’60s Activist Rudd Visits UTEP
March 19, 2008
On the afternoon before the March 19 fifth anniversary of the invasion
of Iraq, UT El Paso “Students for Reform” were treated to a film
history and organizing seminar by renowned activist and former national
secretary of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Mark Rudd. The
film showed the history of the Weather Underground, which was formed by
some SDS members after years of organizing for a better society and
against the Vietnam War. As other historically non-violent groups had,
the Weather Underground rejected non-violence “for philosophical
reasons,” according to Rudd. Believing America to be at the edge of
revolution, the Weathermen engaged in “symbolic bombing,” which it
considered justified given the history of U.S. involvement in Iran, Cuba,
Guatemala, and Chile.
About 40 students were challenged and instructed by Mark Rudd’s
insights. “The fundamental problem with idealism is that you believe
your ideas are true,” he said, describing himself as more of a
pragmatist these days. The former math teacher completed the circle in
describing the wave of idealism that pervaded the times, “The proof of
your ideas are that you have them.”
“We organized out of the civil rights movement and the labor movement,”
Rudd said, “but moved toward a ‘spectacle model.’ Don’t confuse
organizing with self-expression.”
Regarding the SDS, Rudd noted that it seemed not good enough at the
time, so “we closed it down in 1969.” He now notes that half of the
names on the Vietnam Memorial are after 1969, when even the Pentagon
said America could never win.
In 1968, Mark Rudd led a student strike and takeover of buildings on
the campus of Columbia University. He called the period one of “good
organizing” and compared it to the Weathermen’s “National Action”
(which came to be referred to as “days of rage”) of the following year.
To students who had just seen film footage, he simply called this “bad
organizing,” noting that a large organization subsequently became much
smaller and less cohesive.
Yet Rudd did assert a larger truth. In the mid to late ‘60s people
organized to stop the war. They did stop the war.
Always pedagogical and very frank about his own views and experiences,
Mark Rudd suggested the film “Sir, No Sir,” which documents antiwar
action in the military during Vietnam, and Jeremy Varon’s recent
history, Bringing the War Home, which compares the Red Army to the
Weather Underground.
On current U.S. policy, Rudd said, “This is not the last war, by any
means.” He noted the millions of desperately poor “in our empire”
would be induced to serve as soldiers as a fast-track to citizenship.
“It’s not the Muslim fundamentalists we’re fighting,” Rudd cautioned,
“it’s about control of that part of the world.”
Comments
Got something to say?
Social Widgets powered by AB-WebLog.com.