Days of Rage

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  "Bring the War Home" poster
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  John Jacobs (center) and Terry Robbins (with sunglasses) at the Days of Rage, Chicago, October 1969 (Photo credit: David Fenton; publicity photo for film Weather Underground)

The Days of Rage riots were a series of events in October 1969 in Chicago organized by the Weathermen (WUO), a militant offshoot of the Students for a Democratic Society. The group planned it for October 8-11, as a "National Action" built around John Jacobs' slogan, "bring the war home," although by now the group probably had only about 300 total members nationwide. The National Action grew out of a resolution drafted by Jacobs and introduced at the October 1968 SDS National Council meeting in Boulder, Colorado. The resolution, titled "The Elections Don't Mean Shit—Vote Where the Power Is—Our Power Is In The Street" and adopted by the council, was prompted by the success of the DNC protests in August 1968 and reflected Jacobs' strong advocacy of violence as a means of achieving political goals.

Planning

As part of the "National Action Staff," Jacobs was an integral part of the planning for what quickly came to be called "Four Days of Rage." For Jacobs, the goal of the "Days of Rage" was clear:

"[Weatherman would shove the war down] their dumb, fascist throats and show them, while we were at it, how much better we were than them, both tactically and strategically, as a people. In an all-out civil war over Vietnam and other fascist U.S. imperialism, we were going to bring the war home. 'Turn the imperialists' war into a civil war', in Lenin's words. And we were going to kick ass."

According to Bill Ayers:

"The Days of Rage was an attempt to break from the norms of kind of acceptable theater of 'here are the anti-war people: containable, marginal, predictable, and here's the little path they're going to march down, and here's where they can make their little statement.' We wanted to say, "No, what we're going to do is whatever we had to do to stop the violence in Vietnam.'"

To help start the "all-out civil war", Bill Ayers and others bombed a statue commemorating the policemen killed in the 1886 Haymarket Riot on the evening of October 6. The blast broke nearly 100 windows and scattered pieces of the statue onto the Kennedy Expressway below.

Events of October 8-10, 1969

However, the "Days of Rage" were not as big a spectacle as advertised. Jacobs told the Black Panthers there would be 25,000 protesters in Chicago for the event, but no more than 200 showed up on the evening of Wednesday, October 8, 1969, in Chicago's Lincoln Park, and perhaps half of them were members of Weatherman collectives from around the country. The crowd milled about for several hours, cold and uncertain. Tom Hayden gave a short speech, telling the protesters not to believe press reports that the Chicago 8 disagreed with their action. Abbie Hoffman and John Froines, other members of the Chicago 8, also came but decided not to speak and quickly left. Late in the evening, Jacobs stood on the pedestal of the bombed Haymarket policemen's statue and declared: "We'll probably lose people today... We don't really have to win here ... just the fact that we are willing to fight the police is a political victory." Jacobs' speech compared the coming protest to the fight against fascism in World War II:

There is a war in Vietnam and we are a Vietnam within America. We are small but we have stepped in the way of history. We are going to change this country. ... The battle of Vietnam is one battle in the world revolution. It is the Stalingrad of American imperialism. We are part of that Stalingrad. We are the guerrillas fighting behind enemy lines. ... We will not commit suicide. We will not fight here. We will march to where we are within the symbol-the very pig fascist architecture. ... But we will make a political stand today.

Jeff Jones announced "I am Marion Delgado" and for the first time told the crowd the target of the march: the Drake Hotel, home of Julius Hoffman, the judge in the Chicago 8 trial. (Delgado was a five-year-old Chicano boy who had derailed a passenger train in 1947 by putting a slab of concrete on the track. The Weathermen and other radicals had adopted him as a folk hero and occasional alias, a symbol of the potential damage that the small can inflict on the powerful. Varon writes that Jones' use of the name was a "code phrase"). By this time there were around 350 protesters.

Finally, at 10:25 p.m., Jones gave the pre-arranged signal over a bullhorn, and the Weatherman action began. Jacobs, Jones, David Gilbert and others led a charge south through the city toward the Drake Hotel and the exceptionally affluent Gold Coast neighborhood, smashing windows in automobiles and buildings as they went. The protesters attacked "ordinary cars, a barber shop...and the windows of lower-middle-class homes" as well as police cars and luxury businesses. The mass of the crowd ran about four blocks before encountering police barricades. The mob charged the police but splintered into small groups, and more than 1,000 police counter-attacked. Although many protesters had—as J.J. did—motorcycle or football helmets on, the police were better trained and armed and nightsticks were aimed at necks, legs and groins. Large amounts of tear gas were used, and at least twice police ran squad cars full speed into crowds. After only a half-hour or so, the riot was over: 28 policemen were injured (none seriously), six Weathermen were shot and an unknown number injured, and 68 protesters were arrested. Jacobs was arrested almost immediately.

The next day a "Women's Militia" of around seventy female Weatherman members met at Grant Park, where Bernadine Dohrn addressed them. They had planned to raid a draft board office, but were overpowered by enraged police when they tried to leave the park. Later that day Illinois Governor Richard Ogilvie announced that he had called in over 2,500 National Guardsmen to protect Chicago. Weatherman cancelled protests that had been planned for that evening.

Supporters of the Revolutionary Youth Movement II (RYM II), led by Klonsky and Noel Ignatin, held peaceful rallies of several hundred people in front of the federal courthouse, an International Harvester factory, and Cook County Hospital. The largest event of the Days of Rage occurred on Friday, October 9, when RYM II led a an interracial march of 2,000 people through a Spanish-speaking part of Chicago. At the October 9 RYM II rally at the federal courthouse Black Panther leader Fred Hampton disassociated his group from Weatherman, saying, "We do not support people who are anarchistic, opportunistic, adventuristic, and Custeristic." That night Weatherman uncovered a police informant, who was then severely beaten by one member of the group. The assailant, who immediately appeared on wanted posters, became the first member of Weatherman to go underground.

On Saturday, October 10, Weatherman attempted to regroup and reignite the revolution. About 300 protesters marched swiftly through The Loop, Chicago's main business district, watched over by a double-line of heavily armed police. Led by Jacobs and other Weatherman members, the protesters suddenly broke through the police lines and rampaged through the Loop, smashing windows of cars and stores. But the police were ready, and quickly sealed off the protesters. Within 15 minutes, more than half the crowd had been arrested—one of the first, again, being Jacobs.

Richard Elrod, a city attorney, was paralyzed after he attempted to tackle Weatherman member Brian Flanagan. Elrod accused Flanagan of attacking him, while Flanagan maintained that Elrod simply hit a concrete wall (this is what Varon states as well). Flanagan was charged with attempted murder and other crimes but was acquitted on all counts.

Aftermath

The Days of Rage cost Chicago and the state of Illinois about $183,000 ($100,000 for National Guard payroll, $35,000 in damages, and $20,000 for one injured citizen's medical expenses). 287 members of WUO were arrested during the Days of Rage and most of Weatherman and SDS' leaders were jailed. The organization paid out more than $243,000 to cover bail.

Chicago Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, who had a mostly friendly relationship with Weatherman, denounced the group's action, fearing that it would alienate potential allies and invite an escalation of police oppression. Ironically, it was the killing of Hampton by the Chicago police less than two months after the "Days of Rage," that cemented in the mind of Weatherman that it was time to move underground and take up armed struggle.

Jones and other Weathermen failed to appear for their March 1970 court date to face charges of “crossing state lines to foment a riot and conspiring to do so.” “Unlawful flight to avoid prosecution” charges were added when they failed to show up.

Richard Elrod regained some control over his limbs through therapy and surgery but still requires crutches or a scooter to move around. In 2006 he told Chicago Magazine that Ayers and Dohrn had apologized to him in 2001, while making it clear "that they did not believe Flanagan caused Elrod's injuries, and that they were not disavowing their militant beliefs."

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Further reading

• 1969: The Year Everything Changed by Rob Kirkpatrick. Skyhorse Publishing, 2009. ISBN 9781602393660.