Seventies Series for sale!

"Ian Rankin once explained to an interviewer (the head of the Indian Communist Party!) that crime fiction is way of talking about social inequality. Ron Jacobs applies that same maxim to the Sixties (not to mention dope, guns, f*cking, and imperialism) in his wonderfully noir trilogy of those exhilarating and troubled times. And what Rankin does for Edinburgh, Jacobs amply illuminates for the Movement. Much much more than ripping yarns (though they are that too), from a master who's been there, done that, and lived to tell a tale or two."

--Ramsey Kanaan, Publisher of PM Press/noir enthusiast

BUY THE BOOKS HERE!!

New York City, Just Like I Pictured It--Will Hermes Book on the 1970s

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/04/26/new-york-city-just-like-i-pictured-it/

Terrorism of the State

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/04/18/terrorism-of-the-state/

New novel available for purchase

Just click here....   then click on the novel(s) you wish to buy.  Then order directly from Fomite.

Thanks

Drugs, Guns and Politics

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/04/12/drugs-guns-and-politics/

Lessons of the Global South

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/04/05/the-lessons-of-the-global-south/

Mo Yan and the Use of Satire

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/29/mo-yan-and-the-use-of-satire/

New Novel Available for Pre-Order

http://www.amazon.com/All-Sinners-Saints-Ron-Jacobs/dp/1937677397

A Vile and Reprehensible Stain-Iraq 2003

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2013/03/a-vile-and-reprehensible-stain.html

A Microcosm of the Nation–Control Unit Prisons

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/15/a-microcosm-of-the-nation-control-unit-prisons/

American Overkill

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/08/american-overkill/

Bob Dylan's Biography of American Racism

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/01/bob-dylans-biography-of-american-racism/

Drugs, War and Occupation

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/22/drugs-war-and-occupation/

The Coup of Coups

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/15/the-coup-of-coups/

The Black Panthers, Black History Month and “Domestic Terrorism”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/08/the-black-panthers-black-history-month-and-domestic-terrorism/

A Look at Dave Zirin's Latest The Man Who Politicized the Sports Pages (Again)

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/01/the-man-who-politicized-the-sports-pages-again/

From Wounded Knee to Idle No More

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/25/from-wounded-knee-to-idle-no-more/

Torture:A Practice Which Is Always Wrong

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/18/torture-a-practice-which-is-always-wrong

It Was Not a Mistake: Vietnam and US Policy

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/15/vietnam-and-us-policy/

Why You Should Support the Boycott Israel Movement

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/04/why-you-should-support-the-boycott-israel-movement/

SNAFU 2012

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/28/snafu-2012/

You Can Read It in the Funny Papers

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/21/you-can-read-it-in-the-funny-papers/

Punk, Politics and the 1980s

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/14/punk-politics-and-1980s/

The Difference the PLO Made

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/07/the-difference-the-plo-made/

Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire It’s An Anti-Imperialist Struggle, Not a Clash of Civilizations

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/30/its-an-anti-imperialist-struggle-not-a-clash-of-civilizations/

Reflections On the Occupy Movement-A Review of We Are Many

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/23/from-occupation-to-liberation/

Intentional and Deadly Mistakes: The Film

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/16/intentional-and-deadly-mistakes/

Sieze the Time: Toward a New Leftist Politics

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/09/toward-a-new-leftist-politcs/

Gore Vidal After the Fact

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/02/gore-vidal-after-the-fact/

The FBI vs. the People of Berkeley

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/26/the-fbi-vs-the-people-of-berkeley/

Reflections on George McGovern

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/19/reflecting-on-george-mcgovern/

Lessons From Korea

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/12/lessons-from-korea/

Turkey Plays Chicken for NATO

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/05/turkey-plays-chicken-for-nato/

A Citizens' Call to Act

Rumors of war become more frequent. Tel Aviv pushes harder and harder for an attack on Iran while Iranian defense officials seem resigned to the fact of an eventual war on their nation. Sanctions against the Iranian people are tightening. Many regular citizens of the world expect some kind of military attack on Iran either right before or not long after the US elections in November. The thinking goes that no matter who wins, the warmongers in Tel Aviv and Washington, DC will set such an attack in motion. Once the first salvo is fired, it is unlikely there will be any turning back for many weeks, at least. Thousands will die. Cities and towns will be destroyed. A new wave of terror will be unleashed by all sides using traditional forces and guerrillas. A future of bloodshed and the threat of nuclear holocaust will reign.

Yet, there is no discernible antiwar movement. Unlike the months prior to March 2003 and the US invasion of Iraq, there has hardly been a single sign held opposing war on Iran. Part of this is because of political mistakes made by the leadership of the antiwar networks in place during the prelude and first few years of the war on Iraq. Part of the reason for the ennui is a denial by the antiwar population that the potential for war is lurking ahead of us like an insurmountable snow bank ready to collapse in the suddenly warming weather. Then there is the belief propagated by the power elites who profit from war that Iran is an enemy that deserves defeat; part of an “axis of evil” so incorrigible the only remedy is its obliteration. The reasons for this perception are many. The Israeli government needs an enemy to justify its continued military occupation of Palestine and the repression of many of its own residents. Washington also needs an enemy for the same reasons. Then there is the question of revenge against the Tehran regime founded in a revolutionary defeat of Washington's man in Iran--the Shah. Then, of course, there is the question of oil.

Never mind that Iran is essentially as much of a functioning democracy as the United States or Great Britain. Never mind that it is one of the world’s most literate nations. Never mind that many of its citizens want their government to minimize the power of the religious conservatives in their daily lives. Iran has oil that Washington wants to control like it used to in the days of the Shah. Also, Iran dares to defy the agenda Washington and Tel Aviv have in mind for the region called the Middle East. Indeed, it has done so for more than three decades, angering those powers and their allies while providing an example of resistance to millions. These are the reasons Washington and Tel Aviv want to make war on Iran. They should not be construed as endorsements of the Iranian government.

We know that existing antiwar networks like the United National Antiwar Coalition, United for Peace and Justice, and others are working in multiple and diverse ways against this and other manifestations of the US war machine. But, it is time to step up the ante. Therefore, we urge everyone opposed to the threat of war on Iran to organize locally and quickly. If we cannot stop any attacks, we must be ready to respond to them.

There does not have to be an official organization, just the desire of a few friends and acquaintances. Picket lines, teach-ins, sit-ins, marches through downtown; all of these and more must be planned. The masters of war must not be let off the hook. Occupy proved that local networks exist that can mobilize people quickly. This model is as old as the Diggers and as new as today. Utilize it. Call for a protest at your Federal Building, City Hall, recruiting office, military base, or somewhere downtown. All organizing begins small. As the events around the world the past couple years have proven, it can become very big.

Who are we? We are workers, students, small business owners, parents from all over North America. We are well off and not so well off. Most importantly, we are agitators. That's nothing special. There should be millions of us instigating calls against war around the world. It’s as easy as 1, 2, and 3. Join us!

Original signers include:

David Abeles
Shalui Abeles
Paul Atwood
Peter Bohmer
Kathleen Brown
Marc Estrin
Bob Feldman
Robert Ferraro
Ramsey Kanaan
Ron Jacobs
Scott Noble
Sue Reading
Jude Sargent
Michael Simmons
Bob Simpson
Brian Tokar


Don't forget to mark the tenth anniversary of the US war in Afghanistan. For a list of events, please go to http://october7actions.net/

The Black Panthers-No Bullshitting

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/28/the-black-panthers-no-bullshitting/

Springsteen in Washington

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/21/springsteen-in-washington/

Burning Paper Instead of Children--The Catonsville Nine

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/14/burning-paper-instead-of-children/

Students as Commodities:Back to School in the Twilight of Capitalism

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/07/back-to-school-in-the-twilight-of-capitalism/

What Do You Want From Death?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/31/what-do-you-want-from-death/

Opposing the Eagle's Talons

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/24/opposing-the-eagles-talons/

The Drums of War Pump Up the Volume

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/17/the-drums-of-war-pump-up-the-volume/

Can I Vote For Revolution?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/10/can-i-vote-for-revolution/

When Police Attack

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/03/when-police-attack/

Iran, The US, Nukes and Other things--an interview

http://www.rohama.org/en/news/8905/ron-jacobs%E2%80%AC-wests-hypocrisy-over-iran-nuclear-capabilities,-an-insult-to-intelligence-of-the-world

Living In A World Without Reason

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/27/in-a-world-without-reason/

Radio Interview with Scott Harris of WPKN

A brief conversation with Radio Host Scott Harris of WPKN in Connecticut.  We talk about Alexander Cockburn and Syria.

http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/39156

The Empire Project-Another Round

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/20/the-empire-project-another-round/

Syria Through the Looking Glass

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/06/29/syria-through-the-looking-glass/

A Tale From a Time of Heroes:Leila Khaled and the Struggle for Palestinian Liberation

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/06/22/a-tale-from-a-time-of-heroes/

Trying To Kill Social Security: A Thirty Year Hit Job

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/06/15/trying-to-kill-social-security/

The American Empire: The Feature Film

Excuse the typo...
the senator's name is Vandenberg, not Andenberg (ron)

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/06/08/american-empire-the-feature-film/

The Limbo of Death Row: A Review of In This Timeless Time

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/06/01/the-limbo-of-death-row/

Tentacles of Empire

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/25/the-tentacles-of-empire/

Living For the City: David Harvey's Rebel Cities

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/18/living-for-the-city/

A Review of Frank Bardacke's Book on the UFW

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/09/chavez-and-the-two-souls-of-the-ufw/

Rules are Rules As Any Fool Can See

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/04/rules-are-rules-as-any-fool-can-see/

Occupy 1914

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/27/occupy-1914/

Racism in a Postracial Nation

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/20/racism-in-the-postracial-nation/

Kick Some Ass With the Working Class

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/13/kick-some-ass-with-the-working-class/

Bohemian Hoedown

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/music-ron-jacobs-new-kind-of-lonely.html

Papa Had a Brand New Bag: A Review of The One: The Life and Music of James Brown

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/30/papa-had-a-brand-new-bag/

Rebellious Spring, Murderous Winter: Vijay Prashad on the Arab Spring

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/23/rebellious-spring-murderous-winter/

Bureaucracy of War

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/16/the-bureaucracy-of-war/

Women's Rights Are Human Rights-International Women's Day

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/ron-jacobs-womens-rights-are-human.html

It Started In Wisconsin: Sparks and Wildfires

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/02/sparks-and-wildfires/

Reasons to Protest Obama

Barack Obama is Coming to My Town

Ask the Cop on the Corner, Ask the Cop at Your Front Door

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/17/creeping-fascism-2/

Younger Than That Now

One typo--Sanders mag was called Fuck You not Fug You--auto correct mistake

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/10/younger-than-that-now/

Privatizing the Grid in Burlington, VT

http://vtdigger.org/2012/02/02/jacobs-privatizing-the-grid-in-burlington/

Rationalizing Idiocy: Attacking Iran For All the Right Reasons?

Forgive the typo
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/01/rationalizing-idiocy-attacking-iran-for-all-the-right-reasons/

The Politics of Upton Sinclair

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/20/the-politics-of-upton-sinclair/

Excerpt from my novel The Co-Conspirator's Tale

http://www.stateofnature.org/theCoConspiratorsTale.html

Fomite Author reading January 18th in Burlington

The War Is Over. Let It Begin

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/10/the-war-is-over-let-it-begin/

A Brother With a Furious Mind

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/02/a-brother-with-a-furious-mind/

Three Books Two Tales

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/23/occupy-gets-booked/

The Scream of the Butterfly--Greil Marcus Does the Doors

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/19/the-scream-of-the-butterfly/

Cratched Does California--Ghosts of Christmas Past

Selection that appears in Tripping Through the American Night...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/12/26/cratched-does-california/

Bolano's Board Game

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/09/bolanos-board-game/

December 8, 1980-Remembering John Lennon

http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/12/09/remembering-john-lennon/

The Way the Wind Blew Reviews Part Three

two not so positive reviews and one from The Journal of American History
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/18307

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4468/the_way_the_wind_blew/

The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground By Ron Jacobs. (New York: Verso, 1997. viii, 216 pp. Cloth, $50.00, ISBN 1-85984-861-3. Paper, $15.00, ISBN 1- 85984-167-8.)

Ron Jacobs begins his history of the Weather Underground where most analyses of the move- ments of the 1960s leave off, with the splintering of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1968 and the "Days of Rage" in 1969. His focus is solely on Weather, which turns out to be his book's major strength but also accounts for some of its weaknesses. Jacobs's first chapter, "1968: SDS Turns Left,' recounts the disintegration of SDS into factions that included Weather, Progressive Labor (PL), the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM), and others. While the reader gains a careful analysis of the ideological differences among these groups, what is lost is the context out of which this all emerged. There is no discussion of the history of SDS or even of the political careers that led members of the Weather Underground to this point. (There are some biographical tidbits in a brief appendix entitled "The Cast.") From this moment on, however, Jacobs re- tells with care the stages of Weather activity coupled with discussions of its developing theoretical positions and growing cognizance of other political issues, including the emerging feminist movement. One virtue of his work is his decision to take Weather seriously and not to indulge in the kind of sensationalistic discussions of their interpersonal, communal, and sexual side, topics that have tainted other analyses. We witness the evolution of Weather's positions from the initial "You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows" (1968) through "New Morning, Changing Weather" (1970) and, finally, Prairie Fire. The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism (1974).

On the other hand, some further examination of the connection between their personal and political sides, including a more textured discussion of underground life, would have more fully rounded his portrait. An added value of this work is to remind older readers and inform younger ones of the domestic political events that occurred after 1968 and 1969, events which are too often merely thought of as footnotes to 1960s history, if not altogether forgotten. We learn not only of the explosion in a New York townhouse in 1970, where members were constructing bombs, and of other Weather bombings but also of the May Day demonstrations of 1971 that aimed to shut down Washington, D.C., the various legal struggles of the Black Panthers, and the short-lived media frenzy surrounding the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and its kidnapping and subsequent conversion of the newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.

What is striking as one reads and remembers the attention paid to the Weather Underground is how small the cadre was, given its importance in both the movement and the media. In part, this is not unusual in the history of the American Left. Numerous well- remembered and oft-studied factions of the Communist and Socialist parties had surprisingly few adherents. Yet we would not be able to find an equivalent amount of mainstream press attention paid to these groups. Through a combination of flamboyant rhetoric, publicity- grabbing activities, and its positioning of itself at the extreme edge of the rebellious impulse of the era, Weather became the most prominent, if not the most representative, group of the last phase of 1960s activism. Jacobs's study, while keeping to a slightly too narrow retelling of their activities, nevertheless provides an accessible, readable, and compelling history of their ideas and their activities.

Alexander Bloom Wheaton College Norton, Massachusetts

The Way the Wind Blew Reviews Part Two: From Social Anarchism #26 1998

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SA/en/display/269

Drawing Conclusions on the Wall: A Review of On the Ground: an Illustrated Anecdotal History of the Sixties Underground Press in the U.S.

I apologize for the typos.....

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/02/drawing-conclusions-on-the-wall/

Blast From the Past: A Review of My Weather Underground Book from 1998

review published August 1998 in San Francisco Bay Guardian

Guerrilla USA

A philosophical history of the Weather Underground

The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground. By Ron Jacobs. Verso, 216 pages, $15.

By Daniel Burton-Rose

IN THE CRUCIBLE of late-'60s white radicalism, a fomenting militancy pushed an element of Students for a Democratic Society toward a more immediate solidarity with the Vietnamese people, one born of shared repression. As the state reacted with dumb authoritarian brutality to questions it knew were too on-point to answer, a small group of middle-class activists took the steps they felt were necessary to end the U.S. regime once and for all. Revolutionary violence was, as Weather member Bernardine Dohrn put it, "The best thing that we can be doing for ourselves, as well as for the Panthers and the revolutionary black liberation struggle...."

Their efforts are the twisting tale that Ron Jacobs tells in his history of the Weather Underground, The Way the Wind Blew. Jacobs -- a worker at the University of Vermont library and avowed New Leftie -- gives a documentary history that includes photos, posters, and underground comix. The Way the Wind Blew transplants you to a time of widespread domestic government repression and foreign aggression. A time in which change was not just an ideal but an imperative.

The history of Weather is the story of radicals for whom nothing could come too fast. Weather needed to immediately end everything it hated about the U.S. government, and it did not have time to waste on tolerating the unconvinced -- those who could have given it the numbers to realize its goals. Weather denounced the U.S. working class as hopelessly blind to its own oppression, supporting imperialist war and racism. In fits of self-righteousness Weather stomped into working-class communities and berated youth as "pigs," often getting an ass-kicking as their payback. With the Days of Rage in Chicago, Weather whipped up efforts to "tear the motherfucker apart" but experienced only low turnout and unfocused street violence.

Jacobs has written a history of ideas rather than personalities. His book is more instructive than either the flat-out denouncements of paramilitary violence or the uncritical celebrations that have thus far constituted the history of late-'60s and '70s guerrilla movements. Jacobs traces Weather's long ambivalent dance with youth counterculture. At times the group saw youth's lack of a stake in contemporary society as the hope for a new nation, but Weather retained a great "distrust of its own potential base of support." Militant feminist analysis by Weather women made the Weather men realize that the men themselves were also capable of counterrevolutionary thoughts. This epiphany made them acknowledge "that individuals were capable of change, whatever their previous prejudices." It was a step from revolutionary purity to real-world maturity.

As the war in Vietnam escalated, Weather's military actions seemed less extreme to New Left folks. A bomb in the Pentagon in May 1972 was well-received in the antiwar community. Conversely, as the war wound down it became clear that there would be no galvanizing force of comparable strength for the next decade. Weather foundered.

So Jacobs goes on to tell of the flip side of the Jerry Rubin and Eldridge Cleaver-style '80s sellouts -- terribly fractured guerrilla cells trying desperately not to drown in the political tide turning away from an open society. Because of Weather's death in a flurry of acronyms, The Way the Wind Blew seems like a book without a conclusion. For that reason it is somewhat unsatisfying. But at closer look, the tapered anticlimax captures the nature of the period and the feeling of the participants. In the end, both they and you want more.

Jacobs admires Weather Underground members for their dedication and strength. Indeed, he dedicates his book to "those who gave their lives and freedom in the struggle against racism and imperial war." The book explores what Weather got right and what it screwed up. To read it is to understand one of the most fascinating attempts to create revolutionary change in modern American history.

(Daniel Burton-Rose is the editor of The Celling of America.)

We Are Not Liberals

http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/04/07/misrepresenting-the-left/