Barack Obama isn't the only community organizer in Chicago. It turns out that Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dorhn were members of Students for a Democratic Society.
In the above FBI wanted poster, the caption reads: "The persons shown here are active members of the militant Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society - SDS".
Oddly enough Barack Obama's message of bringing "Change" to America is not new.
Here are two "campaign" buttons created by Students for a Democratic Society:
The button reads: "students for a democratic society THERE'S A CHANGE GONNA COME"
Updated:
Bernardine Dohrn had served as Inter-organizational Secretary for Students for a Democratic Society from 1968-69.
Bill Ayers had served as Education Secretary for Students for a Democratic Society from 1969-70.
This book about the SDS reveals more information.
Another book reveals this information:
Bill Ayers was later to remark: "We were talking the other night and we realized that all our heroes are dead. Wow, what a trip! Ch, Nguyen Van Troi, the Vietnamese who tried to get McNamara. We're running their pictures in our paper with the line 'Live Like Him!' and they've all been killed. Outtasight, man. We've got a new slogan for the people that are going down to help with the sugar harvest: 'Cuba is for the Living!' " Ayers' remarks typify Weatherman's tendency to define its situation in terms of extremes.
Building socialism in Cuba is for the living; overthrowing American imperialism is a death trip. Weatherman, as early as the action in the streets of Chicago, already had begun to live in the shadow of death. Not long after the "Days of Rage," Weatherman would compensate for its death trip mentality with hedonistic orgies. Like a pendulum, moving from one extreme to the other, Weatherman swung from death trips to life trips to death trips.
Bill Ayers is quoted in an article by John Kifner, "Vandals in the Mother Country," New York Times Magazine, January 4, 1970.
Added Archived Documents (discusses Ayers and Dorhn):
The New Left
Diana, the Making of a Terrorist
77
Thursday night, November 13, Bill Ayers and two other Weathermen went to the headquarters of the Moratorium (an organization of former McCarthy people particularly detested by young revolutionaries) and, in effect, tried to shake down the group for $20,000. In return for this token of "fraternal solidarity," Ayers said. Weatherman would make no attempt to turn Saturday's rally into a blood bath. The demand was never presented in so many words, and Sam Brown never acknowledged it by refusing it outright, but those present had no doubt they were witnessing a shakedown attempt. At one point during the vague but threatening conversation Ayers was asked what the Weatherman program was.
"Kill all the rich people," he answered. "Break up their cars and apartments."
"But aren't your parents rich?" he was asked.
"Yeah," Ayers said. "Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at."
...
The vision of the Weathermen was almost messianic in its intensity. Like Christians who can see the hand of God in history, leading inevitably to the Judgment, the Weathermen could see the unfolding of Marxian dialectic, leading inevitably to the revolution. The necessity of revolution is rooted in the natural order, they felt; it's as much a part of the way things are as the life and death of men, or of planets.
Source: Diana, the making of a Terrorist
Photos
Bill Ayers (center in shorts and checkered shirt) joins in the singing of the "Internationale" at the 1968 national convention of SDS held at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Bill Ayers, one of the three national officers elected by the Weatherman faction of SDS.
Bernadine Dohrn, shown here addessing a rally in Chicago in September of 1969.
SDS Convention, June 1969. Bernardine Dohrn speaks to the anti PL delegates prior to official split with PL.
Archived Documents:
Students for a Democratic Society - SDS guide to Community Organizing (PDF File)
* Port Huron Statement
* You Don't Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows (NLN, June 18, 1969)
* Toward A Revolutionary Women's Militia By Cathy Wilkerson (NLN, July 8, 1969)
* Fire! - Volume 1, Number 3, December 6, 1969
* Weather Communique Number 1
* Weather Communique Number 2
* Weather Communique Number 3
* Weather Communique Number 4
* Osawatomie Number Two
* Weatherman Wanted Poster
* FBI Files: Diana Oughton (part 1 - pdf, FOIA release)
* FBI Files: Diana Oughton (part 2 - pdf, FOIA release)
* FBI Files: Diana Oughton (part 3 - pdf, FOIA release)
* FBI Files: Diana Oughton (part 4 - pdf, FOIA release)
* FBI Files: Weatherman (part 1a - pdf, FOIA release)
* FBI Files: Weatherman (part 1b - pdf, FOIA release)
* FBI Files: Weatherman (part 1c - pdf, FOIA release)
* FBI Files: Weatherman (part 2a - pdf, FOIA release)
* FBI Files: Weatherman (part 2b - pdf, FOIA release)
* FBI Files: Weatherman (part 2c - pdf, FOIA release)
New SDS and Other Resources:
* Bernardine Dohrn on Homeland Imperialism
* SDS/WUO Archive at Revolt dot org
* The Weather Underground - PBS Documentary
The Weatherman Songbook
Red Party (page 204)
(to the tune of "Dream Lover")
Every fight we lead astray
With no Red Party to show the way
With a line that we can use
To organize the fighting youth
Chorus:
Because we need a party to lead the fight
We need a Red Party
So we can learn to struggle right
Red Party fights to win
When we off pigs we wear a grin
We know from where the power comes
And the Party is the gun
Chorus
Someday from me and you
A Red Party will rise again
Someday I know it's true
It'll lead our RYM
When the Party needs some bread
Another banker winds up dead
Red Party likes to loot
But then again we prefer to shoot
Chorus
Spoken:
In 1902 Vladimir Illitch Lenin said that
The Social Democratic parties of Western Europe
Were like radishes red on the outside
And white on the inside
Oh, Chicago (page 205)
(to the tune of "Oh, Donna")
Chorus:
Oh Chicago, Off the Pig
Oh Chicago, Off the Pig
There once was a town, Chicago was its name
Since we went there, it's never been the same
Cause we offed that town
Chicago, brought it down
To the ground
Down to the ground
Chorus
Red Party's coming soon
We kicked the radish out last June
And now we know the time is near
When our Red Party will be here
Chorus
Red Army brought Chicago down
When we were just gettin' off the ground
Now Washington has shown the way
The Red Army is here to stay
Because we need a Red Army to win the fight
We need a Red Army
So we can lead the struggle right
When the Action started, Elrod's face was red
When it was over, the town had lost its head
The jails were all freed, the pigs were on their knees
Beggin' please
Please don't off me
Chorus
Chicago, now that you're through
In November, DC it went too
And as the panic hits the Kys and the Thieus
The ruling class will know its days are few
(Repeat first verse with Chorus.)
Developing...
*
