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Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiqués of the Weather Underground, 1970-1974
Outraged by the Vietnam War and racism in America, a group of young American radicals announced their intention to "bring the war home." The Weather Underground waged a low-level war against the U.S. government through much of the 1970s, bombing the Capitol building, breaking Timothy Leary out of prison, and evading one of the largest FBI manhunts in history.
Sing a Battle Song brings together the three complete and unedited publications produced by the Weathermen from 1970 to 1974, during their most active period underground: The Weather Eye: Communiqués from the Weather Underground; Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism; and Sing a Battle Song: Poems by Women in the Weather Underground Organization.
Sing a Battle Song is introduced and annotated by three of the Weather Underground's original organizers—Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Jeff Jones—all of whom are all still actively engaged in social justice work.
Idealistic, inspired, pissed-off, and often way-over-the-top, the writings of the Weather Underground epitomize the sexual, psychedelic, anti-war counterculture of the American 1960s and 1970s.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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October 5, 2022
As the sub-title suggests, this book is a collection of the writings of the Weather Underground.
Unless you are an avid supporter of the Weathermen's ideology, who will be inspired by the revolutionary fervor blazing in the hearts of the student radicals of the sixties and seventies, these statements, poems, and communiques are nothing more than a confirmation that the Weather Underground was comprised of college students who were naive and full of themselves. Furthermore, it demonstrates that they were heavily influenced by Communism and their ideas were as wrong as their actions.
"Without armed struggle there can be no victory," write Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Jeff Jones, and Celia Sojourn in one of their famous political statements. Gandhi's civil disobedience is below them – it apparently did not work. Martin Luther King is not to be learned from, although he and those who followed his methods achieved more than the Weathermen could ever hope to achieve. No, what is important is carrying "the banner of Che" Guevara. There is just one problem: nowhere in the statement do they explain where this banner should be carried to.
The second problem that is underscored by the radicals' own writings is that even when they did have rational ideas and workable solutions, they could not employ them in practice – and they did not seem to be aware of the difference between what they were preaching and what they were doing. For instance, they note: "Armed actions push forward people’s consciousness and commitment; they are a great teacher and example. Yet they must be clearly understandable to the people, identify our enemy precisely, and overcome his massive lies and propaganda." This is correct, and it is admirable that the Weathermen reached this conclusion. However, this conclusion had apparently not illuminated them because what they did in its aftermath was in stark contrast with it.
The attacks of the Weather Underground were neither focused nor specific. They were random outbursts of violence, such as in the case of the destruction of the Haymarket Police Statue and the attacks on the Harvard war research center for International Affairs and the MIT research center, which resulted in the staff being hurt. Of course, the Weathermen must have had a logic of their own that justified such activities, but the general public saw them as what they were – pointless and not helping the end the Vietnam conflict in the slightest. Thus, the student radicals went against their own statement to make their actions "understandable to the people."
Furthermore, they themselves did not manage to "identify our enemy precisely." Neither the Haymarket Statue nor the Harvard staff – nor the common policemen for that matter – were their enemies. The unnecessary violence against them only increased the hostility of the American public and isolated the Weathermen from the people on whom the success of their revolution depended while giving the government even more material to create "massive lies and propaganda." Had the Weather Underground realized that it was its own greatest enemy, the outcome might have been different.
"The parents of “privileged” kids have been saying for years that the revolution was a game for us. But the war and racism of this society show that it is too fucked up. We will never live peaceably under this system." This is another gem of a quote, this time from Bernadine Dohrn's A Declaration of a State of War, that shows that the student radicals had lost sense of reality. They separated themselves from the "privileged kids" and embraced the facade of revolutionaries that they had made for themselves. Under that facade, though, they were delusional kids from the campuses of elite American universities, who, if compared to the majority of young Americans, were pretty privileged and sheltered from the struggles of the real world by the academic cocoon that they were in.
Another thing that left an impression on me is how much the word "pigs" is used throughout these writings. It evokes George Orwell's Animal Farm, which is ironic, considering that the Weathermen idolized leaders like those that Orwell warned against. Regarding Vietnam, they saw the situation in black and white. They cited Ho Chi Minh and found no fault in his views and actions. This must be why they themselves eventually stopped tolerating any dissenting opinion and started to envision the perfect regime as something that closely resembled Communism.
The poetry of the Weather Underground is as mediocre as its members' declarations and actions. I had a great laugh with several poems. My favorite one is Spider Poem. Although it does little for the issues that America faced in the tumultuous sixties and seventies, it predicts the advent of the Internet:
spider, spider
weave me a web,
a world web
stretch your special liquid around the land,
above the waters,
through tall trees
. . .
SING A BATTLE OF SONG is a recommendable read for anyone who wants to know from first-hand sources how the Weathermen thought and how they perceived their mission. This book is an effective introduction to the well-known pieces of their literature that underscores the failings of this organization.
Unless you are an avid supporter of the Weathermen's ideology, who will be inspired by the revolutionary fervor blazing in the hearts of the student radicals of the sixties and seventies, these statements, poems, and communiques are nothing more than a confirmation that the Weather Underground was comprised of college students who were naive and full of themselves. Furthermore, it demonstrates that they were heavily influenced by Communism and their ideas were as wrong as their actions.
"Without armed struggle there can be no victory," write Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Jeff Jones, and Celia Sojourn in one of their famous political statements. Gandhi's civil disobedience is below them – it apparently did not work. Martin Luther King is not to be learned from, although he and those who followed his methods achieved more than the Weathermen could ever hope to achieve. No, what is important is carrying "the banner of Che" Guevara. There is just one problem: nowhere in the statement do they explain where this banner should be carried to.
The second problem that is underscored by the radicals' own writings is that even when they did have rational ideas and workable solutions, they could not employ them in practice – and they did not seem to be aware of the difference between what they were preaching and what they were doing. For instance, they note: "Armed actions push forward people’s consciousness and commitment; they are a great teacher and example. Yet they must be clearly understandable to the people, identify our enemy precisely, and overcome his massive lies and propaganda." This is correct, and it is admirable that the Weathermen reached this conclusion. However, this conclusion had apparently not illuminated them because what they did in its aftermath was in stark contrast with it.
The attacks of the Weather Underground were neither focused nor specific. They were random outbursts of violence, such as in the case of the destruction of the Haymarket Police Statue and the attacks on the Harvard war research center for International Affairs and the MIT research center, which resulted in the staff being hurt. Of course, the Weathermen must have had a logic of their own that justified such activities, but the general public saw them as what they were – pointless and not helping the end the Vietnam conflict in the slightest. Thus, the student radicals went against their own statement to make their actions "understandable to the people."
Furthermore, they themselves did not manage to "identify our enemy precisely." Neither the Haymarket Statue nor the Harvard staff – nor the common policemen for that matter – were their enemies. The unnecessary violence against them only increased the hostility of the American public and isolated the Weathermen from the people on whom the success of their revolution depended while giving the government even more material to create "massive lies and propaganda." Had the Weather Underground realized that it was its own greatest enemy, the outcome might have been different.
"The parents of “privileged” kids have been saying for years that the revolution was a game for us. But the war and racism of this society show that it is too fucked up. We will never live peaceably under this system." This is another gem of a quote, this time from Bernadine Dohrn's A Declaration of a State of War, that shows that the student radicals had lost sense of reality. They separated themselves from the "privileged kids" and embraced the facade of revolutionaries that they had made for themselves. Under that facade, though, they were delusional kids from the campuses of elite American universities, who, if compared to the majority of young Americans, were pretty privileged and sheltered from the struggles of the real world by the academic cocoon that they were in.
Another thing that left an impression on me is how much the word "pigs" is used throughout these writings. It evokes George Orwell's Animal Farm, which is ironic, considering that the Weathermen idolized leaders like those that Orwell warned against. Regarding Vietnam, they saw the situation in black and white. They cited Ho Chi Minh and found no fault in his views and actions. This must be why they themselves eventually stopped tolerating any dissenting opinion and started to envision the perfect regime as something that closely resembled Communism.
The poetry of the Weather Underground is as mediocre as its members' declarations and actions. I had a great laugh with several poems. My favorite one is Spider Poem. Although it does little for the issues that America faced in the tumultuous sixties and seventies, it predicts the advent of the Internet:
spider, spider
weave me a web,
a world web
stretch your special liquid around the land,
above the waters,
through tall trees
. . .
SING A BATTLE OF SONG is a recommendable read for anyone who wants to know from first-hand sources how the Weathermen thought and how they perceived their mission. This book is an effective introduction to the well-known pieces of their literature that underscores the failings of this organization.
June 20, 2012
This is such a classic collection of documents from the Weather Underground, a thorough history for those interested in learning from the recent past. The best part of the book, for me, were the introductions written by Dohrn, Ayers, and Jones. They frame the historical documents with an articulate analysis that makes the WUO mindset more accessible in the context of today's struggles. And it's amazing how similar the issues we/they were struggling with then are to the ones they/we are struggling with now. I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Bernardine and Bill at the People's Summit in Chicago this May, and was struck by how committed (and humble) they remain--living up to my sense of them as heroes from a difficult period in our history.
March 3, 2020
Part sourcebook, including pretty much every document relevant to the history of the Weathermen/Weather/Weather Undeground faction that split from SDS in 1969, and part anthology of reflections by three of the most prominent Weatherpeople (they comment wryly on the tendency to turn Weather into a prefix for everything): Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Jeff Jones. All three do a good job acknowledging the mistakes--some serious as in the turn to violence that led to the Townhouse explosion that killed three of their friends--without backing off of the cogency of their central positions: confrontation with white supremacy in the U.S. and imperialism globally, and a commitment to participatory democracy that they inherited from the early SDS and strayed from for a while later on. Dohrn is particularly sharp about offering a brief list of take-home messages triangulating the historical Weather with the needs of young activists today (or in 2006 when the book was published--the basic situation, sadly, hasn't changed:
1. Humanizing and radical activism must put the longing for peace and justice in the forefront.
2. Striving for unity is essential, even when it is not achievable.
3. Certain enough to act, humble enough to change.
4. Link issues, rather than polarizing.
Amen, sister. Wish I'd had the list when I was teaching my freshman seminar on the Sixties.
1. Humanizing and radical activism must put the longing for peace and justice in the forefront.
2. Striving for unity is essential, even when it is not achievable.
3. Certain enough to act, humble enough to change.
4. Link issues, rather than polarizing.
Amen, sister. Wish I'd had the list when I was teaching my freshman seminar on the Sixties.
June 25, 2023
"And our friends are all in jail,
May more of them are out on bail.
We demand a jury trial, 'cause we know it drives them wild.
We all live in a Weather Machine, a Weather Machine, a Weather Machine".
"We All Live in a Weather Machine" from THE WEATHERMAN SONGBOOK
If, as someone once said, sending the baby boomers to fight in Viet Nam was the stupidest American idea of the twentieth century, the second stupidest was white college kids trying to turn themselves into "hard-core communist cadre inside the heart of Babylonian madness", or address? U.S.A. This anthology is priceless for being collected and edited by former members of the Weather Underground, notably Bernadine Dorhn and husband/comrade Bill Ayers ("Bernadine? Sister is that you? Your picture is in the post office but the people are protecting you". From THE WEATHERMAN SONGBOOK) and thus a vast improvement over a similar junk anthology put out by Rampart's Press in 1970. Mark Rudd, long time nemesis of Mr. and Mrs. Ayers, is missing. On the positive side, I once had a convo with him in a coffee shop when he came to Kent State University. Anyone wanting to explore the Sixties in America and the farthest fringe of American radical politics during that crucial decade must have this book. Yet, unless you share the Weather Underground's world view you will be frustrated at this "who's more radical? Me or you?" collection of communiques, political manifestos and fiction. "Who are our friends? Who are our enemies? Any organization's position on U.S. imperialism is our guideline for evaluating that organization". This is tantamount to letting others be your political compass. "If they oppose the U.S. empire they must be on the side of the angels". This wacko worldview led the author of the founding document of Weatherman, "Revolutionary Youth Movement I", Mike Klonsky (yes, he's still out there, focusing his energies on educational reform in capitalist Amerika) to embrace the Shah of Iran and the Khmer Rouge as anti-imperialist fighters. Another problem is that these shouts, slogans and songs were composed to be read out loud, from city parks to radio stations. Something vital is lost when they are transcribed. At home the Weather underground was blessed by journalist I.F. "Izzy" Stone as "these wild and wonderful kids" and damned by another journalist as "belonging more to the world of psychopathology than politics". Decide for yourself by perusing these documents and don't forget, "When you're a Red you're a Red all the way/from your first party cell til your class takes the state". (From THE WEATHERMAN SONG BOOK)
May more of them are out on bail.
We demand a jury trial, 'cause we know it drives them wild.
We all live in a Weather Machine, a Weather Machine, a Weather Machine".
"We All Live in a Weather Machine" from THE WEATHERMAN SONGBOOK
If, as someone once said, sending the baby boomers to fight in Viet Nam was the stupidest American idea of the twentieth century, the second stupidest was white college kids trying to turn themselves into "hard-core communist cadre inside the heart of Babylonian madness", or address? U.S.A. This anthology is priceless for being collected and edited by former members of the Weather Underground, notably Bernadine Dorhn and husband/comrade Bill Ayers ("Bernadine? Sister is that you? Your picture is in the post office but the people are protecting you". From THE WEATHERMAN SONGBOOK) and thus a vast improvement over a similar junk anthology put out by Rampart's Press in 1970. Mark Rudd, long time nemesis of Mr. and Mrs. Ayers, is missing. On the positive side, I once had a convo with him in a coffee shop when he came to Kent State University. Anyone wanting to explore the Sixties in America and the farthest fringe of American radical politics during that crucial decade must have this book. Yet, unless you share the Weather Underground's world view you will be frustrated at this "who's more radical? Me or you?" collection of communiques, political manifestos and fiction. "Who are our friends? Who are our enemies? Any organization's position on U.S. imperialism is our guideline for evaluating that organization". This is tantamount to letting others be your political compass. "If they oppose the U.S. empire they must be on the side of the angels". This wacko worldview led the author of the founding document of Weatherman, "Revolutionary Youth Movement I", Mike Klonsky (yes, he's still out there, focusing his energies on educational reform in capitalist Amerika) to embrace the Shah of Iran and the Khmer Rouge as anti-imperialist fighters. Another problem is that these shouts, slogans and songs were composed to be read out loud, from city parks to radio stations. Something vital is lost when they are transcribed. At home the Weather underground was blessed by journalist I.F. "Izzy" Stone as "these wild and wonderful kids" and damned by another journalist as "belonging more to the world of psychopathology than politics". Decide for yourself by perusing these documents and don't forget, "When you're a Red you're a Red all the way/from your first party cell til your class takes the state". (From THE WEATHERMAN SONG BOOK)
November 28, 2021
The primary texts anthologized here fascinates me. Conceptually, the Weather Underground represents a progressive organization whose ideologies align with much of American progressivism in the 21st-century. These texts are anti-racist, counter-hegemonic, and feminist in ways that are academically sound. Yet intermingled amongst an excellent deconstruction of the problematic American status quo, readers will find communiqués pertaining to terrorist acts (bombings) carried out by the Weather Underground in their efforts to thwart the Vietnam War, COINTELPRO, and white supremacy. Read in a historical context, this collection presents the Weather Underground as an organization whose methodologies for bringing about cultural change readers will probably disapprove of, even if the motivations for their actions makes sense in the particular context of the ideologies the organization responded to in the moment. However, those wishing for a more objective analysis of the Weather Underground will need to look elsewhere, as this collection is primarily edited by former members of the organization.
December 8, 2020
A necessary read for my research on the Weather Underground, and enlightening as to what they were thinking and what they believed, but definitely not the most engaging of texts. It was frequently self-congratulatory and lacking in nuance. I definitely found myself rolling my eyes at times.
March 17, 2022
This is an invaluable collection of documents, and provides just as crucial a portrait of the Weather Underground Organization as the many biographies and memoirs our there. Fantastic, inspiring reading.
December 27, 2008
i don't know what to say about this. it's weatherman communiques from some bombings they did, a whole pile of radical poetry written by women in the weather underground, some extracts from some position papers & other literature members of the weather underground generated. it's all pretty strident & a little embarrassing. some of it deals with really specific political issues that were hot button issues in 1973 or whatever, like really specific nuclear facilities & stuff. it's a semi-interesting read from a historical perspective, & it's instructive to get a little crash course on how NOT to write compelling political arguments, but it took me weeks to slog through this book just because it was so dull sometimes. like reading an academic journal about a discipline with which you have only a glancing familiarity & scarce interest. three stars might have been just a touch generous.
September 12, 2008
I'm not a big fan of the politics of the Weather Underground. But that doesn't mean I don't find them incredibly interesting. I am so excited that these primary sources are finally collected into one book.
I think the best part of the collection is the section in Prairie Fire that discusses various activist movements throughout history. I think it's section three or four.
I think the best part of the collection is the section in Prairie Fire that discusses various activist movements throughout history. I think it's section three or four.
April 16, 2024
Amazing story and collection documenting underground university activism during the vietnam war, i will say that the “prairie fire” manifesto gets a little long at the end
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews