Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson has long been comfortable associating with figures tied to the most extreme fringe of American left‑wing militancy — including Bill Ayers, co‑founder of the Weather Underground, a group the FBI labeled a domestic terrorist organization.
On September 25, 2018, at 57th Street Books in Chicago, Johnson — then a Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) staffer and public school teacher — sat on stage in a panel discussion with Ayers and Mark Warren, discussing education and Chicago Public Schools policy. The event was recorded and distributed by the Midwest Socialist organization.
A photo from that event shows Johnson and Ayers sitting just a few feet apart, engaged in a friendly and collegial conversation. The main thesis of the event was that if Black students succeed, it harms lower‑performing Black students.
Ayers, of course, is no ordinary education activist.
As he recounted in his memoir Fugitive Days, he participated in the bombings of the New York City Police Department headquarters in 1970, the U.S. Capitol in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972 as part of the Weather Underground’s campaign against the U.S. government.
The Weather Underground (WUO) declared war on the United States, and its members carried out more than a dozen bombings, jailbreaks, and armed actions between 1969 and the late 1970s. The group glorified violence, praised the Manson Family murders, and left a trail of destruction and fear before disbanding.
Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, spent years underground evading arrest before reemerging with minimal legal consequences.
Johnson’s connection to Ayers also runs through the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union. Jackson Potter, CTU Vice President and chief architect of the union’s militant political posture, is the son of a longtime Ayers associate and reportedly meets regularly with him.
Under CORE (Caucus of Rank‑and‑file Educators), which elevated Johnson and Potter, the CTU has increasingly embraced radical political theater over the day‑to‑day concerns of its members — as extensively documented by Substance News, SubXNews, and others unafraid to confront domestic terrorists.
Johnson has never explained — and actively avoids questions about — why he chose to sit with Ayers on a public stage to discuss education, knowing Ayers’ violent past, or whether he repudiates the Weather Underground’s tactics.
So the question remains:
Brandon Johnson, why did you sit with a domestic terrorist to talk about Chicago Public Schools while you were a paid teacher and union staffer?
The Weather Underground and the Politics of Violence
The Weather Underground Organization (WUO) was explicitly founded to overthrow the U.S. government through violent means. Emerging from the radical faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1969, the group advocated sabotage, bombings, and militant resistance as the path to revolution.
According to Influence Watch:
“The Underground was founded to overthrow the U.S. government through violent means, though its attacks on police and military resulted in no known deaths.”
Though the Weather Underground itself dissolved in the late 1970s, some of its members went on to form or join the May 19th Communist Organization (M19CO) — the nation’s only female‑led communist terror group. Led in part by Susan Rosenberg, M19CO coordinated a series of bombings and armed actions in the early 1980s, helping to break Black Liberation Army member and convicted cop‑killer Assata Shakur out of prison in 1979, and carrying out attacks on government buildings.
As the New York Post documented:
“Radicals led the May 19th Communist Organization (M19CO). The nation’s only female-led Communist terror group, it helped break a convicted cop killer out of prison in 1979 and organized a number of bombings around the country. The group also participated in a Rockland County, New York, armored car robbery which left a guard and two police officers dead.”
On October 20, 1981, members of M19CO and the Black Liberation Army — operating together as a criminal coalition the CIA later identified as “The Family” — carried out a violent armed robbery of a Brink’s armored car in Nanuet, New York.
According to a CIA report:
“On October 20, 1981, Rosenberg’s May 19th Communist Organization and members of the Black Liberation Army carried out a robbery attack against a Brink’s armored car in Nanuet, New York. … This criminal coalition, known as ‘The Family,’ was organized by Mutulu Shakur, stepfather of the late hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur.”
During the robbery and ensuing getaway, two police officers (Edward O’Grady and Waverly Brown) and a Brink’s guard (Peter Paige) were killed. Though Rosenberg claimed innocence, a New York State Criminal Justice Institute report placed her at the Mount Vernon safe‑house used to stage the assault.
The $1.6 million stolen was reportedly intended to fund the “New Afrika Movement” — a revolutionary Black nationalist cause.
As summarized in the NY State report:
“While Rosenberg maintained her innocence in the Brink’s robbery, a report by the New York State Criminal Justice Institute placed Rosenberg at the Mount Vernon safe-house that served as a staging location for the assault. The $1.6 million stolen in the raid was intended to be used to fund the ‘New Afrika Movement.’”
The Next Generation: Chesa Boudin and Susan Rosenberg
The Ayers‑Dohrn circle’s influence did not end with their own generation. After surfacing in 1980, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn became the legal guardians of Chesa Boudin, the infant son of Weather Underground members Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, both of whom were imprisoned for their roles in the Brink’s robbery.
While they served their sentences, Chesa Boudin grew up in Ayers and Dohrn’s Hyde Park home. He later became San Francisco District Attorney in 2020, promoting radical criminal justice reforms rooted in the same ideology that animated his parents and guardians.
Ayers and Dohrn also worked to secure the release of their longtime comrade Susan Rosenberg, who had been arrested in 1984 with 740 pounds of explosives and weapons. Serving a 58‑year sentence, she was granted clemency by President Bill Clinton on his final day in office — a decision widely condemned by law enforcement and victims’ families.
As the New York Times reported:
“Law enforcement officials and relatives of the victims of the Brink’s robbery said the commutation was an affront to the memory of the officers who died and a shocking disregard for the rule of law.”
Ayers‑Style Radicalism Dominates CTU Governance
The ideological foundation of Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in Ayers‑style radicalism now dominates the union’s internal governance, replacing democratic accountability with top‑down control, ideological theater, and cult‑like rituals.
Under CORE, whose leadership is directly controlled by Bill Ayers, Jackson Potter, and their ideological network, the CTU executive board abandoned its traditional role as a representative body addressing member concerns. Instead, it became an instrument of ideological proselytizers and internal manipulation, imposing symbolic rituals and political orthodoxy over the democratic processes it replaced.
Longtime CTU delegate and Substance News editor George N. Schmidt, who was ultimately fired for his criticism, documented how the executive board degenerated into mystical ceremonies, where members sat in circles, passed around objects like a photo of Prince, and spoke about their feelings instead of addressing real grievances.
“Instead of having special E‑Board meetings to discuss, say, the major concerns of the members in each of the functional groups, the current top‑down version of unionism practiced at Carroll Street is tilting towards what more and more E‑Board members (anonymously for fear of retaliation) laugh about as a strange kind of veneration.”
Schmidt exposed how the leadership dismantled long‑standing democratic practices — abolishing the union’s calendar and directory of delegates, silencing functional vice presidents, and filling union positions with loyalists who had no experience as school delegates.
In his words:
“CORE has always been a fake democracy that uses manipulation tactics to convince people they have a voice. Every move made is controlled by a tiny group led by Jackson Potter. Anyone that challenges those manipulations or knows the history of the Union is removed from CORE and the CTU.”
The radical ideology of Bill Ayers and his network — once expressed through bombs, bank robberies, and political violence — has found a new home in Chicago’s union halls and City Hall itself.
Under CORE and now under Mayor Brandon Johnson, that ideology dominates not only outward politics but internal governance, replacing transparency and representation with intimidation, manipulation, and orthodoxy.
Chicago deserves clarity about its mayor’s past — and his present.
If Johnson knew about Ayers’ history and sat with him anyway, that speaks volumes about his judgment.
If he did not know, that speaks volumes about his ignorance.
Chicagoans should demand an answer.
References
when black students succeed they are harming lower performing black students (Brandon Johnson,Sept 25, 2018)
https://x.com/SubxNews/status/1640607040778248196
Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers sitting next to Brandon Johnson talking like friends (28 April 2023)
https://subx.news/domestic-terrorist-bill-ayers-sitting-next-to-brandon-johnson-talking-like-friends/
Cult-like New Age mystical nonsense dominates CTU Executive Board soirees (25 Feb 2018)
http://substancenews.net/articles.php?page=6879
Influence Watch, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) (Aug 2021)
https://influencewatch.org/non-profit/students-for-a-democratic-society-sds/
Mary Kay Linge, Inside the female-run communist terror group hell-bent on destruction (4 January 2020)
https://nypost.com/2020/01/04/inside-this-female-run-communist-terror-group-hell-bent-on-destruction/
The Terrorist Underground in the United States, The Nathaniel Hale Institute (15 June 2010)
https://cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00806r000200720001-9
Report on the Policy Study Group on Terrorism, New York State Criminal Justice Institute (November 1985)
https://ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/101960NCJRS.pdf
Raymond Hernandez & Benjamin Weiser, Officials Criticize Clinton’s Pardon of an Ex-Terrorist, New York Times (22 January 2001)
https://nytimes.com/2001/01/22/nyregion/officials-criticize-clinton-s-pardon-of-an-ex-terrorist.html
