Editing Weather Underground (section)

{{Short description|American far-left militant organization, 1969–77}}
{{About|the United States militant organization|the weather forecasting service|Weather Underground (weather service)|other uses}}
{{Use American English|date = October 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2014}}
{{Infobox war faction
| war              = the [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|Anti-Vietnam War]], [[Black Power movement|Black Power]], and [[New Communist movement|New Communist]] movements
| image            = Weather Underground logo.svg
| name             = Weather Underground
| caption          = Logo of the Weather Underground
| active           = 1969–1977
| ideology         = {{Plainlist|
* [[Communism]]
* [[Black power]]
* [[Black nationalism]]
* [[Anti-capitalism]]
* [[Anti-imperialism]]
* [[New Left]]}}
[[Anti-Vietnam War]]
| leaders          = {{Plainlist|
* [[Bill Ayers]]
* [[Bernardine Dohrn]]{{sfn|Grathwohl|Frank|1977|p=110}}}}
| position         = [[Far-left politics|Far-left]]
| clans            = {{Plainlist|
* [[Seattle Weather Collective]]
* [[Women's Brigade of Weather Underground|Women's Brigade]]}}
| headquarters     = 
| area             = United States
| size             = 
| partof           = [[Students for a Democratic Society]]
| predecessor      = 
| successor        = [[May 19th Communist Organization]]
| allies           = [[Black Liberation Army]]
| split            = 
| opponents        = United States
| battles          = {{blist|
Political violence in the United States during the Cold War
* [[Days of Rage]]
* [[Weather High School Jailbreaks]]}}
}}

The '''Weather Underground''' was a [[Far-left politics|far-left]] [[Marxist]] militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the [[Ann Arbor, Michigan|Ann Arbor]] campus of the [[University of Michigan]].{{sfn|Burrough|2015}}{{page needed|date=November 2024}} Originally known as the '''Weathermen''', or simply '''Weatherman''', the group was organized as a faction of [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS) national leadership.<ref name=djwnyt82403>{{cite news |last1=Wakin |first1=Daniel J. |title=Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/24/nyregion/quieter-lives-for-60-s-militants-but-intensity-of-beliefs-hasn-t-faded.html |work=The New York Times |date=August 24, 2003 |access-date=June 7, 2008}}</ref> Officially known as the '''Weather Underground Organization''' ('''WUO''') beginning in 1970, the group's express political goal was to create a revolutionary party to overthrow the United States government, which WUO believed to be [[American imperialism|imperialist]].

The [[FBI]] described the WUO as a [[domestic terrorist]] group,<ref>{{cite web |title=Weather Underground Bombings |url=https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/weather-underground-bombings |publisher=Federal Bureau Of Investigation |access-date=30 November 2018}}</ref> with revolutionary positions characterized by [[Black Power]] and opposition to the [[Vietnam War]].<ref name=djwnyt82403/> The WUO took part in domestic attacks such as the jailbreak of [[Timothy Leary]] in 1970.<ref name="PBS-Lens-2010"/><ref name="EB-2017">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |title=Weather Underground American Militant Group |last1=Lambert |first1=Laura |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Weathermen |date=August 31, 2017 |access-date=4 December 2018 }}</ref> The "[[Days of Rage]]" was the WUO's first riot in October 1969 in Chicago, timed to coincide 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."<ref name="The Weather Underground">''[[The Weather Underground (film)|The Weather Underground]]'', produced by Carrie Lozano, directed by Bill Siegel and Sam Green, New Video Group, 2003, DVD.</ref>

In the 1970s, the WUO conducted a bombing campaign targeting government buildings and several banks. Some attacks were preceded by evacuation warnings, along with threats identifying the particular matter that the attack was intended to protest. Three members of the group were killed in an accidental [[Greenwich Village townhouse explosion]], but none were killed in any of the bombings. The WUO communiqué issued in connection with the bombing of the [[United States Capitol]] on March 1, 1971, indicated that it was "in protest of the [[Operation Lam Son 719|U.S. invasion of Laos]]". The WUO asserted that its May 19, 1972, bombing of [[the Pentagon]] was "in retaliation for the [[Operation Linebacker|U.S. bombing raid in Hanoi]]". On September 28, 1973, an [[ITT Inc]] building in New York City was bombed for the involvement of this company in the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0815FA3554137A93CBAB1782D85F478785F9 | work=The New York Times | title=I.T.T. Office Here Damaged by Bomb; Caller Linked Explosion at Latin-American Section to 'Crimes in Chile' I.T.T. Latin-American Office on Madison Ave. Damaged by Bomb Fire in Rome Office Bombing on the Coast Rally the Opponents | date=September 29, 1973 | access-date=May 5, 2010 | first=Paul L. | last=Montgomery | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512100123/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0815FA3554137A93CBAB1782D85F478785F9 | archive-date=May 12, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ayers |first1=Bill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X2OJhrWo6PcC&dq=itt+bomb+1973&pg=PT257 |title=Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970-1974 |last2=Dohrn |first2=Bernardine |last3=Jones |first3=Jeff |date=2011 |publisher=Seven Stories Press |isbn=978-1-58322-965-1 |page=257 |language=en}}</ref> The WUO announced that its January 29, 1975 bombing of the [[United States Department of State]] building was "in response to the escalation in Vietnam".<ref name="The Weather Underground"/><ref>{{cite book |title = The Weather Underground. |year= 1975|publisher= US Government Printing Office |location= Washington DC |pages= [https://archive.org/details/statedepartmentb00unit/page/n30 1]–2, 11–13 |url= https://archive.org/details/statedepartmentb00unit |access-date=December 20, 2009}}</ref>

The WUO began to disintegrate after the United States reached a peace accord in Vietnam in 1973,{{sfn|Jacobs|1997}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} and it was defunct by 1977. Some members of the WUO joined the [[May 19th Communist Organization]] and continued their activities until that group disbanded in 1985.

The group took its name from [[Bob Dylan]]'s lyric "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows", from the song "[[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]" (1965).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/30/archives/weather-men-got-name-from-song-groups-latest-designation-is-weather.html|title=Weathermen Got Name from Song|date=January 30, 1975 |work=The New York Times }}</ref> That Dylan line was also the title of a position paper distributed at an SDS convention in Chicago on June 18, 1969. This founding document called for a "White fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other radical movements{{sfn|Berger|2006|p=95}} to achieve "the destruction of U.S. imperialism and form a [[Classless society|classless]] communist world".<ref name="Weatherman">See document 5, {{cite web |url=http://martinrealm.org/documents/radical/sixties1.html|title=You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows |author=Revolutionary Youth Movement|year=1969 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060328145901/http://martinrealm.org/documents/radical/sixties1.html |archive-date=2006-03-28 |access-date=March 3, 2014}}</ref>