Editing Weather Underground (section)

==Background and formation==
The Weathermen emerged from the campus-based [[opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War]] as well as from the [[civil rights movement]] of the 1960s. One of the factors that contributed to the radicalization of SDS members was the Economic Research and Action Project that the SDS undertook in Northern urban neighborhoods from 1963 to 1968. This project was aimed at creating an interracial movement of the poor that would mobilize for full and fair employment or guaranteed annual income and political rights for poverty class Americans. Their goal was to create a more democratic society "which guarantees political freedom, economic and physical security, abundant education, and incentives for wide cultural variety". While the initial phase of the SDS involved campus organizing, phase two involved community organizing. These experiences led some SDS members to conclude that deep social change would not happen through community organizing and electoral politics, and that more radical and disruptive tactics were needed.<ref>Frost, Jennifer (2001). ''An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s''. New York: New York University Press; p. 28 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

In the late 1960s, [[United States Armed Forces|United States military]] action in [[Southeast Asia]] escalated, especially in Vietnam. In the U.S., the anti-war sentiment was particularly pronounced during the [[1968 U.S. presidential election]].

The origins of the Weathermen can be traced to the collapse and fragmentation of the [[Students for a Democratic Society]] following a split between office holders of the SDS, or the "National Office", and their supporters and the [[Progressive Labor Party (United States)|Progressive Labor Party]] (PLP). During the factional struggle, National Office leaders such as [[Bernardine Dohrn]] and [[Michael Klonsky|Mike Klonsky]] began announcing their emerging perspectives, and Klonsky published a document titled "Toward a [[Revolutionary Youth Movement]]" (RYM).<ref name="The Weather Underground"/><ref name="toward a rym">{{cite book|last=Investigations|first=United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. Permanent Subcommittee on|title=Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders: Hearings ... United States Senate, Ninetieth &#91;-Ninety-first&#93; Congress, First &#91;-second&#93; Session|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1BKAQAAIAAJ|year=1969|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=E1BKAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA3594 3594–3596]}}</ref>

RYM promoted the philosophy that young workers possessed the potential to be a revolutionary force which could overthrow capitalism, if not by themselves then by transmitting radical ideas to the working class. Klonsky's document reflected the philosophy of the National Office and it was eventually adopted as the SDS's official doctrine. During the summer of 1969, the National Office began to split. A group led by Klonsky became known as RYM II, and the other side, RYM I, was led by Dohrn and endorsed more aggressive tactics such as [[direct action]], as some members felt that years of [[nonviolent resistance]] had done little or nothing to stop the Vietnam War.<ref name="The Weather Underground"/> The Weathermen strongly sympathized with the radical [[Black Panther Party]]. The police killing of Panther [[Fred Hampton]] prompted the Weatherman to issue a declaration of war upon the United States government.

{{blockquote|We petitioned, we demonstrated, we [[sit-in|sat in]]. I was willing to get hit over the head, I did; I was willing to go to prison, I did. To me, it was a question of what had to be done to stop the much greater violence that was going on.|[[David Gilbert (activist)|David Gilbert]]<ref name="The Weather Underground"/>}}

===SDS Convention, June 1969===
At an SDS convention in Chicago on June 18, 1969, the National Office attempted to persuade unaffiliated delegates not to endorse a takeover of SDS by Progressive Labor who had packed the convention with their supporters. It was at the 1966 convention of SDS that members of [[Progressive Labor Party (United States)|Progressive Labor Party]] began to make their presence known for the first time. The PLP was a [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] group that had turned to SDS as fertile ground for recruiting new members after meeting with little success in organizing industrial workers, their preferred base. SDS members of that time were nearly all anti-communist, but they also refused to be drawn into actions that appeared like [[red-baiting]], which they viewed as mostly irrelevant and out of date. The PLP soon began to organize a [[Worker Student Alliance]]. By 1968 and 1969 they would profoundly affect SDS, particularly at national gatherings of the membership, forming a well-groomed, disciplined faction which followed the Progressive Labor Party line.{{sfn|Sale|1974|p=495}} At the beginning of the convention, two position papers were passed out by the National Office leadership, one a revised statement of Klonsky's RYM manifesto,<ref name="toward a rym"/> the other called "You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sds-1960s.org/sds_wuo/weather/weatherman_document.txt|title=You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows|date=June 18, 1969|publisher=SDS convention (1969)|website=www.sds-1960s.org|access-date=June 11, 2020|archive-date=August 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829033956/https://www.sds-1960s.org/sds_wuo/weather/weatherman_document.txt|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The latter document outlined the position of the group that would become the Weathermen. It had been signed by Karen Ashley, [[Bill Ayers]], [[Bernardine Dohrn]], [[John Jacobs (activist)|John Jacobs]], [[Jeff Jones (activist)|Jeff Jones]], Gerry Long, [[Howard Machtinger|Howie Machtinger]], [[Jim Mellen (Activist)|Jim Mellen]], [[Terry Robbins]], [[Mark Rudd]], and Steve Tappis. The document called for creating a clandestine revolutionary party.

<blockquote>The most important task for us toward making the revolution, and the work our collectives should engage in, is the creation of a mass revolutionary movement, without which a clandestine revolutionary party will be impossible. A revolutionary mass movement is different from the traditional revisionist mass base of "sympathizers". Rather it is akin to the [[Red Guards|Red Guard]] in China, based on the full participation and involvement of masses of people in the practice of making revolution; a movement with a full willingness to participate in the violent and illegal struggle.<ref>{{cite book |title=You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows |year=1969 |author1=Karin Asbley |author2=Bill Ayers |author3=Bernardine Dohrn |author4=John Jacobs |author5=Jeff Jones |author6=Gerry Long |author7=Home Machtinger |author8=Jim Mellen |author9=Terry Robbins |author10=Mark Rudd |author11=Steve Tappis |publisher=Weatherman |page=28 |url=https://archive.org/details/YouDontNeedAWeathermanToKnowWhichWayTheWindBlows_925 |access-date=November 19, 2018 }}</ref></blockquote>

At this convention the Weatherman's faction of the Students for a Democratic Society, planned for October 8–11, as a "National Action" built around [[John Jacobs (student leader)|John Jacobs']] slogan, "bring the war home".{{sfn|Sale|1974}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} The National Action grew out of a resolution drafted by Jacobs and introduced at the October 1968 SDS National Council meeting in [[Boulder, Colorado]]. The resolution, titled "The Elections Don't Mean Shit—Vote Where the Power Is—Our Power Is In The Street" and adopted by the council, was prompted by the success of the [[1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity|Democratic National Convention protests]] in August 1968 and reflected Jacobs' strong advocacy of [[direct action]].<ref name="Wilkerson">{{Cite book| last=Wilkerson | first=C. | year=2007 | title=Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times As a Weatherman | publisher=Seven Stories Press | isbn=978-1-58322-771-8}}</ref>

As part of the "National Action Staff", Jacobs was an integral part of the planning for what quickly came to be called "Four Days of Rage".{{sfn|Sale|1974}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} For Jacobs, the goal of the "[[Days of Rage]]" was clear:

<blockquote>Weatherman would shove the war down their dumb, fascist throats and show them, while we were at it, how much better we were than them, both tactically and strategically, as a people. In an all-out civil war over Vietnam and other fascist U.S. imperialism, we were going to bring the war home. 'Turn the imperialists' war into a civil war', in Lenin's words. And we were going to kick ass.<ref name="Gillies">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/1968/radical.html|title=The Last Radical|date=November 1998|magazine=[[Vancouver Magazine]]|via=Columbia University Computing History: A Chronology of Computing at Columbia University}}</ref></blockquote>

In July 1969, 30 members of Weatherman leadership traveled to [[Cuba]] and met with North Vietnamese representatives to gain from their revolutionary experience. The [[North Vietnam]]ese requested armed political action in order to stop the U.S. government's war in Vietnam. Subsequently, they accepted funding, training, recommendations on tactics and slogans from Cuba, and perhaps explosives as well.<ref>{{Cite book| last= Senate Judiciary Committee | year = 1975 | title= Report of the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee of the Judiciary | publisher= Government Printing Office | pages = 5, 8–9, 13, 18, 137–147}}</ref>

===SDS Convention, December 1969===
After the Days of Rage riots the Weatherman held the last of its National Council meetings from December 26 to December 31, 1969, in [[Flint, Michigan]]. The meeting, dubbed the [[Flint War Council|"War Council"]] by the 300 people who attended, adopted Jacobs' call for violent revolution.{{sfn|Berger|2006}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} Dohrn opened the conference by telling the delegates they needed to stop being afraid and begin the "armed struggle." Over the next five days, the participants met in informal groups to discuss what "going underground" meant, how best to organize collectives, and justifications for violence. In the evening, the groups reconvened for a mass "wargasm"—practicing [[karate]], engaging in physical exercise,<ref>{{Cite book|title=English-Turkmen political dictionary|author=Хатамова, Р. К. (Розыхал Кабуловна)|oclc=290644615}}</ref> singing songs, and listening to speeches.{{sfn|Berger|2006}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}{{sfn|Varon|2004}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}{{sfn|Jacobs|1997}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}<ref name="ThaiJones">Jones, ''A Radical Line: From the Labor Movement to the Weather Underground, One Family's Century of Conscience,'' 2004.</ref><ref name="Elbaum">Elbaum, ''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che,'' 2002.</ref>

The War Council ended with a major speech by John Jacobs. Jacobs condemned the "pacifism" of white middle-class American youth, a belief which he claimed they held because they were insulated from the violence which afflicted blacks and the poor. He predicted a successful revolution, and declared that youth were moving away from passivity and apathy and toward a new high-energy culture of "depersonalization" brought about by drugs, sex, and armed revolution.{{sfn|Berger|2006}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}{{sfn|Varon|2004}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}{{sfn|Jacobs|1997}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}<ref name="ThaiJones"/><ref name="Elbaum"/> "We're against everything that's 'good and decent' in honky America," Jacobs said in his most commonly quoted statement. "We will burn and loot and destroy. We are the incubation of your mother's nightmare."{{sfn|Varon|2004|p=160}}
Two major decisions came out of the War Council. The first was to go underground and to begin a violent, armed struggle against the state without attempting to organize or mobilize a broad swath of the public. The Weather Underground hoped to create underground collectives in major cities throughout the country.{{sfn|Sale|1974}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} In fact, the Weathermen eventually created only three significant, active collectives; one in California, one in the Midwest, and one in New York City. The New York City collective was led by Jacobs and Terry Robbins, and included [[Ted Gold]], [[Kathy Boudin]], [[Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson|Cathy Wilkerson]] (Robbins's girlfriend), and [[Diana Oughton]].<ref name="Wilkerson"/> Jacobs was one of Robbins's biggest supporters, and pushed the Weathermen to let Robbins be as violent as he wanted to be. The Weatherman national leadership agreed, as did the New York City collective.<ref>Good, "Brian Flanagan Speaks," ''Next Left Notes,'' 2005.</ref> The collective's first target was Judge John Murtagh, who was overseeing the trial of the "Panther 21".<ref name="Bingham2016">{{cite book|author=Clara Bingham|title=Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZhVCgAAQBAJ&pg=PR17|date=2016|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-679-64474-3|pages=17–}}</ref>

The second major decision was the dissolution of SDS. After the summer of 1969 fragmentation of SDS, Weatherman's adherents explicitly claimed themselves the ''real leaders'' of SDS and retained control of the SDS National Office. Thereafter, any leaflet, label, or logo bearing the name "Students for a Democratic Society" (SDS) was in fact the views and politics of Weatherman, not of the slate elected by Progressive Labor. Weatherman contained the vast majority of former SDS National Committee members, including [[Mark Rudd]], [[David Gilbert (activist)|David Gilbert]], [[Vernon T. Grizzard (SDS VP)|Vernon T. Grizzard]] and Bernardine Dohrn. The group, while small, was able to commandeer the mantle of SDS and all of its membership lists, but with Weatherman in charge there was little or no support from local branches or members of the organization,<ref>Pages 184 and 190, Rudd, Mark, ''My Life with SDS and the Weathermen Underground'', William Morrow (2009), hardcover, 326 pages, {{ISBN|978-0-06-147275-6}}</ref><ref>Pages 127 and 136 in the essay "1969" by Carl Oglesby in ''Weatherman'', edited by Harold Jacobs, Ramparts Press (1970), trade paperback, 520 pages, {{ISBN|0-671-20725-3}} {{ISBN|978-0-671-20725-0}} Hardcover: {{ISBN|0-87867-001-7}} {{ISBN|978-0-87867-001-7}}</ref> and local chapters soon disbanded. At the War Council, the Weathermen had decided to close the SDS National Office, ending the major campus-based organization of the 1960s which at its peak was a mass organization with 100,000 members.{{sfn|Varon|2004|pp=158–171}}

===Ideology===
The thesis of Weatherman theory, as expounded in its founding document, ''You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows'', was that "the main struggle going on in the world today is between U.S. imperialism and the national liberation struggles against it",<ref>Page 40 [http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1a.pdf ''You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows''] This unabridged copy of ''You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows'' is part of an extensive [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] production made by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI).</ref> based on [[Leninism#Imperialism|Lenin's theory of imperialism]], first expounded in 1916 in ''[[Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism]]''. In Weatherman theory "oppressed peoples" are the creators of the wealth of empire, "and it is to them that it belongs." "The goal of revolutionary struggle must be the control and use of this wealth in the interest of the oppressed peoples of the world." "The goal is the destruction of U.S. imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism"<ref>Page 41 [https://vault.fbi.gov/Weather%20Underground%20%28Weathermen%29/Weather%20Underground%20%28Weathermen%29%20Part%201%20of%206/view ''FBI Files: Weatherman Underground Summary Dated 08/20/1976'']</ref>

The Vietnamese and other third world countries, as well as third world people within the United States play a vanguard role. They "set the terms for class struggle in America&nbsp;...".<ref>Pages 42 and 43 [http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1a.pdf ''You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows'']</ref> The role of the "Revolutionary Youth Movement" is to build a centralized organization of revolutionaries, a "Marxist–Leninist Party" supported by a mass revolutionary movement to support international liberation movements and "open another battlefield of the revolution."<ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1a.pdf ''You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows''], p. 46</ref><ref>[http://martinrealm.org/documents/radical/sixties1.html]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091104100749/http://martinrealm.org/documents/radical/sixties1.html|date=November 4, 2009}}</ref>

The theoretical basis of the Revolutionary Youth Movement was an insight that most of the American population, including both students and the supposed "middle class," comprised, due to their relationship to the instruments of production, the [[working class]],<ref>''Flying Close to the Sun'', Cathy Wilkerson, Seven Stories Press (2007), hardcover, 422 pages, {{ISBN|978-1-58322-771-8}}, pp. 113, 114</ref> thus the organizational basis of the SDS, which had begun in the elite colleges and had been extended to public institutions as the organization grew could be extended to youth as a whole including students, those serving in the military, and the unemployed. Students could be viewed as workers gaining skills prior to employment. This contrasted to the Progressive Labor view which viewed students and workers as being in separate categories which could ally, but should not jointly organize.<ref>"More on the Youth Movement" by Jim Mellen in ''Weatherman'', edited by Harold Jacobs, Ramparts Press (1970), trade paperback, 520 pages, pp. 39–49, {{ISBN|0-671-20725-3}} {{ISBN|978-0-671-20725-0}} Hardcover: {{ISBN|0-87867-001-7}} {{ISBN|978-0-87867-001-7}}</ref>

FBI analysis of the travel history of the founders and initial followers of the organization emphasized contacts with foreign governments, particularly the Cuban and North Vietnamese and their influence on the ideology of the organization. Participation in the [[Venceremos Brigade]], a program which involved U.S. students volunteering to work in the sugar harvest in Cuba, is highlighted as a common factor in the background of the founders of the Weather Underground, with China a secondary influence.<ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1c.pdf "Initiation of the Brigages" to "Influence of China"], pp. 13–33.</ref> This experience was cited by both Kathy Boudin and Bernardine Dohrn as a major influence on their political development.<ref>Statements in ''Underground'', a film by Emile de Antonio, Turin Film (1976) DVD Image Entertainment</ref>

Terry Robbins took the organization's name from the lyrics of the [[Bob Dylan]] song "[[Subterranean Homesick Blues]],"<ref>{{cite book|title=The Sixties Chronicle|author=Peter Braunstein |publisher=Legacy Publishing|page=435|year=2004|isbn=1-4127-1009-X}}</ref> which featured the lyrics "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." The lyrics had been quoted at the bottom of an influential essay in the SDS newspaper, ''New Left Notes''. By using this title the Weathermen meant, partially, to appeal to the segment of U.S. youth inspired to action for [[social justice]] by Dylan's songs.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Isserman|first1=Maurice|title=Weather Reports|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/weather-reports|website=TheNation|date=January 24, 2008|access-date=February 23, 2015|archive-date=February 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223212010/http://www.thenation.com/article/weather-reports}}</ref>

The Weatherman group had long held that [[Militant|militancy]] was becoming more important than [[nonviolence|nonviolent]] forms of [[Anti-war movement|anti-war]] action, and that university campus-based demonstrations needed to be punctuated with more dramatic actions, which had the potential to interfere with the U.S. military and [[List of intelligence agencies#United States|internal security apparatus]]. The belief was that these types of [[Urban guerrilla warfare|urban guerrilla]] actions would act as a catalyst for the coming revolution. Many international events indeed seemed to support the Weathermen's overall assertion that [[world revolution|worldwide revolution]] was imminent, such as the tumultuous [[Cultural Revolution]] in China; the [[May 68|1968 student revolts in France]], [[Tlatelolco massacre|Mexico City]] and elsewhere; the [[Prague Spring]]; the [[Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association]]; the emergence of the [[Tupamaros]] organization in [[Uruguay]]; the emergence of the [[Guinea-Bissauan Revolution]] and similar [[Marxist]]-led independence movements throughout Africa; and within the United States, the prominence of the Black Panther Party, together with a series of "ghetto rebellions" throughout poor [[African Americans|black]] neighborhoods across the country.<ref>Lader, Lawrence. Power on the Left. (New York City: W W Norton, 1979.) p. 192</ref>

{{blockquote|We felt that doing nothing in a period of repressive violence is itself a form of violence. That's really the part that I think is the hardest for people to understand. If you sit in your house, live your white life and go to your white job, and allow the country that you live in to murder people and to commit [[genocide]], and you sit there and you don't do anything about it, that's violence.|[[Naomi Jaffe]]<ref name="The Weather Underground"/>}}

The Weathermen were outspoken critics of the concepts that later came to be known as "[[white privilege]]" (described as white-skin privilege) and [[identity politics]].<ref>Page 249, Bernardine Dorn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones, editors, ''Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiqués of the Weather Underground'', Seven Stories Press (2006), trade paperback, 390 pages, {{ISBN|978-1-58322-726-8}} Reprinted from ''Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism: Political Statement of the Weather Underground''</ref><ref> "More on the Youth Movement" by Jim Mellen in ''Weatherman'', edited by Harold Jacobs, Ramparts Press (1970), trade paperback, 520 pages, p. 42, {{ISBN|978-0-671-20725-0}} Hardcover: {{ISBN|978-0-87867-001-7}}.</ref> As the [[civil disorder]] in poor black neighborhoods intensified in the early 1970s, Bernardine Dohrn said, "White youth must choose sides ''now.'' They must either fight on the side of the oppressed or be on the side of the oppressor."<ref name="The Weather Underground"/>

The Weathermen called for the overthrow of the United States government.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JDZ7DwAAQBAJ&q=weather+underground+overthrow+government&pg=PT173|title=Pursuing Justice: Traditional and Contemporary Issues in Our Communities and the World|first1=Ralph A.|last1=Weisheit|first2=Frank|last2=Morn|date=2018|publisher=Routledge|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0-429-75339-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5r4CgAAQBAJ&q=weather+underground+overthrow+government&pg=PA177|title=The Psychology of Radicalization and Terrorism|first1=Willem|last1=Koomen|first2=Joop Van Der|last2=Pligt|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1-317-67703-1}}</ref>

===Anti-imperialism, anti-racism, and white privilege===
Weather maintained that their stance differed from the rest of the movements at the time in the sense that they predicated their critiques on the notion that they were engaged in "an anti-imperialist, anti-racist struggle".{{sfn|Jacobs|1997|p=135}} Weather put the ''international'' [[proletariat]] at the center of their political theory. Weather warned that other political theories, including those addressing class interests or youth interests, were "bound to lead in a racist and chauvinist direction".{{sfn|Jacobs|1997|p=135}} Weather denounced other political theories of the time as "objectively racist" if they did not side with the international proletariat; such political theories, they argued, needed to be "smashed".<ref>{{cite book|last=Harolds|first=Jacob|title=Weatherman|year=1970|publisher=Ramparts Press|isbn=0-671-20725-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/weatherman00jaco/page/113 113]|url=https://archive.org/details/weatherman00jaco/page/113}}</ref><ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1a.pdf ''You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows''], p. 7.</ref>

Members of Weather further contended that efforts at "organizing whites against their own perceived oppression" were "attempts by whites to carve out even more privilege than they already derive from the imperialist nexus".{{sfn|Jacobs|1997|p=135}} Weather's political theory sought to make every struggle an anti-imperialist, anti-racist struggle; out of this premise came their interrogation of critical concepts that would later be known as "white privilege". As historian Dan Berger writes, Weather raised the question "what does it mean to be a white person opposing racism and imperialism?"{{sfn|Berger|2006|p=272}}

At one point, the Weathermen adopted the belief that all white babies were "tainted with the original sin of "skin privilege", declaring "all white babies are pigs" with one Weatherwoman telling feminist poet [[Robin Morgan]] "You have no right to that pig male baby" after she saw Morgan breastfeeding her son and told Morgan to put the baby in the garbage. [[Charles Manson]] was an obsession within the group and [[Bernardine Dohrn]] claimed he truly understood the iniquity of white America, with the Manson family being praised for the [[Tate–LaBianca murders|murder of Sharon Tate]]; Dohrn's cell subsequently made its salute a four-fingered gesture that represented the "fork" used to stab Tate.<ref>Christensen, Mark. "Acid Christ: Ken Kesey, LSD and the Politics of Ecstasy". IPG, 2010, p. 264</ref><ref>Stine, Peter, ed. "The Sixties". Wayne State University Press, 1995, p. 222</ref>

===Practice===
Shortly after its formation as an independent group, Weatherman created a central committee, the Weather Bureau, which assigned its [[Cadre (politics)|cadres]] to a series of collectives in major cities. These cities included New York, Boston, [[Seattle Weather Collective|Seattle]], Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and [[Chicago]], the home of the SDS's head office. The collectives set up under the Weather Bureau drew their design from [[Che Guevara]]'s ''[[foco]]'' theory, which focused on the building of small, semi-autonomous cells guided by a central leadership.{{sfn|Varon|2004|p=57}}

To try to turn their members into hardened revolutionaries and to promote solidarity and cohesion, members of collectives engaged in intensive criticism sessions which attempted to reconcile their prior and current activities to Weathermen doctrine. These "[[Self-criticism (Marxism–Leninism)|criticism self-criticism]]" sessions (also called "CSC" or "Weatherfries") were the most distressing part of life in the collective. Derived from Maoist techniques, it was intended to root out racist, individualist and chauvinist tendencies within group members. At its most intense, members would be berated for a dozen or more hours non-stop about their flaws. It was intended to make group members believe that they were, deep down, white supremacists by subjecting them to constant criticism to break them down. The sessions were used to ridicule and bully those who didn't agree with the party line and force them into acceptance. However, the sessions were also almost entirely successful at purging potential informants from the Weathermen's ranks, making them crucial to the Weathermen's survival as an underground organization.{{sfn|Eckstein|2016|pp=76–77}} The Weathermen were also determined to destroy "bourgeois individualism" amongst members that would potentially interfere with their commitment to both the Weathermen and the goal of revolution. Personal property was either renounced or given to the collective, with income being used to purchase the needs of the group and members enduring spartan living conditions. Conventional comforts were forbidden, and the leadership was exalted, giving them immense power over their subordinates (in some collectives the leadership could even dictate personal decisions such as where one went). Martial arts were practiced and occasional [[direct action]]s were engaged in. Critical of monogamy, they launched a "smash monogamy" campaign, in which couples (whose affection was deemed unacceptably possessive, counterrevolutionary or even selfish) were to be split apart; collectives underwent forced rotation of sex partners (including allegations that some male leaders rotated women between collectives in order to sleep with them) and in some cases engaged in sexual orgies.<ref> [[Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson|Cathy Wilkerson]], ''Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman'', Seven Stories Press (2007), hardcover, 422 pages, {{ISBN|978-1-58322-771-8}}, pp. 266–282.</ref><ref>Staughton Lynd, ''From Here to There: The Staughton Lynd Reader'', PM Press (2010), paperback, 305 pages, p. 110.</ref>{{sfn|Varon|2004|pp=57–60}}{{sfn|Eckstein|2016|pp=76–77}} This formation continued during 1969 and 1970 until the group went underground and a more relaxed lifestyle was adopted as the group blended into the [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]].<ref>[[Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson|Cathy Wilkerson]], ''Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman'', pp. 352–353, Seven Stories Press (2007), hardcover, 422 pages, {{ISBN|978-1-58322-771-8}}</ref>

Life in the collectives could be particularly hard for women, who made up about half the members. Their political awakening had included a growing awareness of sexism, yet they often found that men took the lead in political activities and discussion, with women often engaging in domestic work, as well as finding themselves confined to second-tier leadership roles. Certain feminist political beliefs had to be disavowed or muted and the women had to prove, regardless of prior activist credentials, that they were as capable as men in engaging in political action as part of "women's cadres", which were felt to be driven by coerced machismo and failed to promote genuine solidarity amongst the women. While the Weathermen's sexual politics did allow women to assert desire and explore relationships with each other, it also made them vulnerable to sexual exploitation.{{sfn|Varon|2004|pp=59–60}}

===Recruitment===
Weather used various means by which to recruit new members and set into motion a nationwide revolt against the government. Weather members aimed to mobilize people into action against the established leaders of the nation and the patterns of injustice which existed in America and abroad due to America's presence overseas. They also aimed to convince people to resist reliance upon their given privilege and to rebel and take arms if necessary. According to Weatherman, if people tolerated the unjust actions of the state, they became complicit in those actions. In the manifesto compiled by [[Bill Ayers]], [[Bernardine Dohrn]], [[Jeff Jones (activist)|Jeff Jones]], and Celia Sojourn, entitled "Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism," Weatherman explained that their intention was to encourage the people and provoke leaps in confidence and consciousness in an attempt to stir the imagination, organize the masses, and join in the people's day-to-day struggles in every way possible.<ref name=Ayers>Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers. and Jeff Jones, editors (2006). Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiqués of the Weather Underground, 1970–1974. New York: Seven Stories Press. {{ISBN|1-58322-726-1}}. p. 239.</ref>

In the year 1960, over a third of America's population was under 18 years of age. The number of young citizens set the stage for a widespread revolt against perceived structures of racism, sexism, and classism, the violence of the Vietnam War and America's interventions abroad. At college campuses throughout the country, anger against "the Establishment's" practices prompted both peaceful and violent protest.<ref name=PBS>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/weatherunderground|title=The Weather Underground |publisher=Independent Lens<!-- (c) 2017 Independent Television Service (ITVS) --> |website=Pbs.org |access-date=December 15, 2018}}</ref>
The members of Weatherman targeted high school and college students, assuming they would be willing to rebel against the authoritative figures who had oppressed them, including cops, principals, and bosses.{{sfn|Berger|2006|p=99}} Weather aimed to develop roots within the class struggle, targeting white working-class youths. The younger members of the working class became the focus of the organizing effort because they felt the oppression strongly in regard to the military draft, low-wage jobs, and schooling.{{sfn|Jacobs|1997|p=19}}

Schools became a common place of recruitment for the movement. In direct actions, dubbed [[Weather High School Jailbreaks|Jailbreaks]], Weather members invaded educational institutions as a means by which to recruit high school and college students. The motivation of these jailbreaks was the organization's belief that school was where the youth were oppressed by the system and where they learned to tolerate society's faults instead of rise against them. According to "Prairie Fire", young people are channeled, coerced, misled, miseducated, misused in the school setting. It is in schools that the youth of the nation become alienated from the authentic processes of learning about the world.<ref name=Dohrn>Dohrn, Bernardine. ''Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970–1974''. Seven Stories Press. 2006. p. 370.</ref>

Factions of the Weatherman organization began recruiting members by applying their own strategies. Women's groups such as The Motor City Nine and [[Cell 16]] took the lead in various recruitment efforts. [[Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz]], a member of the radical women's liberation group Cell 16 spoke about her personal recruitment agenda saying that she wanted their group to go out in every corner of the country and tell women the truth, recruit the local people, poor and working-class people, in order to build a new society.<ref>Ortiz, Roxanne Dunbar. ''Outlaw woman: a memoir of the war years, 1960–1975''. San Francisco, CA. City Lights: 2001. p. 154</ref>

Berger explains the controversy surrounding recruitment strategies saying, "As an organizing strategy it was less than successful: white working class youths were more alienated than organized by Weather's spectacles, and even some of those interested in the group were turned off by its early hi-jinks."{{sfn|Berger|2006|p=113}}

====Armed propaganda====
In 2006, Dan Berger (writer, activist, and longtime anti-racism organizer){{sfn|Berger|2006}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} states that following their initial set of bombings, which resulted in the [[Greenwich Village townhouse explosion]], the organization adopted a new paradigm of direct action set forth in the communiqué ''[[New Morning, Changing Weather]]'', which abjured attacks on people.{{sfn|Berger|2006}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} The shift in the organization's outlook was in good part due to the 1970 death of Weatherman [[Terry Robbins]], [[Diana Oughton]] and [[Ted Gold]], all graduate students, in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion.{{sfn|Varon|2004|p=174}}

According to Dan Berger a relatively sophisticated program of [[armed propaganda]] was adopted. This consisted of a series of bombings of government and corporate targets in retaliation for specific imperialist and oppressive acts. Small, well-constructed [[time bomb]]s were used, generally in vents in restrooms, which exploded at times the spaces were empty. Timely warnings were made, and communiqués issued explaining the reason for the actions.{{sfn|Berger|2006|pp=148–154}}