weatherrhetoric

speaking to extremes in support of a righteous cause

robert e g black

weatherrhetoric
speaking to extremes in support of a righteous cause
robert e g black

structure of paper
part one : same rhetoric, different day
Whenever there are guns and bombs, the line narrows between politics and terror,
between rebellion and gangsterism. Bill Ayers, Fugitive Days (p. 271)

part two : the ego-function of mind bombs

We were in communication. Bill Ayers, Fugitive Days (p. 227)

part three : what historians wont talk about

Memory is a motherfucker. Bill Ayers, Fugitive Days (p. 7)

part four : the flint war council as it was

...the excessive rhetoric of revolutiontwo parts intellectual exercise, one part
armor-piercing humor. - Bill Ayers, Fugitive Days (p. 153)

thesis:
Weathermans rhetoric
and Weathermans
bombs served the
same purpose

part five : from violent rhetoric to rhetorical violence

Theres something about a good bomb. - Bill Ayers, Fugitive Days (p. 17)

part six : penses

I dont regret setting bombs... I feel we didnt do enough. - Bill Ayers to Smith (2001, E1)

part seven : references

I acknowledge a blood debt to all those who traveled these fugitive roads with
me and whose stories Ive interpreted here. - Bill Ayers, Fugitive Days (p. 305)

SDSWeatherman Timeline
January 1960 SDS formed
June 1962 Port Huron Statement
By December 1962 11,300 US military personnel in Vietnam
November 1963 John Kennedy assassinated
By December 1963 16,300 US military personnel in Vietnam
August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
By December 1964 23,300 US military personnel in Vietnam, 260 killed
21 February 1965 Malcolm X assassinated
11-16 August 1965 Watts uprising
By December 1965 184,000 US military personnel in Vietnam, 1,300 killed
December 1966 SDS adopts slogan from protest to resistance
By December 1966 385,000 US military personnel in Vietnam, 5,000 killed
16 October 1967 Stop the Draft Week, police beat demonstrators in Oakland
22 October 1967 50,000+ protesters ring the Pentagon
By December 1967 485,000 US military personnel in Vietnam, 9,300 killed
30 January 1968 Tet Offensive, Vietnam violence airs on US news
7 February 1968 police open fire on black protestors at South Carolina State College, killing 3, wounding
33
4 April 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
6 April 1968 16-year-old Bobby Hutton (youngest Black Panther member) killed by Oakland police
23 April 1968 Riot police drag protestors away at Columbia University
5 June 1968 Robert Kennedy assassinated
9-15 June 1968 SDS national convention, Bernardine Dohrn elected Inter-organizational Secretary
25-30 August 1968 Police Riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
By December 1968 536,000 US military personnel in Vietnam, 14,500 killed
18 June 1969 You Dont Need a Weatherman to Know which Way the Wind Blows

Weatherman took its name from a line in

Bob Dylans Subterranean Homesick Blues

aim of my research
demonstrate that Weathermans bombs and
Weathermans words were one and the same
outwardly
DeLucas (1999) image event / mind
bomb
inwardly
Lakes (1983) constitutive function and
Greggs (1971) ego-function of protest
rhetoric

aim of my research
demonstrate that Weathermans bombs and
Weathermans words were one and the same
outwardly
DeLucas (1999) image event / mind
bomb
inwardly
Lakes (1983) constitutive function and
Greggs (1971) ego-function of protest
rhetoric

aim of my research
demonstrate that Weathermans bombs and
Weathermans words were one and the same
outwardly
DeLucas (1999) image event / mind
bomb
inwardly
Lakes (1983) constitutive function and
Greggs (1971) ego-function of protest
rhetoric
ego-formation
ego-denial
ego-maintenance

8-11 October 1969 Days of Rage protest in Chicago

4 December 1969 Fred Hampton and Mark Clark assassinated
27-30 December 1969 Flint War Council
By December 1969 475,000* US military personnel in Vietnam, 9,400 killed in 1969 alone

8-11 October 1969 Days of Rage protest in Chicago

4 December 1969 Fred Hampton and Mark Clark assassinated
27-30 December 1969 Flint War Council
By December 1969 475,000* US military personnel in Vietnam, 9,400 killed in 1969 alone

8-11 October 1969 Days of Rage protest in Chicago

4 December 1969 Fred Hampton and Mark Clark assassinated
27-30 December 1969 Flint War Council
By December 1969 475,000* US military personnel in Vietnam, 9,400 killed in 1969 alone

Dig it! First they killed those

pigs, then they ate dinner in
the same room with them.
They even shoved a fork into
the victims stomach! Wild!

Former undercover FBI Agent Larry Grathwohl

on Weatherman at its most extreme:

BLOOD
TO THE
HORSES
BROW,
AND WOE
TO

6 March 1970

Three of its members

deadthis was
Weathermans
gutcheck

21 May 1970
Weatherman issues its
first communiqu
A Declaration of a State
of War

10 May 1970 - 3 February

1977 Weatherman is
responsible for anywhere
from 15 to 25 bombings. no
one is killed

example of communiqu/bombing pairing:

capitol building, 28 February 1971

The Nixon regime is now attempting the

brutal conquest of yet another nation in
Indochina. Lies about the war winding
down cannot hide the criminal invasion
of Laos
We have attacked the Capitol because it
is, along with the White House and the
Pentagon, the worldwide symbol of the
government which is now attacking
Indochina
The men who are running this war are a
new vicious breed of murderers.