A small band of urban guerrillas, they hoped to topple the “ruling class” using guns and bombs. Instead, their efforts brought death and ruin.
In a six-page “declaration of revolutionary war” issued in 1973, the newly formed Symbionese Liberation Army made its intentions clear. This band of professed urban guerrillas, however small in number, was immensely ambitious. “We of the People and not the ruling capitalist class will build a new world and system,” the missive read. But within three years, six of the group’s dozen or so members — including its architect, Donald De Freeze, an escaped convict known as Cinque — were dead, killed in a shootout with Los Angeles police.
Others, including Bill Harris and Emily Harris, were behind bars after a string of crimes that had made headlines worldwide, among them the murder of an Oakland schools superintendent and the kidnapping of the heiress Patricia Hearst. The recent death of Mr. Harris recalls a flashpoint in American history touched off by this ragtag group that was reviled as a terrorist organization by the mainstream as well as many in the counterculture.
The group’s core philosophies were a swirl of -isms: Marxism, Maoism, Black nationalism, feminism. Drawing inspiration from George Jackson and Régis Debray, S.L.A. members believed a small cadre of firebrands could spark mass revolution through brazen attacks on the establishment.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing