saying this. They were probably thinking: "Hey, you're not supposed to actually say what our REAL GOAL was." They want to fool folks into thinking they just wanted some "progressive" feel-good revolution.

[dfwgator]

They should have given time to showing the "Killing Fields" in Cambodia to which a large part of the blame belongs to the so-called "anti-war" movement.

[dfwgator]

Mark Rudd better watch his back.

[wolficatZ]

More info...we should Freep the live chat......

 

 

 

Participate in a live chat with Sam Green, filmmaker and Bernardine Dohrn, Wed., April 28 at 1pm ET on washingtonpost.com >

	The Film | The Movement | The Weathermen Today | Filmmaker Bios | Filmmaker Q&A | Learn More | Talkback |

[BunnySlippers]

Yikes. They've all become teachers ... except for the remorseful guy who owns a bar.

[68skylark]

I heard the part about communist revolution. I think it was the same mope who also said very clearly that the goal was the violent overthrow of the U. S. government. I give them points for candor, I guess. But I got no sense that these terrorists (or the producers of the film) really thought that a communist revolution would be such a terrible thing. That just didn't sit right with me.

[68skylark]

They should have given time to showing the "Killing Fields" in Cambodia to which a large part of the blame belongs to the so-called "anti-war" movement.

Yes -- exactly. In the parts I saw there was very little discussion about why support for a communist revolution was a horrible, almost unforgiveable thing.

[PJ-Comix]

They've all become teachers ... except for the remorseful guy who owns a bar.

Yeah, the ONE person who now has a REAL JOB is the only one who sees CLEARLY what the Weather Underground was really about.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Bernadette Dohrn teaches, believe it or not, "juvenile justice", at Northwestern University, and her old bomb-making pal, Bill Ayers, is an Education prof at Univ. of Illinois - Chicago campus. These people scare me.

[PJ-Comix]

I don't know if I can be online when they have that chat but if someone else goes to that chat, you might want to ask Bernadette Dorhn if their real goal was COMMUNIST REVOLUTION as stated by Mark Rudd.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Bill Ayers' faculty bio page at UIC

Notice how there is nary a mention of his involvement with the Weathermen.

[PJ-Comix]

Bernadette Dohrn teaches JUSTICE and she used to plant bombs? Oh the irony!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Bernadette Dohrn's Northwestern faculty bio

[BunnySlippers]

CA Freepers. The program is on May 1st at 11pm.

[PJ-Comix]

AMAZING! Not a word in Dohrn's SANITIZED college bio about being in the Weather Underground nor about planting bombs. Check it out:

Director, Children and Family Justice Center
Clinical Associate Professor of Law

Bernardine Dohrn, Clinical Associate Professor of Law and Director and Founder of the Children and Family Justice Center, is a leading child advocate. She serves on the boards of directors of the Erikson Institute, the Chicago Reporter and is a member of the Local School Council of the Nancy B. Jefferson School. Ms. Dohrn is a member of the Domestic Violence Child Abuse Working Group of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the steering committee of the Illinois Family Violence Coordinating Committee and is a board member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Project and the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights. She was a member of the Expert Work Group for the Adoption 2002 Project of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and she co-chaired the Fordham Conference on Ethical Issues in the Delivery of Legal Services to Low Income Persons.

With her law students, Ms. Dohrn has visited South Africa to gain cross cultural perspectives on children’s human rights and legal issues. She is a founder and member of the American Bar Association section of litigation’s Children’s Rights Committee and appointed to the ABA advisory committee to the Immigration Pro Bono Development and Bar Activation Project.

Education: BA with honors, MA, JD, University of Chicago

Past Appointments: Adjunct faculty, University of Illinois/Chicago (2000-present) Visiting Faculty, Vrieje University, Amsterdam (2002), Dept of Criminal Justice, Director, Juvenile Court Project 1991-1992, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Legal Assistance Foundation, Homeless Advocacy Project, 1991, Children’s Rights Project, Roger Baldwin Foundation of the American Civil Liberties Union, 1990-91, long-term litigation legal associate, Office of the Public Guardian, Cook County, Juvenile Division, 1988-1990, Sidley & Austin, 1984-1988.

Selected Publications:"The School, The Child and The Court," (in eds. Margaret Rosenheim, Franklin E. Zimring, David S. Tanenhaus and Bernardine Dohrn) A Century of Juvenile Justice, University of Chicago Press (2002); “Look Out Kid/It’s Something You Did: Zero Tolerance for Children," (in eds, William Ayers, Rick Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn) in The Public Assault on America’s Childhood, (2000 ed. Valerie Polokow) Teachers College Press, Columbia University; Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment, The New Press

[St.Chuck]

I caught segments of it too, and thought what a bunch of losers these people were. I got the impression that they were just anti-authoritarian and it was entertainment for them to act out on these impulses. Then they grew up.

[kallisti]

yes that was their goal. i attended a six hour tactical meeting (doors locked and guarded) after the "days of rage" march. all the main characters were there. the meet was full of "trotsky said..." "mao said..." compost.
yes, i was a jerk for being there and lucky to have survived the march. that meet scared me and began the awakening process that led to my enlistment. i'm feeling much better now.

[Sam's Army]

I caught part of this last night as well and was AMAZED. I knew about this group, but did not know the extent of their actions. I was disgusted at first, thinking this was another fawning PBS love-fest for the 60's radicals--but like you, saw that their own words were doing more harm than good on the romantic notion of "revolution".

The biggest thing for me to show out of touch these folks were was when they decided to move off the college campus' and into blue-collar neighborhoods in big cities; thinking that would help grow the movement. I've yet to know too many blue collar guys who were sympathetic to Leninist thought.

[wildbill]

I caught it by accident as well. The women were the fiercest revolutionaries then--and most remain so today.

Although the guy married to Dorhn wrote a op-ed piece inthe NYT praising Muslim terrorists the day before 9/11.

[PJ-Comix]

Although the guy married to Dorhn wrote a op-ed piece inthe NYT praising Muslim terrorists the day before 9/11.

Huh? That would be Bill Ayers. Could you post a link to that article? That would be a MUST READ. Sheesh! Talk about BAD TIMING!

[PJ-Comix]

yes that was their goal. i attended a six hour tactical meeting (doors locked and guarded) after the "days of rage" march. all the main characters were there. the meet was full of "trotsky said..." "mao said..." compost.

Yes, behind closed doors. Often these radicals say one thing for public consumption and quite another among themselves. Recently a substitute host for Rush played a tape of an "anti-war" meeting AFTER the reporters left. It discussed how to support the Iraqi "resistance" fighters killing American troops.

[PJ-Comix]

I just found this WorldNet Daily ARTICLE about Bill Ayers that discusses that NY Times article. The NY Times article was actually published on Sept. 11, 2001!!!:

The New York Times broke a story on Sept. 11 of this year that was slightly overshadowed by the tragic events that transpired that morning.

Nearly three months after the worst terrorist attacks in the history of the world, it's time to re-examine that story.

The story was about a home-grown terrorist – one that not only got away with bombings of the U.S. Capitol in 1971, the New York City Police Headquarters the year before and the Pentagon in 1972 but one who is totally, 100 percent unrepentant about those actions.

His name is Bill Ayers. He was a leader of the Weather Underground – a terrorist faction of the Students for a Democratic Society.

''I don't regret setting bombs,'' Ayers told the New York Times in the story published ironically on Sept. 11. ''I feel we didn't do enough.''

Ayers spent the 1970s as a fugitive. But today, he lives in a big turn-of-the-19th-century stone house in the Hyde Park district of Chicago.

He is not only proud of his terrorist actions, he prospers from them.

His new book, ''Fugitive Days,'' currently ranked 25,228 by Amazon, is the 56-year-old's memoir. But this incompetent bomber is also a liar. He admits that parts of his story are fictionalized.

A publicity shot for the book shows Ayers with the American flag crumpled in weeds by his feet.

Though he admits his role in the bombings, Ayers, we're told, is probably safe from prosecution. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department told the New York Times there was a five-year statute of limitations on federal crimes except in cases of murder or when a person has been indicted.

In 1970, Ayers was said to have summed up the Weatherman philosophy as: ''Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at.''

Today Ayers is a "distinguished professor of education" at the University of Illinois at Chicago. And he says he doesn't actually remember suggesting that rich people be killed or that people kill their parents, but ''it's been quoted so many times I'm beginning to think I did,'' he said. ''It was a joke about the distribution of wealth.''

"He went underground in 1970, after his girlfriend, Diana Oughton, and two other people were killed when bombs they were making exploded in a Greenwich Village town house," the New York Times explains. "With him in the Weather Underground was Bernardine Dohrn, who was put on the FBI's '10 Most Wanted' list. J. Edgar Hoover called her 'the most dangerous woman in America' and 'la Pasionara of the Lunatic Left.'"

Between 1970 and 1974, the Weathermen took responsibility for 12 bombings, Ayers writes, and also helped spring Timothy Leary (sentenced on marijuana charges) from jail.

Today, Ayers and Dohrn, 59, who is director of the Legal Clinic's Children and Family Justice Center of Northwestern University, are married.

In 1969, after the Manson family murders in Beverly Hills, Dohrn told a Students for a Democratic Society audience: ''Dig it! Manson killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they shoved a fork into a victim's stomach.''

In Chicago recently, Dohrn said of her remarks: ''It was a joke. We were mocking violence in America. Even in my most inflamed moment, I never supported a racist mass murderer.'' A joke? Pretty funny, huh?

Would Ayers do it all again? ''I don't want to discount the possibility,'' he told the Times.

Ayers has something else in common with Osama bin Laden – besides a fascination with terrorism. His father, Thomas, now 86, was chairman and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Edison of Chicago, chairman of Northwestern University and of the Chicago Symphony. In other words, he's another rich-kid terrorist.

Dohrn got a slap on the wrist for her charges. She pleaded guilty to a rioting charge and received three years probation and was fined $1,500. The federal charges against them were dropped before they surrendered to authorities in the 1980s.

Does this make you angry? While the U.S. is at war with terrorism, our universities here in the United States employ people like Ayers. They prey on our children and fill their minds with romantic tales of fighting "inside the belly of the beast" – the United States of America.

But here's the real punch line of this sick joke.

Guess what Ayers teaches? He instructs prospective K-12 teachers in "moral education" and in the "ethical and political dimensions" of education.

[Poincare]

The WU leaders were (and are) pathetic egoists. They played to the cameras. If they had been real warriors they would have been anomymous. To compare them to Al Qaeda is to underestimate the evil of Al Qaeda. AQ targets innocents, hence they are terrorists. The WU targeted symbols, they were looking for publicity and fame (infamy).

[wildbill]

I don't have archival search privileges at the NYT, but i believe another poster is right--It was an article about Bill Ayers and was published on either the 10th or 11the of Sept.

[HamiltonJay]

No, not all.. some are activists, one is serving 75 years for his role in a robery that killed 3 people... another served 14 years for planting a bomb in the 1980s and is now an activist... etc.

I was born in 1971, and so Vietnam is pre my experience, I have always known from what I saw of it in my own research that those oposing the war were just communist activists or their dupes.... Nothing I have seen, read or otherwise been exposed to has remotely given me the belief they were "patriots" or "true americans"..

I was glad to see at least a few of them renounce their past actions and recognize them for what they were. Particularly the bar owner who warned of the dangers of arrogance, and how it can allow you to justify horrendous acts... his own parallels by his own words to the fundamentalist islamists was absolutely spot on, and profound to hear from his own mouth.

However for every one like him, there was another that was not remorseful for what they had done and say they would do it all over again. They were sold and bought into a web of lies, and some of them (most in the greater sense) have come to realize it.. but there are a few zealots still out there thinking the revolution is coming.

[HamiltonJay]

Al Queada targets symbols too.. they didn't pic the WTC just to kill innocents.. they did it to strike at the symbol of our economic system.

A terrorist is a terrorist... the only thing that seperated WU from AQ is that the WU were overprivaleged upper middle and upper class kids with too much time on their hands and not raised with enough discipline... oh wait, that pretty much explains Bin Laden and his comrades as well... nevermind there isn't that much difference at all.

[Zevonismymuse]

Bernadine Dohrn sounded still defiant as did a couple of other women. Amazingly, despite planting bombs and engaging in terrorist activities, many of these Weather (Terror) Underground members are now teaching at college campuses.

I also happened upon the show probably about 20 minutes in. Like you, I could not stop watching.

I was wishing they would have talked to David Horowitz or someone else who could have exposed some of the myths surrounding the Black Panther movement. Still, even with the show being totally PBS-ish, I was hoping some of my pinko Santa Barbarian friends were watching the show. I think even the biggest commies on the planet would feel embarrassed listening to those mannish old Bolshevik hags attempting to justify threir violent behavior.

And yes, many of them now teach at the University level. Except the one guy who teaches math at a Community College. Nice....

[Francis McClobber]

I watched the whole documentary. What struck me is these people still don't get it and never will.

I'm not really suprised that three of them are college professors.

The guy who owns the bar seemed like the most well adjusted of the lot. Probably because he has to work for a living now.

I wonder if he would mind a bunch of anti alcohol radicals ripping up his bar.

[Lost Highway]

The thing it made me wonder is what is the FCC's relation to PBS. Up until I turned it off I heard the f-bomb twice mother-f once and read the f word once. I was interested in the show but did not care to hear that.

[cyborg]

I saw it. Reminds of moveon.org! I was the whole thing while FR was down. It is amazing how far this country has come. My mother does not remember any of this stuff. 'I was too busy working to notice' *LOL* My dad rest his soul used to say they were unwashed scum of the earth and that's cleaning it up A LOT.

[Zevonismymuse]

Bernardine Dohrn, Clinical Associate Professor of Law and Director and Founder of the Children and Family Justice Center

To paraphrase:"Steal a little, you're a thief. Steal a lot, they make you King."

[cyborg]

It was also depressing to see how the government could secretly conspire against people too. The whole COINTELPRO thing was pretty scary.

[HamiltonJay]

The whole weather underground thing is comical... a bunch of overprivileged white kids who are grad students and PHD students with no real world experience or military or political knowlege believe they are going to be the ARMY to overthrow the government?....

Please, revolutions, particularly violent upheaval ones are the results of the MASSES not the pretty boys rising up.

And people say Marajuana doesn't have long term effects...