<snip>
How Can You Do Nothing? The Weather Underground Bring the War Home
The Weather Underground
Directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel
Fugitive Days
By Bill Ayers
Diana: The Making of a Terrorist
By Thomas Powers
Reviewed by Catherine MacLennan
In history books dealing with the 1960s/70s, the Weather Underground (or Weatherman, Weathermen, Weather People) is either omitted altogether or dismissed in a sentence or two. Sam Green and Bill Siegel attempt to fill this gap in contemporary American history with their documentary The Weather Underground.
The Weather Underground emerged out of a radicalized splinter of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). As the Vietnam War dragged on this group gave up on peaceful protest and were determined to "bring the war home." Their "direct action" tactics consisted of street protests, disrupting classes, and bombings of "symbols or institutions of American injustice." However, despite the intensity of the rhetoric and the high level of commitment, they were largely unsuccessful. In fact, according to 60s chronicler Todd Gitlin, also featured in the film, the Weather Underground, in splitting up the SDS, destroyed the largest anti-war movement in the country and handed the right-wing/establishment a terrible, inaccurate image of the left as destructive and nihilistic.
Countless COINTELPRO documents clearly assert that those in power c were intent on destroying any and all of the progressive movement, and one of the tactics was to portray them in the worse light possible to confuse the public. A violent and destructive image of the left served their needs perfectly. For one thing, people could think about that instead of the Vietnam War or National Guard campus shootings of students. There was actually someone in the Weather Underground that "was in regular contact with the FBI" - Larry Grantwohl, one of the "most militant members"1 of the group. "Larry was absolutely a provocateur. I can remember one meeting in Cincinnati where there was a discussion going on about the question of armed political resistance and the various bombings that had occurred. Grantwohl took the initiative as was his wont and began castigating people for talking about the destruction of property; he said it wasn't enough to carry on these kinds of bombings. 'True revolutionaries,' he said, 'had to be ready and anxious to kill people.'"2
<more>
<link>
http://www.thelamp.ca/film/index.php?id=27Gee, this sounds like Groundhog's Day, the movie.
Mark Felt just may be wondering if his soul will be allowed into heaven. I can hear it now:
St Peter: Alright Mr Felt, just what did you do with your life on earth that makes you think you should be allowed into heaven?
Mark Felt: I brought down the most corrupt, crooked administration that the United States had known and forced Richard Nixon to resign and become politically impotent till the day he died.
St Peter: Richard Nixon is not here Mr. Felt. He is.......well you know the alternative, right? So, what else did you do that was good enough to get you into heaven, Mark?
Mark Felt: I came clean after all those years of keeping a national secret that I was the notorious Deep Throat, because I wanted to become a hero in the minds of the American people.
St Peter: But Richard Nixon told me that he was the notorious Deep Throat and because it was such a secret, I had to believe him and when God was told, Nixon ended up in hell! Now we will have to correct that.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
