Which Bob Dylan song inspired the name of the radical left-wing organization Weather Underground?
Subterranean Homesick Blues
The Weather Underground Organization (WUO), commonly known as the Weather Underground, was an American militant radical left-wing organization founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally called Weatherman, the group became known colloquially as the Weathermen. Weatherman organized in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)[2] composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their supporters. Their goal was to create a clandestine revolutionary party for the overthrow of the U.S. government
The Weathermen grew out of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) faction of SDS. It took its name from Bob Dylan’s lyric, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”, from the song “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965). “You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows” was the title of a position paper that they distributed at an SDS convention in Chicago on June 18, 1969. This founding document called for a “white fighting force” to be allied with the “Black Liberation Movement” and other radical movements[5] to achieve “the destruction of U.S. imperialism and achieve a classless world: world communism”
| Weather Underground | |
|---|---|
| Participant in the Anti-Vietnam War, Black Power, andNew communist movements | |
“Our signature was … letters of explanation …
Each letter had a logo hand-drawn across the page …” — BILL AYERS[1] |
|
| Active | 1969–1977 |
| Ideology |
|
| Groups |
|
| Leaders | Bill Ayers and others |
| Area of operations | United States |
| Part of | Students for a Democratic Society |
| Became | May 19th Communist Organization |
| Allies |
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| Opponents | United States |
| Battles and wars |
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