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

by Daniel Burton-Rose (Editor), Ward Churchill (Preface)

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.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

"On May 31, 1975, a pipe bomb tore out a wall of a State Department Corrections office in Olympia... "

Active in Seattle in the late 1970s, the George Jackson Brigade was made up of prisoners, ex-prisoners and people doing 'day-to-day prisoners' rights organizing'. Some of these people, especially Ed Mead, are still very active and involved in anti-prison struggles today in the U.S. The Brigade was made up of women, queers, poor and working class, and people of colour - at least half of the members were women!

Rita Bo Brown: We were all prison abolitionists, though we didn't call ourselves that... Everytime I walked down the streets of Seattle and people realized I was a dyke, I was getting knocked down...

This documentary history takes up debates central to the Brigades actions, with the advantages of being historically located and explored in dialogue, between communiques, letters and published articles in leftist newspapers. Some of these debates: the role of violence/armed struggle and its distinction from terrorism; accountability and (dis)connection between aboveground/underground organisers; the meaning of (3rd World) solidarity; the differences between communist and anarchist visions; the role of women in armed struggle; risk and repression...

The conversations are also very contextualised by the Weather Underground (who are heavily criticised by the brigade for being opportunistic intellectuals?!) and to a lesser extent the Panthers and other armed struggle/revolutionary movements at the time around the globe.

The format has the advantages of an archival history - original communiques and newsprints, interviews - but at times this makes it kinda dry, disjointed and repetitive, sometimes leaves the ideas lacking in-depth, extensive or reflective analysis.

For me, the most I got out of it was an expanded perspective on (U.S) prison abolitionist history, that broadens the movement in terms of the kinds of organizing that's been done, and the past (and potential) tactics and strategies that have been used on the outside (with, necessarily, strong links to the inside), and the political/practical ramifications of those.

[Soph Nova · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of primary source documents may seem boring to most, but this tightly edited collection (although openly partisan) was a great peek into a specific political formation and its tactics, strategies, and larger political vision - which is especially useful for a realm like armed struggle which too often lives in the realm of platitudes or lack of material analysis.

“What is important is to recognize that the violence inherent in a capitalist society is in the end the force that motivates people to fighting back with arms or without.”