A REPORT—
CHICAGOICBRINGING THE WAR HOME’

This report is an explanation of
what happened during the October 8~11
SDS National Action in Chicago. More
than that, it is an attempt to clarify
some of the motivations that prompted
young radicals to fill the streets with
demonstrations that ranged from the
exclusive Gold Coast to working class
neighborhoods.

******

The Chicago National Action marked
an important turning point in the Am~
erican radical movement for two rea—
sons. Two distinct factions of SDS
organized the protests that occurred,
and the consequences of those protests
were markedly different. Each faction
however, placed before the nation a
new concept in the domestic revolu~
tionary struggle.

0n the one hand, Chicago witnessed
the first major white radical action
in which the protestors moved on the
offensive. In an escalation of pro~
test, militant SDS students took to
the streets as aggressors. Their tac—
tic was not simply to provoke confron~
tation, but to actually attack two
traditional symbols of the American
establishment, the policeman and the
capitalist institution.

Regardless of the “military" sucs
Seas of that attempt, Americans must
:ome to terms with youths who liter—
ally intend to fbring the war home."

Secondly, actions by another facv
.ion of SDS marked the first major
avent in which.student radicals vorked
,n a functioning alliance with black,

page-two

brown, and working class peoples. Al~
though the Chicago coalition was tenu~
ous at best, actions went beyond the
traditional rhetoric of solidarity
with oppressed peoples.

In militant protest and a mass
march, SDS students, black and Puerto
Rican radicals, and striking workers
stood side by side in both planning
and action. Again America must ad-
dress itself to the reality of a tra~
ditional revolutionary alliance.

As much as this report is inten-
ded for those in America who have yet
to consider the changing directions of
the so—called "student protest move«
ment," it is also addressed to those
who have actively participated in the
New Left for the last decade.

Chicago represents the assertion of
new goals and new methods by America's
young radicals. These changes are cer—
tain to cause a crisis of strategy,
and perhaps a crisis of conscience, a—
mong those who have traditionally spo—
ken in the vanguard of the "radical
movement."

The actions of Chicago are a real—
ity. Today's activists must decide if
those actions are a feasible program
on a national scale, if those actions
are legitimate, and regardless of
other answers, how they will work in
relation to those actions.

During the National Action I was in
Chicago and on the street. I talked
to, listened to, and worked with the
members of SDS throughout their activ—
ities. All the instances cited in

this report are eyewitness accounts or
the result of compilation of newspaper
reports. One might rightfully ques<
tion whether such an account could be
objectively valid. I only hope that
the report is honest and clear enough
to give understanding to those who did
not share in the experience.

******

Although the bulk of this report is
concerned exclusively with the events
during the four days of the National
Action, a description of the previous
situation will serve as a useful back—
ground.

At the summer SDS conference, fol—
lowing the expulsion of the Progres—
sive Labor Party, the Students for a
Democratic Society agreed to a mass
action in Chicago. The action was to
be in support of the Vietnamese people
and against U.S. imperialism and was
to be held roughly coinciding with the
trial of eight New Left leaders charged
with conspiracy to incite riot in con—
nection with the disorders during the
1968 Democratic Convention.

Within the SDS, however, were two
factions that sharply differed, par—
ticularly in terms of strategy. These
tvm factions were to emerge as the
Weatherman caucus (from a song by Bob
Dylan: "you don't need a weatherman to
know which way the wind blows.") and
the Revolutionary Youth MovementrII.
In vastly oversimplified terms, the
Weatherman faction favored immediately
beginning active revolutionary strug-
gle while Revolutionary Youth Movement
II stressed the need for revolutionary

 

