ON AUGUST 31, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt delivered what was perhaps the most important speech ever given in Kansas. Surrounded by 30,000 enthusiastic listeners at Osawatomie, he developed a political creed which became a milestone along the road to the modern all-powerful state. This speech, later called the "New Nationalism Address," evoked a wide variety of responses. It was labeled "Communistic," "Socialistic," and "Anarchistic" in various quarters; while others hailed it "the greatest oration ever given on American soil." What then were the circumstances surrounding the address? What was the Kansas role in the drama at Osawatomie? Why was that town chosen for such an auspicious moment in history? And why did an ex-President devise a comprehensive political program such as the "New Nationalism?"
~~~ Kansas Historical Quarterly - Theodore Roosevelt's Osawatomie Speech
After the release of Prairie Fire: The Politics of Evolutionary Anti-Imperialism, Weather began actively building an above-ground support group named, appropriately, the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC). The First chapters were formed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Seattle, and Chicago. In addition, a film, Underground, was made, a newsletter, Osawatomie, published, and a meeting -the Hard Times conference— called to gather movement activists together around the issues and hopes expressed in Prairie Fire. Meanwhile, van Lydegraf formally joined the organization, forsaking his aboveground support activities and going underground.
On January 23, 1975, the Agency for International Development (USAID) office in the State Department building in Washington, D.C., and the offices of the Department of Defense in Oakland were bombed. These attacks were coordinated between at least one East Coast and one West Coast unit. The explosions caused over $50,000 worth of damage, and no injuries were reported. In a statement released to the press, Weather expressed solidarity with the Vietnamese still fighting against the Thieu regime in Vietnam and demanded an immediate and complete withdrawal of all US forces and aid. Weather ended the communiqué demanding that the US honor the peace accords signed two years earlier to the day.
On June 16, 1975, Weather bombed the Banco de Ponce office in New York's Rockefeller Center, causing several thousand dollars worth of damage. A statement was sent to the Associated Press, the New York Post, and NBC television detailing the role of the bank's owners in causing the poverty that was endemic in Puerto Rico. In addition, Weather expressed its support for the cement workers' strike then taking place against a construction company partially owned by the bank. On October 10, 1975, it bombed the Kennecott Corporation's headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, in solidarity with the resistance to Chile's military government and in opposition to the Kennecott Corporation's involvement in the coup two years earlier. The explosion was preceded by a phone call from a Weather woman to the Salt Lake Tribune. The blast tore through a restroom in the building and caused damage amounting to about $50,000.
~~~ The Way The Wind Blew - A History Of The Weather Underground
Organizers must be intimately aware of every problem and each injustice, and they must show that underneath each particular problem lies another problem, and another and another until you reach the system of imperialism itself. The system is designed to create problems for poor, Third World and working-class people. Organizers need to find small solutions to small problems and great solutions to great problems. Our solutions should be drastic.
We need to build a successful struggle, strong organization and a winning revolutionary party. This is a process, which will not emerge full-blown from our minds. It will emerge and change and grow from practice. We know where to begin.
It is with all this in mind that we have created OSAWATOMIE, the revolutionary voice of the Weather Underground Organization.
Copies of OSAWATOMIE are available from:
Water Buffalo Print Collective
P.O. Box 22184
Seattle, Washington 98122
Single copies: 30¢ plus 10¢ postage.
Books by Weather Underground
