WRL Homepage • WRL Programs • WRL Literature • WRL Actions • WRL Employment • About WRL
|
Homepages: | |
| Rearing Resistance By Wendy Schwartz A
Radical Line: From the Labor Movement JOURNALIST THAI JONES confirms what I’ve long suspected: most histories are boring because they are written by academics. His own tale of radicalism in the United States is refreshingly lively and compelling. Using the stories of his unique family as stops on a journey through radical history, he entertainingly recounts all strands of left-wing thought and action. Jones’ parents are the most famous of the family members: Eleanor Stein and Jeff Jones were members of the revolutionary organization, the Weather Underground, and Thai himself spent the first eight years of his life underground until the FBI snatched him from his parents in their Bronx apartment. Al Jones (Jeff’s father) rejected his family’s support of the Republican Party, became a Quaker, and passed World War II in a work camp as a conscientious objector. He went on to be a militant union leader and, curiously, to support Hubert Humphrey for president in 1968. Around that time, Al told Jeff—who was increasingly supportive of violent resistance to U.S. government policies—“Son, I believe very strongly in your goals. But if you set out to hurt somebody, I would hope and pray that you are hurt first.” Annie Stein (Eleanor’s mother) became a Communist while at City College in New York, constantly “quaking the knees of capitalism,” and driving the FBI crazy as they tried to keep her in sight. Particularly chilling is Jones’ account of an FBI visit to his grandmother’s house immediately after the now-famous 11th Street townhouse bombing that took the lives of three radicals, during which they told her, coldly and falsely, that her daughter had died. Arthur Stein (Eleanor’s father) twice refused to provide testimony before the House of Un-American Activities Committee. Jeff Jones initially became a CO like his father but renounced pacifism when he joined Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). A college dropout, he traveled the country in search of the “perfect demonstration.” At the 1968 Columbia University takeover, he first crossed paths with Eleanor Stein, who was then a law student. Eleanor soon dropped out, went to Cuba to meet with North Vietnamese leaders, and became an SDS leader because “the group demanded the biggest sacrifices and represented the strongest challenge to the status quo.” Meanwhile, Jeff became involved with the radicals who would blow up the Army Mathematics Research Center in Madison, WI, and accidentally kill a student. He regularly engaged in petty vandalism (if not worse) as a protest against war, capitalism, and imperialism. The police murder of Black Panther Fred Hampton was SDS members’ impetus and justification for going underground and committing acts of violence against the government. Jeff and Eleanor, now a couple with ever-changing identities, participated in “war council” gatherings around the country and possibly orchestrated some of the many small bombings that were trademark Weather Underground activities. But, Thai Jones writes, “No middle-class white American was educated for a career in constructing and operating an underground network for the purpose of overthrowing the government.” Because of the Underground’s penchant “for setting off bombs inside bathrooms … the nation’s toilets and sinks paid a particularly heavy price for the government’s war policies,” Jones notes wryly. In 1981, just as Jeff and Eleanor began negotiating with the FBI to turn themselves in, agents raided their apartment and arrested them. They pled guilty to minor charges and got off with no jail time. The experiences that demonstrated their humanity —Jeff’s pain at his absence at the birth of Thai, their efforts to get Thai the many surgeries he needed to correct a birth defect, the stillborn birth of a daughter, and tireless work at low-paying menial jobs— provide stark contrast to the extremism of the couple’s beliefs and political actions. Indeed, the story of how Jeff helped LSDguru Timothy Leary escape from jail for a fee of $50,000, is almost too strange to be true. A Radical Line is an extremely well - researched book filled with accurate information culled from a wide range of archival sources, reflecting both mainstream and radical points of view, and with never- before- told anecdotes. Jones’ winning formula for presenting history might easily have been exploited further; with fewer than 300 pages of text, the book could have been bigger and included more information about the Weather Underground and other historical material to provide an even more comprehensive chronology of the period covered. The time shifts within the sections of the book constitute its main problem. They make it hard for readers to follow the activists’ evolving political beliefs, and doing so is crucial to understanding how they decided to take certain actions—nonviolent and violent. For example, in a disconcerting reversal of history, Jeff Jones is described in Madison possibly planting the Mathematics Center bomb, and then he is described as demonstrating at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago—an event which preceded the Madison action and radicalized many demonstrators. These shortcomings notwithstanding, Thai Jones has produced a rich history that finally does justice to the bravery, sacrifice, creativity, and sometimes deadly mistakes that characterize the people of the American left. Wendy Schwartz is a freelance writer and editor and a frequent contributor for the Nonviolent Activist. She was blocks away, working at the War Resisters League, when the bomb inside the 11th Street apartment exploded and killed members of the Weather Underground. |
WRL Homepage • WRL Programs • WRL Literature • WRL Actions • WRL Employment • About WRL
