The Weather Underground: a Marxist critique of left-wing terrorism
Introduced by student socialist activist and climate campaigner, Anneke Demanuele.
Student radicals stormed the political scene throughout the 60s, protesting against the Vietnam war and in solidarity with freedom fighters around the world. Students saw themselves as revolutionaries who were going to take down ‘the man’ and the US state. A section of these protesters turned to acts of violence and terror as a strategy to accelerate and win the revolution. Marxists are not pacifists. But we oppose terrorism and acts of individual violence as a strategy for change. This session will discuss the politics of despair that informs these actions as well as the political context of the late 60s and early 70s.
Readings
The Weather Underground documentary - https://www.kanopy.com/product/weather-underground-0
Trotsky on individual terrorism - https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1911/11/tia09.htm
Shaun Harkin on Marxism and terrorism, examples of weather underground and IRA - https://socialistworker.org/2012/05/30/marxism-versus-terrorism
Chapter 3 of Revolution in the Air