Lucia

de Vernai

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March 24, 2008

Sara Jane Olson: Scourge of the Fascist State! (Until She Needs Its Protection)

Before checking your iPhone in line at the locally owned coffee shop was thought cool, long before counter culture became pop culture, and before the People’s Republic of Berkeley became the quintessential role model of liberal college students, hippie disgruntlement was a bloody affair.

Unbeknownst to the present generation of Prius owners, in the 1970s the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a group of militants, defined the anti-establishment attitude for which Berkeley has a reputation. A far cry from today’s idea of sticking it to the man by petitioning the Olympic committee to add Ultimate Frisbee as an official event, it terrorized California for years.

Founded in 1973 by an escaped convict, the SLA sought to start an insurrection against what they perceived as an oppressive federal government. Clearly lacking moral imagination, they deemed local school districts ID cards “fascist” and thought that the violent murder of the superintendent, Marcus Foster, would be the best way to counter those fascist methods.

In the following years, the group alienated the public with kidnappings (most famously of publishing heiress Patty Hearst), murders and bank robberies. After a televised dramatic showdown with the Los Angeles police, the SLA members survived and went underground. One of them, Sarah Jane Olson, escaped detection for over 20 years as she started a new life and a family in Minnesota.

Imprisoned in 1999, Olson was paroled last week until being re-arrested when the parole board discovered an “administrative error” that reveals she is actually required to serve another year. Olson’s original sentence was 14 years, but since the 61-year-old has served half of it, her lawyer calls the error ridiculous and a result of bowing to political pressure.

It’s ironic how those who go to the extremes to destroy the system with no shame so shamelessly exploit the system to their advantage. They’re quick to profit from its checks and balances, quick to demand rights and freedoms from the state they previously deemed fascist. The most striking contrast between rebel groups in factually oppressive regimes like Burma and the predominantly white middle-class individuals that made up the SLA is the sense of privilege and entitlement that drove their ideology. American history shows that peaceful political protest leads to change, but dammit, by the time they got to their 20s, they just couldn’t take it anymore. It was time to shed some blood.

They had a manifesto, a clever symbol and wore berets. You know they mean business when they do that.

What they lacked was an understanding that subverting the dominant paradigm – whether through violent or peaceful means – means accepting the fact that the dominant paradigm may want to subvert you too. The decision to operate outside of accepted venues for seeking change is an explicit declaration to no longer be oppressed – or protected – by the rules. SLA’s comrades in arms around the world worry about the consequent repercussions from the government. Torture, no right to trial, despicable prison conditions, etc.

Administrative errors, like the one holding Olson in captivity, don’t make the list.

The murder of innocent people, destruction of private and public property to remedy imaginary ailments of the system and then using the system for self-protection to escape responsibility are the epitome of cowardice.

There are worse places on Earth to spend your youth in than Berkeley. What the SLA represents are people with little understanding of genuine political oppression and too much time on their hands.

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