Editing Weather Underground (section)

===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also refused to be drawn into actions that appeared like [[red-baiting]], which they viewed as mostly irrelevant and out of date.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>