http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090716-LIFE-1010471
In In the Vietnam era, Mark Rudd and The Weather Underground sought a
violent overthrow to the U.S. government; now Rudd's coming to The
Music Hall to discuss nonviolent activism
By Gina Carbone
gcarbone@seacoastonline.com
July 16, 2009 6:00 AM
If the same masses who gathered to honor Michael Jackson would gather
to overthrow the "oligarchy" running "imperialist" America, Mark Rudd
might be a happy man.
Might.
There's always going to be another cause. Rudd has not shied away
from speaking out about them and his part in them, and his regrets
about them since the 1960s as a member of the militant anti-war
group Weatherman, and in the 1970s as a fugitive with The Weather Underground.
Rudd will be in Portsmouth Saturday, July 18 as part of MIFF@The
Music Hall, the first collaboration between the Maine International
Film Festival in Waterville, Maine, and Portsmouth's historic downtown theater.
Eight films will show here from July 17 to July 19, plus discussions
with some of the filmmakers.
On July 18, Rudd will be part of several events: He'll lead a
discussion on "A New Century A New Activism" at 10:30 a.m., then
introduce two films, the 2002 Oscar-nominated documentary "The
Weather Underground," in which he is prominently featured, and the
short film "Clear Glasses"; he will then lead a post-film talk and
sign copies of his new book, "Underground: My life in SDS and the Weathermen."
Rudd, a former communist who idolized revolutionary "Che" Guevara,
was a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society at Columbia
University from 1965 to 1968.
He later co-founded the more militant Weatherman (later Weather
Underground) faction of the SDS, whose goal was "the violent
overthrow of the government of the U.S. in solidarity with the
struggles of the people of the world."
In 1970, three members of the Weather Underground were killed in a
Greenwich Village townhouse while assembling an explosive device.
Leaders of the group including Rudd, Bill Ayers (who re-emerged in
the public eye during Barack Obama's presidential campaign) and
Bernadine Dohrn went into hiding.
Rudd turned himself into authorities in 1977, then moved to New
Mexico to raise a family and teach math at a community college in Albuquerque.
In 2002, Rudd and his fellow activists were featured in "The Weather
Underground," which was nominated for an Academy Award for best
documentary. Around the same time, he returned to the book he had
been working on since the 1980s.
Now that he's finished his "Underground" book and is retired from
teaching, he's focusing on promoting his work and the cause of social
activism. His call against anti-imperialism hasn't changed in theory
since the 1960s, but it has altered considerably in practice from his
militant days.
"There's only one strategy," Rudd says now, "and that's to build a
non-violent mass movement."
The first section of his book is on how he feels they got it right
with SDS at Columbia University. The middle section talks about where
he feels they went wrong.
"I mostly regret (that) we made a decision to go underground," Rudd
said. "In doing so we made a decision to kill off (SDS). We played
into the hands of the FBI."
Not only that, while in hiding from the world around him, he had no
contact with his own parents and family members, putting them through
a different kind of pain.
"I was a key person in making these decisions, I think that's the
biggest regret," he said.
Rudd now a liberal Democrat who not only voted for Obama, he worked
for him said Obama has given Americans an opening for action by
asking what we want. But Obama has been stymied by the monied
interests controlling government, he said.
"The pressure is always from the oligarchy that runs the country."
What's required now, Rudd said, isn't violence or even more public
opinion, but "a mass movement to demand what we need."
"It has to do with empowering people and educating them. It's the way
all movements grow," Rudd said. "All I know is how it's been done
through history person to person engagement. It does not happen
spontaneously. It's got to be non-violent and it's got to be
strategic and it's got to be in for the long haul. What people lack
is a vision of what it is."
During the anti-Vietnam war movement they had both the labor and
civil rights movements happening at the same time, Rudd said. The
youth of today don't have the same role models so they don't know what to do.
Rudd sees a modern society geared toward personal gain with
consumption, war and entertainment running the economy.
"(Society) needs a realization that the center of economics has got
to be human beings and the central policy has to be human beings at peace."
Rudd does not support the nation's response to the deaths on Sept.
11, 2001, with war in Iraq and Afghanistan a war that has taken
more than a million lives overseas and, he argues, is all about
conquest and imperialism, illustrating "an underlying racism."
"The United States does not feel life has any value, other than
Americans," he said. "Anyone with half a brain would see how stupid
(the war) is."
Rudd will be speaking to Seacoast residents about war and peace and
lessons learned, thanks to an invitation from MIFF artistic directors
Beth and Ken Eisen.
"The Weather Underground" is showing in Maine during the July 10-19
festival, before it travels to the smaller "satellite" event in Portsmouth.
Rudd is hoping for a mixed crowd for his Music Hall discussions,
including young people and conservatives. All viewpoints are welcome.
Even with all of his frustrations with the United States, the former
Weatherman has never considered leaving his country.
"I'm an American," Rudd said. "No. I come from a long tradition of
anti-imperialists and I'm proud of it and of communists, too. I
want a system that's fair, where everybody has a means of life, where
everybody has dignity."
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