Joshua McGee

HNR 135 A

Dr. Lisa Peloquin

13 May 2010

SDS and the WUO: Critical Research Analysis and Proposed Research

Critical Research Analysis Introduction

During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s members of what is called the “Baby Boomer”

Generation started to become young adults, and attend colleges across the nation. These post-

WWII children flooded collegiate campuses, creating hotbeds with ideas, concepts, and activism.

The Vietnam War proved to be an extremely controversial military conflict, and these campuses

proved to be the epicenters of strong activism, discussion, and uprising among young adults.

Two very influential organizations that were part of this student-activism movement were the

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Weather Underground Organization (also

named the Weathermen, the Weather Underground, etc.) (WUO). These two student activist

groups that aligned themselves with the New Left movement of the 1960s and 1970’s have many

similarities, but also have a number of differences. There is much research on these two

organizations, and there seems to be an emphasis on personal stories and interviews throughout

this material. This qualitative data is able to highlight the complexities and experiences within

these two major organizations.

The New Left Overview

Before examining such important social movements such as the SDS or WUO, it is

necessary to briefly discuss the sociological surroundings that encompassed these two
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organizations. It is important to note that the WUO was created by many former members of the

SDS. During the summer of 1969, the SDS began to break down, and a faction of SDS members,

known as the Weathermen began to form their own agenda and organizational structure. The

New Left, and the Vietnam was were two huge subjects that were key factors for these two

organizations. The resource “Democracy’s Children: The Young Rebels of the 1960’s and the

Power of Ideals” by Edward K. Spann is a very comprehensive resource that discusses the

dynamic youth of this time. The Vietnam War, New Left Movement, and counterculture

Movement are especially important when studying student activism during this time.

As mentioned by Spann, the American youth was greatly affected by the Vietnam War

(80-82). Of the 53 Million who turned 19 between 1964 and 1973, more than 8 million of them

served in the military, and thousands of them died in war. Studies were released at them time that

concluded that poorer American youth were 3 times more likely to die in the war than more

privileged youth. Many were recruited during the draft, which exempted individuals who

attended colleges, making poorer citizens more vulnerable to the draft. Many students protested

for and against the war, and many of these protested centered on college campuses.

The concept of the “New Left” brought many prominent student activists together. The

New Left claimed that they attempted to reach back to a tradition of utopian concepts, while the

Old Left had simply relied on Marxists concepts to drive their political views. As mentioned by

Spann, “the new Left provided a welcomed sense of community and a belief that they had found

a worthy channel for their talents.” (63-64)

During the effort to fight against the large established institution of the American

government, many student activists felt like a defiance of common cultural norms would be an

effective way to further their cause on the important issues such as civil rights, and an unjust war
 McGee 3

(104-117). This counterculture movement led thousands of individuals to seek out “counter-

cultural” dress, gender norms, music, and art. In his chapter named “Counterculture,” these

individuals who participated in this counterculture were usually youth who simply wanted to

defy parental and cultural norms and were many times influenced by heavy narcotic drug use.

Spann does emphasize that this group of youth thought did greatly influenced students who were

politically active on their campuses.

Organization vs. Disorganization

Past research on the SDS and the WUO has discussed the issue of internal organization.

Sociologists such as John McCarthy and Mayer Zald stress in their Resource Mobilization theory

that rigid organization is needed in order for a Social Movement to be effective. McCarthy and

Zald state that Social Movements should be run like businesses in order to incite change within

societies, complete with concrete marketing, distribution, and management plans (193-210). Past

research on the two organizations are consistent in saying that the SDS was generally a very well

organized organization, but research is inconclusive when it comes to the organization of the

WUO.

In the documentary The Weather Underground, directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel, is

a great documentary, which chronologically follows the Weather Underground, while providing

a vast amount of interviews, and recordings of former WUO members. In this 2003

documentary, former members discuss how members lived in communities across the country,

and WUO members issued orders to the different communities, but made sure not to discuss with

other communities what others were doing. This form of isolation between WUO communities

ensured that the organization as a whole was immune to infiltration. If officials infiltrated one

community, they would not be able to find out about fellow WUO communities around the
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nation. In this sense, it seems like the WUO was organized enough to ensure confidentiality, and

safe communication.

An article from Vancouver Magazine can also been seen as supporting the notion that the

WUO was not very organized as an organization. The article titled “The Last Radical” talks

about the personal story of one of the leaders of the WUO, John Jacobs. After being a leader in

the SDS, Jacobs became a prominent leader in the WUO. The article explains that after a

homemade bomb accidentally exploded in NYC while Weathermen were assembling the device,

the WUO leaders unofficially decided that Jacobs should leave the WUO. This article makes it

seem like the leaders informally decided on the mandate. This alienation of a member of the

group shows that while somewhat organized, beliefs were not always commonly shared. This

inconsistency of beliefs among members resulted in the alienation of some members.

Author and researcher Dan Berger devotes an entire section of his book Outlaws of

America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity to the topic of internal

organization in the WUO. Berger states that many Left groups, including the WUO, were drawn

towards the Democratic Centralism model of organization after the fall of the SDS. Berger

explains that the WUO saw the extremely Democratic structure of the SDS, and watched as the

organization slowly fell apart as a result during 1969 and 1970 (189-190). In Democratic

Centralism, members are encouraged to debate and discuss issues among one another, but when

a decision has been made, everyone is expected to follow along and defend the policy. Berger

points out that the decision for Democratic Centralism was in order to have a strategy to win, and

not necessarily because of ideals. Berger concludes that this form of internal organization also

worked well for the WUO because officials were searching for the organization, and internal

discipline was needed in order to remain “underground” and unseen by authorities.

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In part 1 of his book, Berger discusses the SDS in depth. During this discussion, Berger

discusses some key aspects of SDS’s internal structure. The organization was an officially

recognized organization, which had chapters in colleges across the nation. SDS boasted

thousands of members on many different campuses. Berger also explains that the organization

held an annual convention every summer, with the last one being in 1969. Individual chapters

elected officers, and members elected national organization officers during conventions. Berger

discusses that because of this extremely democratic process within SDS, many agenda-driven

groups arose in SDS that attempted to steer the organization in different ways. The most well

known of these SDS factions are the Progressive Labor Party (PL) and the PL’s opponents, the

Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM). The PL and RYM battled for superiority during the

1969 convention.

In a primary document, SDS briefly mentions this internal organization. In a pamphlet

called, SDS: An Introduction distributed post-1968, the SDS explains how they were founded in

1961, and have 40,000 members and about 300 chapters on campuses across the nation. The

pamphlet mentions that SDS completely supports Democratic electoral campaigns, and even was

active in Johnson’s campaign in 1964. This strong support for the democratic process seems to

have heavily affected the internal organization of the SDS.

Violence vs. Non-Violence

The issue of violence (or lack thereof) was a very important issue for the SDS and WUO.

Research about these two student activist organizations have consistently discussed the topic of

violence, and many reach to the same conclusion: In general, while the SDS promoted non-

violence, the WUO saw violence as a viable means to a peaceful end.

Jeremy Varon’s book Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, The Red
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Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies discusses this issues

extensively in relations to the WUO. Although Varon has devoted an entire book to the violence

of the New Left, his research seems to be biased. In his intro, Varon states a personal underlying

motive:

“I seek to restore a stronger measure of rationality and moral purpose to

Weathermen and the RAF in order better to understand both their politics histories
and the complex nature of political violence more generally.” (17)

With this excerpt, we see that in his book, Varon selectively include some information while

leaving other information out if it does not support this motive. Also from this quote, we see that

Varon might believe that he has a “moral purpose” to persuade that this group is somehow

morally correct, instead of studying primary sources, and making conclusions after examining

the WUO.

In his book, Varon states that the Weathermen were many times denounced by

mainstream New Left groups for their support of violence, but Varon states that the Weathermen

saw violence as an extreme expression of ideologies and attitudes. Varon also explains that the

value of peaceful protest was being questioned, and that the Weathermen are known to begin to

see violence as a way to incite action for their cause (3).

Dan Berger in his previously mentioned book, also talks about the militant-nature of the

WUO. Berger explains that throughout research militancy has come to define the Weather

Underground. Berger explains that the Militancy of the WUO meant that they were doing what

was needed to begin change. This could mean conducting a sit-in, aiding protesters, or

strategically bombing a building (284). Berger also explains that 1969 was a major turning point

for the New Left as a whole, and the WUO saw strategic violence such as bombings, police

retaliation, and vandalism to be powerful ways of inciting change (116).

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In the interviews in the previously mentioned documentary, The Weather Underground,

former WUO members explain that they believed that citizens who allowed their country to

conduct genocide, and killing (the Vietnam War) were committing violence themselves because

of their inaction. The interviewees continued to state that citizens must do everything in their

power in order to stop this “greater violence” from continuing.

Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism was a political statement

distributed by the Weather underground in 1974, and it talks about many official stances that the

Weather Underground held as an organization. Many researchers look to this document when

studying the Weather Underground Organization, but it is important to study the ideological

commitments that this document contains that began to question the status quo. The WUO states

in this document “armed struggle brings the resistance to a sharper and deeper level of

development…armed actions push forward people’s consciousness and commitment.” From

these excerpts, we see that the Weather Underground saw violence as an option in order to make

people realize the great violence that was occurring in Vietnam and towards blacks.

Berger also discusses the non-violent nature of SDS members in Part 1 of his research.

When looking at history, SDS members saw 2 threads of successful revolutionary struggle:

Marxism and armed struggle. SDS members and early members of the new Left decided to

follow in the footsteps of domestic Third World liberation movements and strictly adhere to non-

violence. As we see here, past research seems to conclude that the SDS and the WUO differed on

their stance on violence. While the WUO saw it as a viable means to an end, the SDS attempted

to remain non-violent and try and resolve a violent situation with peace.

The Port Huron Statement was SDS’s first official document, and it lists the goals,

values, and political stances of the organization. This primary document discusses may issues,
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including non-violence. As stated before about the Prairie Fire, even though many researchers

look towards this document, it is important to directly study it in order to see how it encodes

ideological commitments to the status quo. The statement states that SDS believes that violence

changes the enemy not as a person or an organization, but as a “depersonalized object of hate.”

The statement then says that nonviolence must be strongly encouraged (13-14).

Black Power, Civil Rights, and Race

For the entire New Left movement, Civil Rights was a huge issue, and many New Left

activists looked to the struggle for racial equality as a good example of how social change can be

made. Specifically, the SDS and WUO both saw the strive for racial equality as inspiration for

their own social movements.

According to Berger, the civil rights activist group the “Black Panthers” was the main

driving force of the New Left movement in the mid-sixties (11). Also, WUO constantly began to

ask questions about race such as “what does it mean to be white and oppose racism?...How does

race affect foreign policy?” According to Berger, the WUO sought to fight white supremacy.

WUO felt like they needed to fight the thought of “white privilege” in order to destroy white

supremacy (272). Berger later quotes a former WUO member stressing the importance of civil

rights when she stated, “We felt connected to a worldwide struggle, and that was powerful.

Everything we did was being shaped by what was happening in Vietnam or in the Black Power

Movement – all these things were totally redefining the society that we lived in.” (281) Here we

see how important civil rights and black power was to the New Left Movement. Many times,

WUO and other New Left members saw being white as a negative thing, and many times

concluded that because of their whiteness, that they must do something extra to become globally

–minded people. Berger also stresses in his book that the WUO and Black Liberation Army, a
 McGee 9

powerful Black Power organization, fully supported each other’s existence and helped each other

throughout their organizations’ existences (162).

In the documentary, The Weather Underground, former WUO members discuss how

close they were to Black Power movements. During the documentary, interviewees discuss one

instance in 1969 where Chicago Police shot a Black Panther Party leader, Fred Hampton, to

death in his home. Much of the evidence lead to the conclusion that Hampton was shot in his bed

as he lay asleep. During December 1969, the Weathermen were just appearing, but were still

officially part of SDS. Members of SDS discuss in the documentary how they highly respected

Hampton as a leader, and how they supported the black community during the crisis. This shows

how the New Left movement attempted to keep very close ties with such powerful and

revolutionary groups such as the Black Panther Party.

In Prarie Fire, the WUO discuss how large the black and “Third world peoples”

community is in the U.S. According the Prarie Fire, the WUO believe that racism “is a weapon

at the command of the ruling class.” After describing how racism manifests itself in everyday

policy, the document recognizes the great flood of civil rights organizations, and gives the

WUO’s full support.

Researcher David Barber researched and wrote an entire book called, a Hard Rain Fell:

The SDS and Why It Failed which described the possible mistakes done by the SDS that led to its

fall during 1969 and 1970. As mentioned before about Varon’s research, this research seems to

be biased towards the researcher’s motive, which is to reveal the weakness of SDS, and possibly

misrepresent the strengths. In this research, Barber states that, “More often than not, SDSers took

the black movement’s style over its substance and interpreted the movement’s main demands on

white activists in ways that left white racial identity intact, if somewhat discomforted.” What
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Barber refers to is that fact that SDS (and possibly WUO) appreciated the black struggle and

forced this on white New Left protesters, thus leading to white racialization. In other words,

Barber states that the SDS and the New Left attempted to harness the spirit of the civil rights

movement, but focus it on the white community.

The SDS expresses their support for the black movement in their pamphlet SDS: An

Introduction that also was mentioned when discussing the Organization of SDS. The pamphlet

states that the SDS has always supported the struggle for “freedom and self determination” for

the black community and they encourage the growth of “black consciousness.” The SDS then

clearly states that the strongest support they can give to the black movement is “to engage

exploited whites in the struggles and values of radical politics.”

In the Port Huron Statement, the SDS devote an entire section of their declaration in

order to explain that racism still occurs in this country and that the advancement of “non-whites”

was “unavoidable.” (42) SDS also calls for discrimination to be solved not as an individual

problem, but as a problem that spans many issues such as housing, poverty, employment, etc.

(63)

View of the “Other”

As the SDS and WUO attempted to incite specific change into American society, there

was naturally groups of people who strongly disagreed with their philosophy, changes, and

viewpoint. The SDS and WUO commonly characterized their opponents in certain ways in order

to spark interest in their movement. This view of “the other” seems to be fairly consistent

throughout the New Left movement. Past research shows that the WUO and SDS in particular

characterized this “other” group as the imperialist and capitalist America.

Barber, in his book A Hard Rain Fell: SDS and Why It Failed, explains this “imperialist”
 McGee 11

view that SDS had of the American government, and the holes that existed in their philosophy.

Barber states that as the Vietnam War escalated, SDS saw America more and more as an empire.

The war provided New Left activists with the perfect context in which activists could

comprehend this philosophy. Also, New Left activists saw this “imperialist” nature when they

saw the Cold War contradiction that the United States government prided themselves as being

the “leaders of the Free World” while in reality, giving support to many anti-Communist leaders

such as Batista in the Cuban revolution. SDS saw this support for foreign conflicts as the U.S.

government not supporting the “Free World” but instead ensuring that the end results were in the

U.S.’s favor by supporting and manipulating these conflicts. Barber then explains that SDS did

not respect a lot of theoretical work that was coming out of the black community about how this

imperialism was possibly affecting all citizens. Barber also states that SDS had commonly seen

the American empire as something external from the United States. But as the Vietnam War

progressed, this assumption became less true and the SDS was not able to accurately create the

separation between the American “empire” and “nation.” (52-53) Barber gives a very good

overview in his book about the SDS view of America and their enemy group. While stating the

facts, Baber also has a very well stated thesis that he supports throughout the chapter.

The SDS directly expresses their view of the American government and “the other” in

their pamphlet when they state that the U.S. Government is perusing an “immoral, illegal, and

genocidal war.” The SDS state that they see this “exploitation and oppression” of people in

Vietnam as “the giant US corporations’ expanding and necessary search for higher profits and

strategic resources...imperialism.” In The Port Huron Statement, the SDS spend about 1/5 of the

time attempting to understand and explain the U.S. place in foreign policy and how the U.S.

should be seen as imperialistic, and driven by the greedy corporations through capitalism.
 McGee 12

Berger in his book Outlaws of America talks a lot about this view of “the other.” At one

point, Berger begins to explain how the WUO closely related the concept of race with Imperialist

America. Berger states, “The WUO’s political framework defined the enemy as an imperialist

system, which was colonizing nonwhite nations in and outside the United States. Weather’s

focus on the primacy of colonialism in the world situation was itself and argument about class.”

(281) One of the major problems SDS had, as Barber explained, was that imperialism to SDS

was seen as external. By Berger’s explanation, it seems apparent that by the time WUO was a

prominent part of the New Left movement, they had decided that imperialist America colonized

not only outside the nation, but also inside the nation based on racial divisions. The WUO seems

to have built on SDS’s theory of Imperialism to state that this imperialism was based on

differences of race.

The documentary The Weather Underground also portrays the WUO’s stance on

American foreign policy and “the other” very well. Constantly in interviews, former WUO

members talk about how the American government is taking advantage of many people, and how

they have no respect for other peoples and nations, but instead feel like they can intrude and

impose American ideals. Also the Weather Underground expresses their feelings about the

American government in Prairie Fire as they describe America as being manipulative and

imperialistic against not just other countries, but also against blacks and “Third World people”

who live within the borders.

Personal Stories

Throughout previous research on these two New Left Movement groups, the SDS and

WUO, there is a very strong emphasis on personal stories and interviews in order to gain a

complete understanding of these social movements. One reason why such personal stories and
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interviews are so prevalent could be that this major social movement is fairly recent, and

researchers attempt to gain as much first-hand accounts as possible in order to harness the

strength of these accounts for their research.

The commonly mentioned book Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the

Politics of Solidarity by Dan Berger starts out by describing an interview that Berger performed

as research for the book. Berger narrates about when he first met the WUO member David

Gilbert in prison in 2002. Berger explains that he was motivated to write his book because of

essays that Gilbert wrote about sociology, and he was intrigued about how similar he and Gilbert

were. This personal connection with a living member of the organization fueled Berger to

extensively research the matter. In his book’s bibliography, Berger cites 47 interviews used in

the book, and Berger himself performed 42 of these interviews.

One book that heavily emphasizes the personal stories about the SDS is Students for a

Democratic Society: A Graphic History Edited by Paul Buhle. This book is essentially a

collection of personal stories about the SDS. All of the stories are illustrated, making the book

what is called a “graphic novel.” After giving a broad overview of the organization, the book

gives personal accounts of demonstrations, conventions, and various experiences held by

students around the country who were a part of SDS. This book is very unique in the sense that it

seeks to keep these personal stories separate from each other, and in their original form. Other

books (like Berger’s) take the collected personal stories and interviews and analyze them to

create a “big picture” instead of keeping the personal stories unique and personal.

The Kevin Gillies’ article in the Vancouver Magazine is another good example of how

personal stories have become the cornerstone of SDS and WUO research. This article was

written to shed light on the unknown past of a Vancouver resident, John Jacobs. This
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investigative reporting shows the history of the Weather Underground Organization while

following Mr. Jacob’s importance in it.

The cited documentary The Weather Underground heavily contained interviews and

personal stories of first-hand accounts from WUO members. This well-done documentary

showed many primary documents pertaining to the radical student organization, and also was

mostly narrated by WUO members. Through these interviews, many subjects and opinions.

Critical Research Analysis Conclusion

It is very apparent that past research on Students for a Democratic Society and the

Weather Underground Organization has been fairly extensive and in-depth. The complexity of

these two student activist organization is very apparent throughout the research. There are many

more sources that discuss many other issues surrounding these organization including labor

rights, and feminism. While only an overview of the most prominent research, it is apparent that

personal stories play an integral part in research for the social movements.

Proposed Research and Methods

Past research has discussed many aspects of the Weather Underground and the Students

for a Democratic Society. One aspect that differs the Weather Underground from the SDS is the

fact that the Weathermen were “Underground.” After an accidental explosion killed 3

Weathermen in March 1970, other members of the movement decided to live in communes

together. In order to carry out what they felt like they must, they decided to completely hide their

identities, and to remain as secretive as possible about their existence. This meant that the

Weathermen created fake identities complete with documentation, histories, and alibis. As the

movement progressed and the Weathermen bombed more locations, the Weathermen were

pursued by the FBI more forcefully. This aura of secrecy and stealth differentiated the WUO
 McGee 15

from the SDS, which was a very large, and outspoken organization that was very public, and was

a recognized organization in society.

The small size and intense secrecy of the WUO raises many questions as to how

members perceived non-members. Did WUO members see all non-members as the enemy? Or

did they see them as potential converts to the WUO philosophy? Also, the WUO had a very

elaborate philosophy that encompassed many issues that were topics of discussion in the New

Left movement. As a very secretive, but radical organization, it would be interesting to examine

and research how they expressed this philosophy to non-members through their demonstrations,

press releases, and public acts.

In order to research how the WUO interacted with the public, a 2-part research study

should be conducted:

1. A set of interviews of former WUO members designed to examine how the WUO

interacted and perceived their surroundings and the public. This includes how the public

was treated, how they perceived “the other,” and how they reacted to potential threats.

Questions will also inquire these former members how they expressed their philosophies

to the public (this ties back into how they dealt with the public in general). Archived

documents and interviews will also be used to answer these interview questions in order

to get more information

2. A set of interviews with law enforcement officials who dealt with the WUO. These

officials include federal, state, and local officials. These interviews with officials would

be conducted to see how well they understood the WUO and its philosophies, and

motives. These accounts about WUO philosophies and motives will then be compared to

the accounts by the former WUO members. The comparison will see how well officials
 McGee 16

understood the WUO. Archives will also be searched for any official investigations, and

communiqué that would be able to give more information on how officials perceived the

WUO while attempting to arrest them.

As previously mentioned, the first set of interviews will be with former WUO members.

Archives will also be searched for pertinent information. The following questions would be

asked in order to gain information about how the WUO interacted with the public and how

they expressed their philosophies to the public:

1. How did you become involved in the WUO?

 Did WUO members become involved in similar ways? If so, this might show

that shared experiences, and past knowledge partially held the WUO together.

2. Do you feel like the WUO had a set of objectives and philosophy? If so, what were they?

Did you believe in these objectives and this philosophy before entering the WUO?

 From past research, it seems that the WUO did indeed have a philosophy. If

members believed in many of these objectives before joining WUO, this

would mean that outside forces form the WUO persuaded members that the

philosophy of the WUO was correct.

3. While underground, did you ever interact with the public? What did you think about non-

members of WUO?

 Because of their isolation, there is a chance that WUO members didn’t

interact with the public unless it was during a demonstration. This is a very

important question because the members will be discussing how they felt

about the public.

4. Do you think the WUO ever had an enemy? If so, who were they and why?
 McGee 17

 The existence of an “enemy” for the WUO might have greatly affected how

they interacted with the public in general, possibly with paranoia. Also the

requirements for an enemy would be valuable information in order to see just

how about large the WUO’s perceived enemy really was.

5. How did you want to be viewed by the public (non-members)?

 This will show what they wanted their self-image to the normal American to

be.

6. How did you want to be viewed by your “enemy?” (if any)

 This fact is very important because it will show if the WUO wanted their self-

image to be different for the enemy and the general public.

7. In your own words, what were the actions taken by the WUO in order to promote change,

and activism that your philosophy called upon? Did the WUO ever send out press

releases or public statements?

 This question will show how the WUO expressed their ideology to the public.

This is extremely important because expressing the organization’s identity is

crucial to the success of the movement.

8. Did “the enemy” ever interfere with the WUO practices? If so, how was this taken?

 The reaction of the WUO to “enemy” interference is important to look at. The

WUO could take this intrusion personally, they could retaliate forcefully, etc.

The next set of questions would be directed towards the law enforcement who dealt with the

WUO. These questions will be asked in order to see how law enforcement officials perceived the

WUO. Archives and documents will also be studied to expand on the interviews.

1. How did you come to deal with the WUO?

 McGee 18

2. Did you deal with the WUO for a long period of time?

3. How much did you research the WUO?

4. What is your understanding of the WUO’s philosophy?

5. Do you think there was a connection between the WUO philosophy and their public

actions and how they portrayed themselves?

Ethical Issues

When interviewing individuals about their beliefs, experiences, and perception, it is

always important for the researcher to maintain a high standard of ethics during research. While

performing this research project, the researcher must be very careful not to assume any answers,

and make sure that all the questions being asked in a non-biased fashion.

Previous research states that the WUO did believe that they had an “enemy,” but the

question must be asked to members in order to see if this belief was consistent throughout the

organization. The researcher must make sure that no assumptions are made by asking as many

questions as possible. Once the interviewer collects all the information, then only can the

information be properly observed.

The issue of non-malfeasance could be a large issue that the researcher will have to

encounter. If the interviews conclude that law enforcement officials did not have an accurate

representation of the WUO’s philosophies and their public actions, the researcher must find a

way to explain this phenomenon. One possible explanation would be that the WUO did not do an

adequate job in expressing their core beliefs, or law enforcement did not research the

organization well enough. For the sake of non-malfeasance, the researcher will have to show

how this phenomenon while still showing each party in good light.

With these concerns in mind, a researcher should be able to conduct optimal research
 McGee 19

about both the WUO and law enforcement. This research should be able to shine light as to how

the WUO interacted with its surroundings, and how law enforcement understood this possible

threat to national security.

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Bibliography

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2008. Print.
Berger, Dan. Outlaws of America: the Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity.
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Dohrn, Bernardine, Jeff Jones, Billy Ayers, and Celia Sojourn. Prarie Fire: The Politics of
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism - the Political Statement of the Weather Underground.
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Gillies, Kevin. "The Last Radical." Vancouver Magazine Nov. 1998. Columbia University. Web.
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