Guerrilla USA
The George Jackson Brigade and the Anticapitalist Underground of the 1970s

Drawing on extensive interviews with surviving members of the George Jackson Brigade, this book provides an inside-out perspective on the social movements of the 1970s. It is also a compelling exploration of the true nature of crime and a provocative meditation on the tension between self-restraint and anger in the process of social change.

'We are cozy cuddly/armed and dangerous/and we will/raze the fucking prisons/to the ground'. In an attempt to deliver on this promise, the George Jackson Brigade launched a violent three-year campaign in the mid-1970s against corporate and state institutions in the Pacific Northwest. This campaign, conceived by a group of blacks and whites, both straight and gay, claimed fourteen bombings, as many bank robberies, and a jailbreak. Drawing on extensive interviews with surviving members of the George Jackson Brigade, "Guerrilla USA" provides an inside-out perspective on the social movements of the 1970s, revealing the whole era in a new and more complex light. It is also a compelling exploration of the true nature of crime and a provocative meditation on the tension between self-restraint and anger in the process of social change.

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Prelude I. Origins 1. Conceptions of Revolution and Violence, 1961-1967 2. A Cresting Wave, 1967-1970 3. Delivering on Threats, 1971-1975 IIa. Consciousness: Comrade Criminal 4. A Child Prodigy 5. Jailhouse Lawyer 6. Strike! 7. A Rebel and a Cause 8. The Destroyer\'s Creation IIb. Consciousness: Sister Subverter 9. Woman over the Edge of Crime 10. Women\'s Work 11. Inside Out 12. Days and Nights of Love and War 13. New York, New York III. Underground 14. Liberating the New World from the Old 15. Invitation to a Bombing 16. A Night without City Light 17. Dog Day Afternoon 18. Jailbreak! 19. Clueless in Seattle 20. Diverging Paths to a Common Dream 21. Ed Mead Gets His Day in Court 22. Underground in Oregon 23. Back with a Bang! 24. Winding Down 25. Crying a River Coda Notes Select Bibliography Index