Creating a Movement with Teeth A Documentary History of the George Jackson Brigade

by Burton-Rose, Daniel; Churchill, Ward

• ISBN13: 9781604862232
• ISBN10: 1604862238
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-01
• Publisher: PM Press

Summary

This panoramic overview chronicles the activities of the George Jackson Brigade, a radical, 1970s, multiracial and sexually diverse organization--veterans of prisoners', women's, gay, and black liberation movements. The Brigade embraced bank robberies and armed insurrection to wage war against what they felt was an unjust government. Through a wide array of surveillance reports, feature articles from mainstream and alternative presses, and the organization's prolific, spontaneous communications and substitutive political statements, this collection reveals this body of propaganda and meditations on praxis.

Author Biography

Daniel Burton-Rose is the author of Guerrilla USA: The George Jackson Brigade and the Anti-capitalist Underground of the 1970s and a coeditor of The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry and Confronting Capitalism: Dispatches from a Global Movement. Ward Churchill is a writer, a lecturer, and a political activist. He is a former professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado–Boulder and a member of the leadership council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado. He is the author of numerous essays and books, including On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. They both live in Boulder, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Permissions	p. 8
Acknowledgments	p. 9
Preface, Ward Churchill	p. 11
Introduction, Daniel Burton-Rose	p. 17
Conventions	p. 25
Profiles of the George Jackson Brigade	p. 27
Law Enforcement Perspectives
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom of Information Act Document, "Domestic Security"	p. 34
Seattle Police Department Intelligence Division, "George Jackson Brigade"	p. 35
Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Re: George Jackson Brigade," January 4, 1978	p. 38
Difficult to Digest: The Corporate Media on the George Jackson Brigade
Walter Wright, "Ed Mead: Two Faces of a Dangerous Man"	p. 47
Walter Wright, "Pages in the Life of Bruce Seidel: Two Sides of a Revolutionary"	p. 51
Neil Modie, "Janine and Jori: The Two Faces of a Jackson Brigade Suspect"	p. 54
Community Response: Chris Beahler et al., "Open Letter to Dr. Jennifer James"	p. 57
John Arthur Wilson, "Sherman-'Ready When the Time Comes'"	p. 59
Invisible People: a Working Class Black Man and a White Dyke
Michelle Celarier, "Does the State Conspire? The Conviction of Mark Cook"	p. 65
rita d. brown, "a short autobiography"	p. 71
Communiqués	p. 75
Olympia Bombing, June 1, 1975	p. 77
Capitol Hill Safeway, September 18, 1975 "We Cry and We Fight"	p. 80
Community Response: Left Bank Collective	p. 83
New Year, 1976	p. 84
Communiqué Fragment, "On the Weather Underground..."	p. 86
International Women's Day, March 1976 "We're Not All Men"	p. 90
Community Response: snapdragon, "A Letter to the George Jackson Brigade"	p. 95
May Day, May 12, 1977	p. 97
Community Response: The Walla Walla Brothers	p. 104
Summer Solstice, June 21, 1977	p. 105
Capitalism is Organized Crime, July 4, 1977	p. 107
"Tell No Lies, Claim No Easy Victories," July 4, 1977	p. 110
Community Response: Vinegar Beard Collective	p. 112
Community Response: Stagecoach Mary Collective, August 10, 1977	p. 114
Open Letter to the John Brown Book Club, September 1, 1977	p. 117
Bust the Bosses, October 12, 1977	p. 122
Letter to the Automotive Machinists Union Local 289, October 16, 1977	p. 124
You Can Kill a Revolutionary, But You Can't Kill a Revolution, November 1977	p. 126
An Open Letter to Bo (Rita D. Brown), November 1977 "To Bo Wherever We May Find Her"	p. 129
Open Letter To Jailers Spellman and Waldt, December 23, 1977	p. 133
Bust the Union Busters, December 24, 1977	p. 137
Our Losses Are Heavy ... Easter Sunday 1978	p. 140
The Power of the People is The Source of Life	p. 143
The Power of the People Is the Source of Life: Political Statement of the George Jackson Brigade	p. 147
History and Summation of Brigade Unity	p. 148
The Left	p. 151
Weather Influence	p. 152
The Police (and Other Backward Elements)	p. 153
Terrorism	p. 155
The Road Forward-Strategy	p. 156
Tactics	p. 159
Anti-Authoritarian Statement	p. 164
"Serve the People-Fight for Socialism"	p. 169
Chronology of Brigade Actions	p. 178
Community Response: The Valerian Coven	p. 184
When Is The Time? Seattle's Left Community Debates Armed Action	p. 189
John Brockhaus and Roxanne Park, "Ed Mead Speaks from Prison"	p. 193
Roxanne Park, "Terrorism and the George Jackson Brigade"	p. 202
Michelle Whitnack, "On Armed Struggle: A Continuing Dialogue"	p. 210
Left Bank Collective, "We ... Support Armed Action ... Now"	p. 214
Ed Mead, "Ed Mead Replies"	p. 222
Roxanne Park and Emmett Ward, "Grand Jury: Three Who Refused to Speak"	p. 231
Papaya, "More Than 'Critical Support' for GJB"	p. 240
Bill Patz, "Captured Members Explain Their Politics"	p. 241
Processing	p. 251
Daniel Burton-Rose, A Collective Interview with George Jackson Brigade Veterans Bo Brown, Mark Cook, and Ed Mead	p. 253
Notes	p. 269
Selected Newspaper Articles on the George Jackson Brigade, 1975-1978	p. 293
Selected Bibliography	p. 303
Index	p. 306
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