The Way the Wind Blew Cover

Order from Verso Press
The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground
by Ron Jacobs
Verso Press, London & New York, 1997.

Dedicated to those who gave their lives and freedom in the struggle against racism and imperial war.

   What follows is an evaluation of Weather's influence on the U.S. Left by the author of The Way the Wind Blew. This was originally part of the book, but was Left out in the later drafts when he and his editor determined that the goal of the book should be history first, with any evaluation to come later and from the perspectives of the readers.
    Anyhow, for discussion, here it is.

- Ron Jacobs

   The major contribution of Weatherman/WUO to the Left in the United States was its insistence on the importance of racism in the U.S. experience and a persistent emphasis on internationalism and its complement, anti-imperialism. The Left continues to maintain the importance of these phenomenon on the American mindset. The existence of past and present solidarity movements in support of Nicaragua, South Africa, and El Salvador, and Chiapas, to name a few, while clearly evidence of an internationalist analysis, also seem to underscore the belief that fundamental changes in the United States will occur only when enough of its neo-colonies have fallen. This perception was a basic tenet of Weather's founding statement, You Don't Need a Weatherman....

    Although corporate and government attacks on the labor movement since the Nixon regime have increased substantially, some Left activists still continue to ignore in their organizing the necessary role labor must take in order for change to take place. While issues of imperialism, race, and gender cannot be dismissed if we are to effect true change in this country, neither can the workers. Weather's distrust (some might call it contempt) of the US working class led it to conclude wrongly that labor support was unnecessary to bring about fundamental social change. Their analysis and practice in this area resulted from their experiences in the new Left -- a Left movement derived from a different constituency than the old U.S. Left it tried so hard not to imitate. Also apparent was a failure to recognize early on that the U.S. workforce was no longer just white males in the mold of the TV character Archie Bunker (from the CBS show All in the Family).

    By the time the early Seventies arrived, however, it was apparent that labor support was essential. Recognizing this, groups like the Revolutionary Union and the October League romanticized the caricature of the workers represented by Archie Bunker while, on the other hand, Weather, the Yippies, women's groups, and other New Left organizations, maintained th