After seeing former Weather Underground member Mark Rudd read from his new book, and discuss a rather hilarious attempt by him to "breach" his heteronormativity by, in his words, "fondling JJ's penis amidst a threesome," friends and I reflected on the meaning of student occupation of University property (Rudd had occupied the University President's office in his early days of activism) which brought us to the Free Education movement going on currently in California, and perhaps nationally.
Rudd kept discussing how the problem with the Weathermen was that they elevated a tactic to the level of a strategy, that tactic being militancy. H asked a question to the effect of "are there contexts where elevating a tactic to the level of strategy would actually function, as in the Free Education Movement, where these activists are arguing 'occupy everything, demand nothing'?" Rudd proffered an answer that was rather unsatisfactory, and I don't even remember what it was. One thing of note which was not very surprising but Rudd consistently spoke to the necessity of non-violence, because to use violence was to necessarily "do the work of the right for them."
Whatever one might want to take away from these observations, here is a manifesto-esque video from the free education demonstrations:
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