Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers To Speak At St. Mary's College Campus In California
College Characterizes Him As Advocate Of "Social Justice"
By WILLIAM MAYER
January 12, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On Jan 28th at 7:30PM Bill Ayers, an unapologetic domestic terrorist and founder of the Marxist revolutionary terrorist group, the Weather Underground, will be speaking at St. Mary's College located in Moraga, California. St. Mary's is a Catholic college and located approximately 30 miles east of San Francisco, in Contra Costa County.
The college website contains the following information regarding the event.
"Bill Ayers is a Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has just released the Handbook of Social Justice in Education. He is noted for his work in education reform and also for his controversial history as a founder of the Weather Underground. He will discuss his life and work and their inevitable intersection in the pursuit of social justice.Background: Presented over the college's January Term, the speaker series reflects the "Against the Grain" theme of the school's innovative four-week session where students are challenged to think in new ways and explore social justice issues as part of the College's Lasallian heritage. During the day the speakers will meet with several classes and participate in a lunch time roundtable discussion with students and a free public lecture follows in the evening." [source, St. Mary's Press Release, December 18, 2008, http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/news-and-events/item-press-release.html?ID=2889]
After spending several years living underground as the U.S. government pursued charges against him that it later dropped, Ayers went on to become one of the nation's leading voices on education reform. He will speak to Saint Mary's students about his new book, Teaching toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom. Sponsored by Jan Term, the Social Justice Speaker Series and the Disney Forum." [source, http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/news-and-events/item.html?ID=2886]
The scheduled event will be held at St. Mary's Soda Center, shown below.
In a January 12 telephone interview conducted by this writer with St. Mary's Director of Media Relations, Mike McAlpin, he briefly discussed the controversial nature of the Ayers appearance.
During that conversation he repeatedly defended the decision by the college to host Ayers, stating that he had been invited as a representative of the "social justice" community. McAlpin further stated that the acts that might have led some to categorize Ayers as an "unapologetic domestic terrorist" - a term we suggested as being appropriate - had taken place, "a long time ago."
When queried as to whether everyone on St. Mary's Board of Trustees was aware of Mr. Ayers' appearance, he said that "everyone knew."
McAlpin also stated that he didn't think that there would be any protests as a result of the event - despite Ayers' history - and that the college was refusing to disclose the amount of Ayers' speaking fee.
Editor's note:
Throughout the early 70s the Weather Underground carried out a campaign of bombings across the United States.
Ayers was personally involved in bombing a New York Police station, the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon.
In 1970 Weathermen Diana Oughton, Terry Robbins and Ted Gold, were killed when a bomb they were constructing exploded prematurely due to a malfunction.
That anti-personnel explosive device was designed to serve as the centerpiece in a planned attack against soldiers at the Ft. Dix military base in New Jersey.
Refering to the plot, Ayers later stated that had the attack been successful the effect would have been of, "tearing through windows and walls and, yes, people too."
Of special note, on December 22, 2008 five domestic terrorists were convicted of plotting to attack the same military installation [see, Five Muslim Extremists Convicted In Ft. Dix Terror Case]. Court observers believe they are facing very long periods of imprisonment.
In 1974 Ayers co-authored - along with Bernardine Dohrn [Ayers' current wife, also a domestic terrorist], Jeff Jones, and Celia Sojourn - a book titled Prairie Fire. This book contained the following statements, none of which to our knowledge Mr. Ayers in his current guise as social justice guru, has rejected:
"Our intention is to disrupt the empire, to incapacitate it, to put pressure on the cracks, to make it hard to carry out its bloody functioning against the people of the world, to join the world struggle, to attack from the inside." "The only path to the final defeat of imperialism and the building of socialism is revolutionary war." "Revolutionary war will be complicated and protracted. It includes mass struggle and clandestine struggle, peaceful and violent, political and economic, cultural and military, where all forms are developed in harmony with the armed struggle." "Without mass struggle there can be no revolution. Without armed struggle there can be no victory." "We need a revolutionary communist party in order to lead the struggle, give coherence and direction to the fight, seize power and build the new society." "Socialism is the total opposite of capitalism/imperialism. It is the rejection of empire and white supremacy. Socialism is the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the eradication of the social system based on profit." "We are a guerrilla organization. We are communist women and men ... deeply affected by the historic events of our time in the struggle against U.S. imperialism."
[source, Discover the Networks, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2169]