Prairie Fire the Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism Review

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Prairie Fire the Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism ReviewI downloaded a PDF of Prairie Fire (available online). I've read roughly half of the 150 pages. I could not make it through the entire book. If the authors (Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Jeff Jones, and Celia Sojourn) weren't bomb throwing/cop killing unrepentant terrorists, you could laugh it off as bored, disillusioned rich white kids in the 70s pretending to be Che to make their lives feel relevant and important. But Ayers, et al, and those who share their views are now in control of this country; thus, it's important, and illuminating, to read the early, non-tempered views of some of the key players in the "Progressive" movement when they felt little need to moderate their message for a mass audience.
Ayers remains unrepentant for his crimes to this day. His connections to Obama are span decades, and are numerous: Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Obama political fundraisers at Ayers' and Dohrn's nearby Chicago home, both were on the board of Woods Fund, they share common friends, and shared an office for three years, and perhaps most interestingly, yet unconfirmed, Ayers claimed he ghost wrote Obama's biography, "Dreams of my Father". The MSM didn't feel these facts were important for the public to be aware of during the last election.
The book is a love letter to collectivism, violent revolution, the psychopath Che (his portrait takes up an entire page near the beginning of the book) and communism in general. It's peppered with quotes from Fidel Castro, and other communists. The book is an America-hating screed that blames the US, correction - white Americans, for the world's ills. Much of the book enumerates these "crimes". It's heavy on Vietnam, as would be expected given it's publication date, but it, along with Saul Alinsky's works, will fill in some gaps for those wondering, "What is going on in this country since Obama took office?"
The last chapter, "Against the Common Enemy" is a call to revolution....armed revolution. "Our final goal is the complete destruction of imperialism, the seizure of the means of production and the building of socialism." (See: GM, banks, health care)
It is heavy on "community organizing" haha. "Organize poor and working people. Go to the neighborhoods, the schools, the social institutions, the work places. Agitate. create struggle. (See: ACORN, SEIU)
See if any of these tactics sound familiar:
1. Ayers, et al also prescribe methods for infiltrating the education system, "We believe that radical teachers should work in schools in working class neighborhoods, in community or junior colleges. Radicalize other teachers, organize the parents." (See: Center for American Progress)
2. Converting the young to communism, "Organize among youth. Organize among women. Communists should play a big role in these movements, these popular upheavals which spawned us. This is our strength. Revolutionize existing projects and movements, analyze real situations, intervene with a revolutionary anti-imperialist perspective."
3. Internationalism, "Revolutionaries are internationalists. Our job is to build international class consciousness." (See: SEIU - "Workers of the World Unite")
4. Using the black community to foster communism in the US, "The oppressed nation of Black people is the leading anti-imperialist force in our country. No doubt about it. History, continuity; militancy -even in hard times. Black and other Third World leadership has, in recent years, been the most internationalist and the most militant." (See: Reverend Jeremiah Wright)
5. Praise for Maoist China, "The quality of life of a Chinese peasant is better than ours. The Chinese have free and adequate health care, a meaningful political education, productive work, a place to live, something to eat and each has a sense of her or himself as part of a whole people's shared historical purpose." (See: former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn)
6. Changing the US, "Our movement must discard the baggage of the oppressor society and become new women and new men, as Che taught." (See: Michelle Obama "We're going to have to make sacrifices, we're going to have to change our conversation, we're going to have to change our traditions, our history and we're going to have to move to a different place.")
There's more of this, much more. If you oppose the Obama regime, and its seemingly endless collection of Marxists, apologies for America, government takeovers, and union corruption you should at least skim through Prairie Fire. It's quite rare and expensive in print, but PDFs are available for free online. Make no mistake - Obama and his team are the originators and descendants of the Weather Underground's particular brand of internationalist class/race communist revolution.
What astonishingly high opinions of themselves these folks must have. They assume to know better for the rest of us in every regard, and thus lying about their intentions and methods is acceptable. They know that 90% of America finds these ideas despicable, and would take up arms to preserve our Constitution. In fact, the Weather Underground planned for this eventuality and estimated they would have to "eliminate" 25,000,000 Americans after their revolution - those who would refuse to be "re-educated" (See: FBI informant Larry Grathwohl)
The MSM complicity in this sequel to the failed revolution of the late 60's cannot be understated. Obama was not only not vetted by the press, they actively withheld information linking Obama to radicals of many stripes united in their hatred for the USA. For example, the LA Times refused to release a tape of Obama at PLO adviser Rashid Kalidi's 2003 farewell bash. And yes, Bill Ayers was there too. One can only wonder what is on the tape.
I leave you with the last sentence in Prairie Fire, "Life itself depends on our ability to deal a swift death blow to the monster."
.... and the debt climbs ever higher by the minute (See: Cloward Piven)Prairie Fire the Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism Overview

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Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity Review

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Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity ReviewThe Politics of the Weather Underground
Volunteers of America
By RON JACOBS
In 1997 Verso published my history of the Weather Underground, The Way the Wind Blew: a History of the Weather Underground. Weather Underground member Bill Ayers' memoir Fugitive Days, published by Beacon Press in 2001, followed. Two years later, the film The Weather Underground, directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel, was released. The film probably received the greatest amount of coverage in the mainstream media, although the unfortunate timing of Weather Underground member Bill Ayers' memoir (September 11, 2001) certainly provided his book with its own share, most of it negative.
There have also been novels written where the WUO figured prominently (most notably The Company You Keep by Neil Gordon Viking 2003), a pamphlet written by political prisoner David Gilbert (SDS/WUO, Students For A Democratic Society And The Weather Underground Organization, Arm the Spirit 2002) and the comparative study of the Weather Underground and the German leftist armed organization, the Red Army Fraction, by Jeremy Varon (Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies; UC Press 2004).
AK Press of Oakland, California is adding another book to this growing library of Weather Underground literature. The book, titled Outlaws of America and written by up-and-coming radical author Dan Berger, is an important complement to the earlier works. The first history of the Weather Underground Organization(WUO) to be written by someone whose age parallels the ages of the children of WUO members and many other "sixties" activists (Berger is 24), this well-researched and detailed work provides a perspective on the most well-known group in the militant wing of the anti-racist and antiwar movement. The book is essential to understanding the history of the 1960s, as well as the present movements against racism and imperialist war.
Two things make this book different than the one I got published 8 years ago. The first, and probably the greatest, is that Berger had access to the research and work that went into Green's film and my book. In addition, he also had much greater access to many of the personalities involved in the Weather organization. Green had a similar access. Things were a bit different when I was writing my book (1990-1997). Queries I sent to those members in prison were returned to me by prison officials, never having reached their intended recipient. Only a few individuals who had been in Weatherman/WUO were willing to talk with me and only two were willing to go on record. Others were willing to tell me if my story was accurate or not, but refused to discuss any specifics. One reason for this was the timing of my queries. After all, many Weather members were still unsure of their legal status and, politically, the US Left was still reeling from the effects of the incredibly reactionary Reagan era--a period that saw many members of the militant US left imprisoned and its infrastructure destroyed. In addition, hardly anyone that I approached knew my politics--which were a cross between the countercultural anarchism of the Yippies and the new communist movement of the 1970s. Berger and others have mentioned that my book helped to make it okay for WUO to be discussed as a force in US radical history. I was sent dozens of emails and letters from people telling me their stories as members of WUO or other militant groups after my book was published verifying this impression.
The other major difference between my work and Outlaws of America is that Berger writes from the perspective of today's generation of radical activists. (Indeed, Berger is co-editor of the recently released collection Letters From Young Activists.) His perspective is that of an anti-imperialist who came of age in the 1990s, not the 1960s and 1970s. This obviously provides a different perspective simply because the face of US imperialism has changed, with the end of the Soviet Union and its allies, and the rise of two worldwide movements against Western capitalism--the anti-global capitalism surge and the Islamic movement against the west. Both of these movements have varied strains and are only semi-consciously aware of the connections they share. Besides providing a different perspective on the WUO because of the difference in the historical situation, Berger's viewpoint is one that is not laden with the personality conflicts and ego battles that are part and parcel of every "Sixties" activist's recollection of the WUO. On top of that, Berger's historical distance means that he sometimes places his emphasis on words and actions that have more importance now than they did when they occurred. This tends to provide a more congruous history. At times, his words may seem too uncritical, but as another historian who was accused of the same thing, it is my belief that most of those who make this criticism are either fundamentally opposed to WUO's politics and analysis or are still stuck in a past that most Weather members have apologized for over and over.
Outlaws of America begins with a gripping description of Berger's first visit to Attica State Prison to interview/converse with former weather Underground member David Gilbert, who has been in the New York prison system since a conviction for his involvement in the tragic failure popularly known as the Nyack Brink's robbery. Berger obviously has a tremendous amount of respect for Gilbert's commitment while simultaneously understanding the tragedy of his position. In fact, each chapter begins with a quote from Gilbert--a technique that provides the reader with a glimpse of Berger's general perspective while never merely repeating Gilbert's take on things.
Much of the book's beginning is a general history of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the dissipation of that organization into Weatherman, Revolutionary Youth Movement 2, and SDS/Progressive Labor. Using an academically-trained critical eye, Berger analyzes key documents published in the SDS newspaper New Left Notes and explicates the role these writings had in the political development of Weather. His generational removal from the times allows for an analysis that accepts the fervent anti-racism and struggle against white privilege that would become Weather's theoretical backbone at face value. This is important to Berger's history. Once he establishes these elements as the basis for Weather's politics, Berger is able to provide the reader with a history of the Weatherman/Weather Underground Organization that would make its former members critically proud.
Given this, one might argue that while Outlaws of America might make former WUO members proud, it certainly couldn't be a good history if it accepts their political premise. After all, how could such a history be at all critical? To Berger's credit, it is the very fact that he uses the yardstick of Weather's essential political stance as the measure by which they should be judged that this history works as well as it does. It is apparent from his writing that his interviews with former members caused them to look at their actions and political words in relation to how well they measured up to their emotional and intellectual commitment to fighting racism, imperialism, and the white privilege these isms provide to white folks in the US.
As an activist who sees things differently than Weather did in terms of emphasis on fighting white privilege, I am more than willing to admit that it was their focus on this element of US society that made me aware of the phenomenon of white privilege and reminded me to fight it in myself and the larger world. On the other hand, my relationships with workers who also happened to be white led me to draw different conclusions about the way the phenomena of racism, white privilege, and economic exploitation interact in modern capitalist society. Of course, I was (and am) but one of hundreds of thousands pondering these questions. And they are important questions, to be sure.
Outlaws of America explores the final years of Weather in greater detail than its predecessors. In addition, Berger provides considerably more detail about the law enforcement activities arrayed against the WUO and its allies. This is one important part of the text where the element of time works in the author's favor. Not only is there more information regarding the law enforcement activities against the 1960s and 1970s popular leftist and anti-racist organizations, it is also much more accessible. This fact combined with Weather members willingness to discuss their years underground helps Berger flesh out the facts of State repression against the New Left, Black, Latino and Native American organizations, and especially the WUO. As regards the final years of Weather, the fact that many more former members feel safe in discussing the activities and politics of the group provided Berger with an opportunity to uncover the material. Of course, unless he asked the right questions, he would not have discovered what he did. Fortunately, Berger not only asked the right questions, he found enough former members willing to discuss their answers with him. Consequently, the reader is provided with the most complete explanation to date of how and why the Weather Underground Organization fell apart. Like every other aspect of its existence, the fundamental reasons were political. The stories and discussions in this section are instructive for today's movements as they struggle with questions of class, race, and gender.
Berger's best writing occurs when he weaves the modern-day reflections of former WUO members into his narrative text. He does this so skillfully that those reminiscences never come off sounding...Read more›Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity Overview
"Dan Berger represents an emerging generation of radical activist scholars. A meticulously researched and well-referenced study of the Weather Underground. . . . A gripping story, drawing important lessons for the younger generation of activists."—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960–1975

Outlaws of America brings to life the motivations and actions of America's most famous renegades, who bombed their way into history. Through detailed and original research, Dan Berger offers a nuanced and compelling portrait of the group that risked everything in opposition to war and racism.

This explosive, engaging, and timely book uncovers the untold story of the Weather Underground, from its incendiary beginning to its tumultuous ending—never sparing a critical analysis of the group. Especially noteworthy is Berger's groundbreaking discussion of the infamous 1981 Brinks case, where former Weather Underground members allied with the Black Liberation Army in a failed robbery that resulted in the deaths of three men and the longtime incarceration of several activists.

Outlaws of America is culled from dozens of in-depth interviews with former Weather Underground members, as well as with civil rights activists, Black Panthers, Young Lords, and others—many of whom speak about their experiences publicly here for the first time. The book also features an extensive appendix including Weather Underground communiqués, a chronology of actions, a collection of rare photographs, and current biographical sketches of many ex-Weather Underground members.

Outlaws of America is published at a time of surging interest in the history of the group, immediately following the release of the Oscar-nominated documentary entitled The Weather Underground, of which Outlaws is the essential companion volume.

Dan Berger is a writer, activist, and PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. A longtime anti-racism organizer, he is the co-editor of Letters From Young Activists (Nation Books, 2005).


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