The “Renaissance” of Bill Ayers

http://stephen-diamond.com/2009/10/15/the-renaissance-of-bill-ayers/ ^ | Oct 15, 2009 | Stephen Diamond

[Ray76]

Ayers was one of three keynote speakers at a major conference organized by a consortium of schools of education at some 30 or so middle sized universities called The Renaissance Group. Ayers was given the only keynote luncheon speaker spot at the conference. The two morning keynote speakers were none other than Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education – and former foe of Ayers (and Obama) in the Chicago School Wars, and Undersecretary of Education Martha Kanter.

A major theme of the Renaissance organization is finding ways to educate the “New American Student,” as described in a statement published a few years after the founding of the group in 1989. Prominent among the themes in this analysis – beyond the standard concern for early childhood education and math and science issues – are the significance of poverty, diversity and multiculturalism and the consequent alleged inability of white teachers to deal with the impact of such issues on their students.

Multiculturalism, of course, is a theme dear to the heart of Bill Ayers. His most recent book co-authored with his wife and Weather Underground comrade Bernardine Dohrn argues that the original sin of American life is white supremacy and that this continues to be central to what ails this country.

Ayers has been peddling a heavily racialized, even racist, view of American life since his days in the SDS and Weather Underground in the late 1960s. That historical background is actually far more important to understanding the relationship between Ayers and Barack Obama than is widely understood.

[] the prominent participation of Ayers in the Renaissance conference comes as no surprise. What is notable, though, is that Duncan and Kanter were also participating. Clearly the White House has no problem being associated with Bill Ayers.

[Ray76]

http://www.renaissancegroup.org/documents/conferences/2009_fall_agenda.pdf

http://www.renaissancegroup.org/galleries/fall_2009_conference/index.shtml

http://www.fresnostatenews.com/archive/2009/10/renaissancegroup.htm

[mountainlion]

Converting form a Barbarian to a liberal is not “Renaissance”.

[Vaquero]

This viper needs to be at room temperature. Strictly natural causes of course

[dljordan]

“This viper needs to be at room temperature. Strictly natural causes of course”

Hemp rope is natural.

[BitWielder1]

The term “Renaissance” implies enlightenment and renewal.
With Bill Ayers you can be sure it's only more of the same old litany.

[ETL]

"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"
--Bill Ayers (1970), quoted in New York Times, September 11, 2001:

Article: "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
_______________________________________________________

"Dig It. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!"
-Weather Underground leader and wife of Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, referring to the Manson murders

Article: Allies in War -by David Horowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, September 17, 2001
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=63512670-BF7C-42A0-B41D-5D0FB9E09C09
_______________________________________________________

"It was at the Chicago home of [Bill] Ayers and [Bernardine] Dohrn that Obama, then an up-and-coming 'community organizer,' had his political coming out party in 1995. Not content with this rite of passage in Lefty World — where unrepentant terrorists are regarded as progressive luminaries, still working 'only to educate' — both Obamas tended to the relationship with the Ayers."
Article: The Company He Keeps:
Meet Obama’s circle: The same old America-hating Left
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YThjYTU1ZDBjNmQ2YzcwNzU1MmYwN2JiMWY0ZGI0NDA=&w=MA==

[ETL]

"Their founding document [the Weather Underground's] called for the establishment of a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other "anti-colonial" movements[1] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism."..."-Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press, 95.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_Underground#cite_ref-Berger_0-0

Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (Paperback) by Dan Berger
http://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-America-Underground-Politics-Solidarity/dp/1904859410
_______________________________________________________

From the New York Times, August 24, 2003

"they [the Weather Underground] employed revolutionary jargon, advocated armed struggle and black liberation and began bombing buildings, taking responsibility for at least 20 attacks. Estimates of their number ranged at times from several dozen to several hundred."

Article: Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DE1539F937A1575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

[ETL]

Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and Dr. William Ayers
are greeted by Rebekah Levin with the Committee
for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine.
(Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune / May 17, 2009)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ayers_wrightmay18,0,6689521.story

[ETL]

From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
"FBI files from 1976, recently made public under the Freedom of Information Act, confirm the connections between Weatherman, Havana, and Moscow. Weatherman leaders like Mark Rudd traveled illegally to Havana in 1968 to engage in terrorist training. There, camps set up by Soviet KGB Colonel Vadim Kotchergine were educating Westerners both in Marxist philosophy and urban warfare."
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6808

[Ray76]

Common Core Roots Lie in Ties Between Barack Obama, Bill Ayers
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3250122/posts

Common Core ‘architect’ David Coleman’s history with Bill Ayers and Barack Obama
http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3294387/posts

Terrorist Professor Bill Ayers and Obama’s Federal School Curriculum
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3250151/posts

Direct Threat to Education: Bill Ayers
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3250100/posts

Common Core: When Radicals Defend ‘Standards’
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3250299/posts

And Jeb Bush promotes Common Core!

[ETL]

From the Chicago Sun Times, November 13, 2008:

Ayers: Obama was 'family friend'
New afterword to 2001 book, Ayers describes Barack Obama as 'family friend'

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1278532,bill-ayers-barack-obama-book-111308.article#
_________________________________________________________________________

"This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English..."
--B.H. Obama

YouTube Video:
The O'Reilly Factor confronts Bill Ayers:
October 24, 2008:
(note the red communist star on his shirt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP3uvK9gTIY

[ETL]

"Ayers and his co-author Michael Klonsky responded to [Arne] Duncan in an article published in Phi Delta Kappan -- a professional journal for education -- describing him as 'the brightest and most dedicated schools leader Chicago has had in memory'"
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/16/duncan-praised-bona-fide-reformer-chicago-educators/
_________________________________________________________________________________

"The Small Schools Workshop was founded in 1991 at the University of Illinois at Chicago to provide support for teachers who were trying to create new smaller learning environments. Its director is Michael Klonsky, a former professor of education at UIC."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Schools_Workshop
_________________________________________________________________________________

Some background on Bill Ayers' SDS comrade, Michael Klonsky
(Chicago Annenberg Challenge-related)

"One of Bill Ayers’ and Bernardine Dohrn’s comrades in the late 60s Students for a Democratic Society was Mike Klonsky. When Dohrn and Ayers moved in one direction toward the violent tactics of the Weather Underground, Klonsky, in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, dropped the pro-Russian communist politics of his parents and became a committed Maoist. As leader of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) in 1977 [not to be confused with Communist Party USA. CPML no longer exists, CPUSA formed decades earlier and is still around-ETL], he travelled to Beijing and was toasted by the senior Beijing leadership.

When the crazy left of the 70s died in the 80s, Klonsky went to graduate school in education in Florida and then moved to Chicago.

While driving a cab there he [Michael Klonsky] was recruited by his old friend Bill Ayers to head up a new project called the Small Schools Workshop in 1991. It’s offices were in the Department of Education building at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus where Ayers taught.

In 1995 the newly formed Chicago Annenberg Challenge headed by Ayers and Obama gave the Workshop a grant of $175,000.

The Annenberg Challenge also had its office space in the same building as Ayers Department and the Workshop, rent free courtesy of the University.

In 2008 Klonsky ran a blog on the official Obama campaign website on education policy and “social justice” teaching. When discussion of the Klonsky blog emerged in the blogosphere, it was promptly shut down by the campaign and all of the posts made by Klonsky were removed from the site."

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/12/the-obama-ayers-top-ten-highlights-of-the-20-year-obama-ayers-connection/
_________________________________________________________________________________

In 1977, the October League was reorganized as the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) [again, not Communist Party USA (CPUSA) -ETL] and former SDS activist Michael Klonsky became party chairman. Also in 1977, Klonsky traveled to China and the CPML was recognized by the Chinese Communist Party as its official sister party in America.

(snip)

In January 1981, Michael Klonsky resigned as party chairman, and the CPML disbanded that same year.

The previous Red Encyclopedia description of the CPML was incorrectly combined with that of the Communist Party USA (Marxist-Leninist).

http://reds.linefeed.org/past.html

[ETL]

From Investor's Business Daily (IBD), August 27, 2008:

"Ayers, now a tenured distinguished professor of education at UIC, works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students.

One of Ayer's descriptions for a course called 'Improving Learning Environments' says prospective K-12 teachers need to 'be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and ... be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation.

The Annenberg papers are quite extensive — 132 boxes containing 947 file folders with 70 linear feet of material. They undoubtedly contain more surprises regarding Obama's relationship with Ayers, one of many relationships Obama has sought to hide.'..."

Article: Annenberg Papers: Putting On Ayers?
http://www.ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=304729375940845
_________________________________________________________________________________

Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA [Maoist]
Revolution #63, October 1, 2006

Interview with Bill Ayers:
"On Progressive Education, Critical Thinking and the Cowardice of Some in Dangerous Times"
http://rwor.org/a/063/ayers-en.html

[ETL]

The RCP calls for the armed overthrow of the U.S. government...

From the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party (revcom.us or rwor.org) :

"Create Public Opinion, Seize Power: We are preparing minds and organizing forces for the time when there is a major crack in the system, whenever it comes and wherever it comes from: an opening that makes it possible to bring the future Revolutionary Army of the Proletariat (R.A.P.) into the field and wage a revolutionary armed struggle that actually has a chance of winning.

And we have said that building our party itself is the most important part of organizing forces for revolution. This is true now, and it is true looking forward to the creation of that future R.A.P. and the waging of that armed struggle.":

http://revcom.us/a/v20/1000-1009/1000/barw.htm

[ETL]

Undercover agent Larry Grathwohl discusses the Weather Underground's post-revolution governing plans for the United States:

Larry Grathwohl:

"I asked, 'well what is going to happen to those people we can't reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?' and the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated. And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers. And when I say 'eliminate,' I mean 'kill.' Twenty-five million people. I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people. And they were dead serious."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWMIwziGrAQ
_____________________________________________

[Ray76]

> an opening that makes it possible to bring the future Revolutionary Army of the Proletariat (R.A.P.) into the field and wage a revolutionary armed struggle that actually has a chance of winning

The communists have been very busy.

In Ferguson, Missouri a group called Ferguson October helped organize protests. They are supported by many socialist and racial groups.

http://fox2now.com/2014/10/12/protesters-training-for-more-civil-disobedience-after-night-of-arrests/

They have a number of interesting associations

https://web.archive.org/web/20141024162418/http://fergusonoctober.com/about/endorsing-organizations/

Don’t miss Obama pal Van Jones’ Color of Change

Another group is called Ferguson Action
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2014/12/18/occupy-returns-as-fergusongarner-protests-spread-nationwide/

check out their demands
http://fergusonaction.com/demands/

and their action plans
https://web.archive.org/web/20141214214436/http://fergusonaction.com/resources/

Another group is the Organization for Black Struggle. Check out their agenda
https://web.archive.org/web/20141003235627/http://obs-onthemove.org/about-obs/

These groups’ agenda are similar to SDS/WU. If fact it is straight out of the chapter "Black Liberation Means Revolution" in "You Don't Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows" co-authored by Bill Ayers and published by Students For A Democratic Society.

What is the relationship of the struggle for black self-determination to the whole worldwide revolution to defeat US imperialism and internationalize its resources toward the goal of creating a classless world?

https://archive.org/stream/NewLeftNotesJune181969/Weatherman-issue#page/n2/mode/1up

Yes the Bill Ayers who hosted a fund-raiser in his home and launched Obama's political career.

In the Weather Undergound's "Prairie Fire" Ayers wrote:

Our final goal is the destruction of imperialism, the seizure of power, and the creation of socialism. Our strategy for this stage of the struggle is to organize the oppressed people of the imperial nation itself to join with the colonies in the attack on imperialism. This process of attacking and weakening imperialism involves the defeat of all kinds of national chauvinism and arrogance; this is a precondition to our fight for socialism. page 24

Our final goal is the complete destruction of imperialism, the seizure of the means of production and the building of socialism. To create the conditions in which we can take the offensive, destroy the old system and build a new life, we must weaken and at least partly destroy the empire. page 139

http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC31_scans/31.Prairie-fire.pdf

Obama claims Ayers is "just some guy in the neighborhood", however Ayers:

• worked with Obama on a school reform program called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge
• served with Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago
• shared office space with Obama for three years, on the same floor of the same building in Chicago

Obama's ties with Ayers, NBP, and communists goes on and on.

On page 122 of “Dreams From My Father” Obama writes about "the socialist conferences I sometimes attended at Cooper Union" Those conferences were held April 1983 by the New York Democratic Socialists of America, the same group that helped install Obama in Illinois.

Obama's first speech was given at Occidental at an event organized by Tom Hayden of the Weather Underground.

The stirring up of people in Sanford, the turmoil in Ferguson and Baltimore, are not coincidentally occuring during Obama's tenure. He has endorsed the rioters citing their "justified anger", "if I had a son...", "the police acted stupidly", etc etc ad naseaum. He has sent DOJ CRS to train and organize, he has injected race into non-racial incidents. There is a reason for this and it goes back a long long way with Obama. He's a communist revolutionary. He is using race to further the revolutionary goals of the Weather Underground terrorists just as they said they would.

And it's not just street violence the communists are promoting, but economic destruction. http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3228600/posts

[Ray76]

Common Core, Ayers, and Obama

http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3294387/posts

[Ray76]

A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools. The Teaching for Social Justice Series.
Ayers, William, Ed.; Klonsky, Michael, Ed.; Lyon, Gabrielle H., Ed.

Written by major players in the small schools movement, this collection of essays points to the ways that school restructuring strategies connect to the ongoing pursuit of social justice. Activists, scholars, practitioners, and theorists review how and why small schools work for students, provide thick descriptions of the small schools strategy in action, and draw together theory and practice to indicate what must be done to realize educational equity and social justice. Chapters are: (1) "Simple Justice: Thinking about Teaching and Learning, Equity, and the Fight for Small Schools" (William Ayers); Response: "Our Country Is Rich, Our People Are Poor: Education, Justice, and the Politics of Structural Adjustment" (William H. Watkins); Response: "A Gesture toward Justice: Small Schools and the Promise of Equal Education" (Sonia Nieto); (2) "Remembering Port Huron" (Michael Klonsky); (3) "The Crisis of Relationships" (Deborah Meier); (4) "Who Leads Small Schools?: Teacher Leadership in the Midst of Democratic Governance" (G. Alfred Hess, Jr.); (5) "John Dewey as a Philosophical Basis for Small Schools" (William H. Schubert); (6) "Education for Activism: Mississippi's Freedom Schools in the 1960s" (Charles M. Payne); (7) "Where Race and Class Are Not an Excuse: Reflections on Education in Barbados and the American Education Dilemma" (Pedro Noguera); (8) "Art, with Algebra, Guards the Gate" (Susan Klonsky); (9) "Social Justice and Small Schools: Why We Bother, Why It Matters" (Rick Ayers); (10) "Practicing Social Justice in the High School Classroom" (Deborah Stern); (11) "When Jamas Is Enough: Creating a School for a Community (A Conversation with Tamara Witzl)" (Gabrielle H. Lyon); (12) "Small Schools Are Not Miniature Large Schools: Potential Pitfalls and Implications for Leadership" (Nancy Mohr); (13) "Life after Small Schools: The Met's Quest for Social Justice" (Dennis Littky, Farrell Allen); (14) "A Small Price To Pay for Justice" (Michelle Fine); and (15) "Engaging the System" (Gil Schmerler). (Contains references in most chapters, an index, and contributor profiles.) (SV)

At the US Dept of Education website: http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED445877

 

A closer look at some of those chapters:

(2) "Remembering Port Huron" (Michael Klonsky);

Port Huron refers to "The Port Huron Statement" - an SDS manifesto which called for "wrest[ing] control of the educational process from the administrative bureaucracy" to fulfill their agenda.

(9) "Social Justice and Small Schools: Why We Bother, Why It Matters" (Rick Ayers);

(10) "Practicing Social Justice in the High School Classroom" (Deborah Stern);

(13) "Life after Small Schools: The Met's Quest for Social Justice" (Dennis Littky, Farrell Allen);

(14) "A Small Price To Pay for Justice" (Michelle Fine);

 

"Social Justice"

The SDS agenda promoted by the US Department of Education!

[ETL]

Source: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/31617_Obama_Gave_Bill_Ayers_Book_a_Rave_Review/comments/#ctop

[ETL]

"A Kind and Just Parent"--Bill Ayers

"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"-Bill Ayers, New York Times, September 11, 2001
Article: "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1