Jane Alpert

Jane Lauren Alpert (born May 20, 1947) is an American former far left radical who conspired in the bombings of eight government and commercial office buildings in New York City in 1969. Arrested when other members of her group were caught planting dynamite in National Guard trucks, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy, but a month before her scheduled sentencing jumped bail and went into hiding.

After four and a half years of wandering the country working at low-level jobs under false names, she surrendered in November 1974 and was sentenced to 27 months in prison for the conspiracy conviction. In October 1977 she was sentenced to an additional four months imprisonment for contempt of court, for refusing to testify at the 1975 trial of another defendant in the 1969 bombings.

During her fugitive years, Alpert saw that the radical left was in decline and began to identify with radical feminism, mailing a manifesto to Ms. magazine, along with a set of her fingerprints to authenticate it. That document, Mother Right: A New Feminist Theory, denounced "the sexual oppression of the left" and detailed her conversion from militant leftist to radical feminist.

Early life Alpert was born in May 1947 and grew up in the New York City area. Her grandparents, who were Jewish, immigrated from Russia to escape the pogroms. One of her grandfathers gave up his Orthodox faith after coming to America and became a socialist in the 1930s. When she was twelve, they moved back to New York, and she felt like an outsider once again.

Alpert graduated from Forest Hills High School two years before her graduating class and attended Swarthmore College. She continued to do well academically, read constantly, and began to make friends. Among a variety of influential books she read were those of Ayn Rand.

Alpert attended Swarthmore College, graduating with honors in 1967 after developing an interest in radical politics. She did graduate work at Columbia University but quit after the 1968 student uprising.

Sam Melville After graduating from Swarthmore, Alpert took a job as an editor in a publishing firm and started graduate work at Columbia University. Alpert met Sam Melville at the CAC (Community Action Coalition). Melville and Alpert became more involved with politics; they became romantically involved as well, and Alpert moved to the Lower East Side to live with Melville at his apartment. and lived underground while Melville was incarcerated. Alpert learned that Melville was killed at Attica Prison, in New York, in 1971 and wrote an epitaph that was published in the Rat. Alpert was involved with several bombings and authored the letters that were released to the press. Alpert was charged with bombing eight government and corporate office buildings during a three-month bombing spree United States Capitol United States State Department building Armed Forces Induction Center New York Corporate Office

Alpert planted a bomb on the floor of the New York Federal Building, which housed U.S. military. Alpert said she felt a sense of hyperawareness surrounding her, and she felt happy and fearful at the same time. Alpert's parents bailed her out, and with the advice of others, Alpert forfeited the $20,000.00 bail and went underground. Jane Alpert was not arrested for the New York Corporate Office bombing and was still wanted. While underground Alpert got in contact and met with Mark Rudd. While with Rudd, the pair got pulled over by a police officer, but they gave false identification papers and were let off. at the Golden Gate Bridge. The following day, Dohrn and Alpert went to Mt. Tamalpais to speak to a group of women. The two parted ways and Dohrn gave Alpert Kathy Boudin's address. Alpert headed back to the east coast and stopped in Boston to visit Boudin. Although Boudin and Alpert argued over the new left movement. After four years of wandering the country working at low-level jobs under false names, she surrendered in November 1974 and was sentenced to 27 months in prison for the conspiracy conviction. In October 1977, she was sentenced to an additional four months imprisonment for contempt of court, for refusing to testify at the 1975 trial of Patricia Swinton, another defendant in the 1969 case.

Jane Alpert turned herself in on November 17, 1974, at the Office of the United States Attorney in New York City after being underground for four and a half years. According to The New York Times and TIME magazine, Alpert was sentenced to 27 months in prison for bombing conspiracy and jumping bail. Alpert said that the "plea was not a copout." Jane Alpert's admission of her deviance – inherently part of the act of surrender – was bolstered by her statement that she returned from underground because "it was the right thing to do" Alpert said. "It wasn't a political thing—just a purely pragmatic choice on our part." She declared that she and her co-conspirators "believed they were acting morally; that if anyone was doing anything concrete to stop the war it was us." Contrary to some reports, Alpert was not a member of the Weather Underground, although she knew several people who were. In Alpert's surrender statement she mentioned work in the feminist movement as a major goal.

Alpert acknowledged her feminism, which provided evidence that she would not engage in the same activities now that she did then because of a heightened awareness of power relationships in the male-female interactions. her audience was women involved in the Feminist Media. Alpert had been underground for three years when she released her piece for publication. "I regard this piece as a distillation of what I have learned in these three years. The piece describes the process by which I became a feminist, and devotes a fair amount of space to my vision for the future, for you, for myself, for the planet."