Eleanor Raskin - SDS and Weatherman

SDS and Weatherman

A year before joining Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Eleanor Stein and Annie Stein participated in the protest at the Pentagon in 1967. In April, she and her mother were involved in the Columbia University protests of 1968. More than 700 students, including Eleanor Stein, were arrested. She was charged with criminal trespass, fined $25 and released without bail. Stein joined SDS in fall 1968. By March 1969, she led more than two hundred students in pickets of Columbia buildings. The New York Times quoted her: "We've effectively shut down the college and cut down attendance at the university by half," said Mrs. Eleanor Raskin, an SDS spokesman who is a second-year law student at Columbia. "This strike is the opening gun. This strike is our first blow."...At a news conference, Mrs. Raskin...warned that if Columbia failed to act on the demands before the end of the spring vacation, which begins Friday and ends April 6, the SDS chapter would "take further action."

During the summer of 1969, Stein became a member of Weatherman organization and co-authored The Bust Book: What to Do Until the Lawyer Comes, with Kathy Boudin, Gus Reichbach and Brian Glick. The Bust Book is a handbook for political activists and legal defendants. In August 1969, Stein and fellow Weatherman members: Bernardine Dohrn, Ted Gold, Dianne Donghi and Diana Oughton traveled as SDS delegates to Cuba to meet with representatives of the Cuban and North Vietnamese governments.

On September 3, 1969, Stein and about seventy-five women stormed a Pittsburgh high school called South Hills and participated in a "jailbreak" to advertise for the Days of Rage. Weather women spray painted "Ho Lives" (in reference to spiritual and political North Vietnam leader, Ho Chi Minh who had recently died) and "Free Huey" (Huey P. Newton was a member of the Black Panther Party who was incarcerated for a gunfight which left a police officer dead) on the school's main entrance doors. Stein was arrested and charged with rioting, inciting a riot and disorderly conduct. She was told to pay a $25 fine and $11 in court costs; she was held on $1,500 bail. Stein and twenty-five others were taken to the Allegheny County Jail. She had wanted to experience a life without comforts, and during her three weeks in jail, her wish was realized.

In early November, shortly before leaving Jonah Raskin, she wrote a letter to the Dean of Columbia University:

Dear Sir:

I would like to apply for a leave of absence for a year, 1969-1970. I am sorry to apply so late, but I have been in jail in Pittsburgh, Pa., for political activities.

I would like to use this critical year to employ my legal skills in aiding in the defense of political prisoners, such as the Conspiracy Eight and others in Chicago. The shortage of lawyers doing this kind of work, and the need for it, makes me feel the urgency of helping in these major criminal defenses.

I would be glad to give more details if necessary. Thank you very much,

Yours,

Eleanor Raskin

As Jonah Raskin had written, she "packed a suitcase, threw away her jewelry, miniskirts, long evening gowns, her shoes, sold her books, and moved to a Weatherman Collective.", Stein was ending her old life to begin a revolution.