Editing Weather Underground (section)

===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}}