A founder of Columbia University SDS and a veteran of the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War Movements, David Gilbert joined the Weather Underground Organization in the late 60s. After more than 10 years of clandestine resistance, he was captured in the course of an armed action in 1981. Gilbert has been a revolutionary political prisoner for 22 years, continuing his work as an AIDS activist and author from behind the walls. This first collection of David Gilbert's prison writings is a unique contribution to our understanding of the most ambitious and audacious attempts by white anti-imperialists to build an underground movement "within the belly of the beast." With unsparing honesty (and unfailing humor), he discusses the errors and successes of the WUO and their allies; the pitfalls of racism, sexism, and ego in revolutionary organizations; and the possibilities and perils facing today's growing anti-imperialist resistance. Includes forewords by political prisoners Marilyn Buck and Sundiata Acoli.
What People Are Saying
"This book stands alone in the growing number of books about the 1960s, the anti-Vietnam War Movement, and the Weather Underground Organization because of David's willingness to own it and analyze it. His discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of this history, the role of armed struggle, the rise of terrorism, the continued aggression of the U.S. government speak directly to the concerns of everyone working for justice anywhere. David's discussion of these topics is freer, more alive, and more honest than any I have read. This book should stimulate learning from our political prisoners, but more importantly it challenges us to work to free them, and in doing so take the best of our history forward." —Susan Rosenberg, former US political prisoner "David Gilbert is a warrior in the most profound sense of the term. Imbued with a near-crystalline clarity of principle, the indomitable courage to live his life in accordance with the values he holds true, and, most importantly, his every action guided by the immensity of his love for the wretched of this earth, he is truly an inspiration. Predictably, given the strength of Gilbert's character, his writings are offered as tools—nay, WEAPONS—in the ongoing struggle for liberation. They are thus of incalculable value to each of us who aspires to the attainment of freedom, justice and dignity for ALL people." —Ward Churchill