I was a member of Students for a Democratic Society, SDS, from 1966 to 1969, first at the Columbia University chapter, then as a regional and national traveller (organizer). This was SDS's final period, in which it grew to over 100,000 members on almost 400 college and high school campuses, do primarily to opposition to the war in Vietnam. It was the largest radical student organization in the country. In June, 1969, I was elected the last National Secretary of SDS. By January, 1970, my faction, the Weathermen, had killed off SDS, alas, in order to build the "revolutionary" Weather Underground.
"Weatherman" refers to the faction of SDS of which I was a leader. At our height we had perhaps 500 adherents in several dozen campus SDS chapters. "The Weather Underground" began with the Greenwich Village, NYC, townhouse accident in which three of our own people were killed. It lasted until 1976 when it split apart. Though I was a founder of the Weather Underground, I dropped out as a member at the end of 1970.
However, I remained a federal fugitive from 1970 to 1977, when I turned myself in. By then, most of the federal charges had been dropped due to government illegalities.
In this section you'll find numerous essays, commentaries, and links about this history.