Editing Weather Underground (section)

===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>