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

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1604862238 ISBN 13: 9781604862232

Publisher: PM Press, 2010

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. 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 former 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. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Creating a Movement with Teeth

A Documentary History of the George Jackson Brigade

By Daniel Burton-Rose

PM Press

Copyright © 2010 PM Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-60486-223-2

Contents

Permissions, 
Acknowledgments, 
Preface, Ward Churchill, 
Introduction, Daniel Burton-Rose, 
Conventions, 
I. PROFILES OF THE GEORGE JACKSON BRIGADE 27, 
II. COMMUNIQUÉS, 
III. THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE, 
IV. WHEN IS THE TIME? SEATTLE'S LEFT COMMUNITY DEBATES ARMED ACTION, 
V. PROCESSING 251, 
Notes, 
Selected Newspaper Articles on the George Jackson Brigade, 1975–1978, 
Selected Bibliography, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Part I

Profiles of the George Jackson Brigade

This section is divided into three ways in which the Brigade was seen and made visible: i) the clipped and error-prone reports of law enforcement on the group as a whole; ii) press coverage from major print media corporations; and iii) accounts in the countercultural press focusing on statements published by supporters. The latter two are intertwined to a certain extent in that the corporate press did at times give significant space to interviews with Brigade members in custody and even printed communiqués.

The first section, "Law Enforcement Perspectives," begins with a chronology of Brigade actions, prepared by Intelligence Division of the Seattle Police Department. It is undated but can be no earlier than late December 1977: i.e., three months before the arrest of the last remaining Brigade member. It is a small fragment of a file weighing in at approximately 750 pages.

The following report, by an anonymous agent of the Seattle offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (regional headquarters for the Pacific Northwest), provides an overview of the George Jackson Brigade that is conceptual as well as chronological. It dates to the days before the final arrest when the ideology and the membership of the organization had become gradually clearer but members were still at large and presented an immediate threat. The report is rife with inaccuracies: George Jackson was killed August 21, not 11, 1971; CONvention, not "Convention Movement"; "The Family" at the Washington State Prison in Walla Walla began in 1973. Yet for all these faults, the author(s) of this document also understood something of the distinctiveness of the George Jackson Brigade — that it grew out of the prison movement, and, as the report states, did "not envision itself as an 'elite' faction for an ultimate revolutionary government."

The proverbial "Agent Smith," or group of agents, completely missed other elements. For example, he (there were no female agents in the office) referred to "the writer for the GJB," though the Brigade's political statement, which was released two months before this report was completed, was so clearly a collective project that it contained separate statements of two distinct ideological perspectives: antiauthoritarian and socialist. The assertion that "The communiques and notations written by the GJB indicate a strict dedication to the precepts and disciplines included in the writings of KARL MARX" would make an orthodox Marxist cringe, though the agent is correct in observing that the Brigade's Marxism-Leninism had been processed through South American revolutionaries (the Brazilian theorist-practitioner Carlos Marighella more so than Che Guevara, while Asian and African theorist-practitioners influenced them as well). Note, as well, that the author finds the Brigade's activities so reprehensible that he does not even permit them ideals, only "imagined ideals."

The Bureau apparently still remembers the Brigade as a major case, and has chosen to post their entire file on the Brigade on their website. The author of the introduction to the Brigade, however, seems to have read the file too literally, claiming for example that the Brigade carried out an attack against a "custom house," when the object of their attention was the adjacent FBI offices.

The next section, "Difficult to Digest: The Corporate Media on the George Jackson Brigade," contains mainstream press profiles of Ed Mead, Bruce Seidel, Janine Bertram, and John Sherman, all of whom were in custody — or in Seidel's case, deceased — at the time. The stories are framed as explorations of the "two-faced" character of revolutionaries: the journalists struggle to reconcile friends' and family members' testimonies to the warmth and humanity of the Brigade members with prosecutors' and law enforcement officers' condemnation of the violence inherent in their chosen path.

The tone of the coverage varies by the class background of the Brigade member under scrutiny. Bertram and Seidel came from middle class backgrounds. Appropriate to the demographic of daily newspaper readers, their profiles reveal a discernable undercurrent of parental introspection: 'What did we do wrong?' Ed Mead came from a working class background, and is placed at a further remove from the reader; he is more of an ominous curiosity than a prodigal son. Sherman hovers in between: his golden tongue clearly won a degree of sympathy from the reporter.

The last section "Invisible People: A Working Class Black Man and a White Dyke," deals with the members of the Brigade the corporate press could not perceive as multidimensional people. The mainstream press paid significant attention to Mark Cook, but he also remained a mystery to them for reasons they could not have overcome. Unlike Mead, who claimed responsibility for Brigade actions and declared his politics to anyone who would listen, Cook kept his own counsel, and consistently denied membership in the Brigade. Cook exhibited an equal respect for, and commitment to, aboveground and underground work. This was not schizophrenia, as implied in the press profiles in the second section, but a focus on a purpose which — in the perception of Cook and his peers — demanded to be realized by the distinct, but complementary, means too often categorized simplistically as "reformist" and "revolutionary."

The irony of Cook's case is that, though guilty as charged, he was also framed. He was pulled in by police because he was on a watch list of African-American radicals known informally as the "crazy nigger list." He was then released and rearrested several days later after being fingered by a former friend from his days in the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Autrey "Scatman" Sturgis. Cook states that he never disclosed his involvement in the Brigade to Sturgis, and speculates that Sturgis, also in custody and in forced withdrawal from heroin, followed the leads of investigators in asserting that Cook had confessed to him. Because he maintained his innocence, a full portrait of Cook was thus not possible until 1999, the year he acknowledged his past involvement in the Brigade and was released from prison. Michelle Celarier's article included here gives a thorough overview of the prosecutorial dirty tricks in the case, and reflects the understandable uncertainty of the aboveground Left as to the degree of Cook's involvement in the Tukwila robbery attempt.

Rita "Bo" Brown, a butch lesbian as well as a proletarian, was even more difficult for the press to digest than was Cook. According to Brown, law enforcement officials, concerned by the press coverage that had been received by Mead and Sherman, obstructed press access after her arrest. Facing trial in Portland, Oregon, she was also far from her base in Seattle. As a result, no corporate profiles exist comparable to those on her fellow Brigade members. I have chosen to include an autobiographical sketch Brown wrote for her defense committee in order to compensate for her elision from the public eye.

i.

Law Enforcement Perspectives

GEORGE JACKSON BRIGADE

Seattle Police Department Intelligence Division

This is the first of three chronological lists of Brigade actions in this collection, the other two being the one by the FBI in the following document and the Brigade's own tally in its political statement.

Re: George Jackson Brigade

Federal Bureau of Investigations, Seattle Office

The base of the first page bears the warning: "This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency." It is included in the FBI's file on the Brigade.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Seattle, Washington
January 4, 1978

RE: GEORGE JACKSON BRIGADE

GEORGE JACKSON, a member of a group of dissident prisoners termed the "Soledad Brothers" at Soledad State Prison, California, in 1970, was a prolific writer, who stated that the U.S. Government is "fascist" and should be resisted by "people's urban-guerrilla activity." JACKSON was incarcerated at San Quentin Prison, California, when during a violent riot and attempted prison break, he ran into the prison yard and was shot and killed by a guard, on August 11, 1971.

Development of the George Jackson Brigade (GJB)

In October, 1972, an organization was formed at Washington Sate Reformatory (WSR), Monroe, Washington, as an outgrowth of Adult Basic Education, Seattle Opportunities Center, Seattle, and Work Release Programs at the WSR. The organization, called "Awareness Project" published a newspaper called "Sunfighter." The staff of that newspaper included various persons, including JOHN SHERMAN, EDWARD ALLEN MEAD and BRUCE SEIDEL. Two references were listed as RITA BROWN and THERESE COUPEZ. COUPEZ was also listed as an "outside sponsor."

During 1973, certain volunteers from the Awareness Project, led by JOHN WILLIAM SHERMAN of the Washington State Prisoner's Labor Union Support Committee, Seattle, Washington, attempted to form a prisoner's union within the WSR at Monroe, Washington. Denied this by prison authorities, the group of volunteers then attempted to promote a sitdown program and encouraged prisoners to commit acts of sabotage within the prison, but without success. EDWARD ALLEN MEAD was also a member of that group. Proved ineffective, and growing radical, the Awareness Project volunteer lost support and began to fade out about 1974. The "Sunfighter" newspaper continued as a radical prisoner-protest publication, whose staff in 1974, included MARK EDWIN COOK.

RE: GEORGE JACKSON BRIGADE

During 1974, an organization called "Convention Movement" headed by MARK EDWIN COOK, a prisoner on work release from the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla, Washington, emerged in Seattle. This group formed to protest treatment of prisoners in Washington, and promoted a prisoner's union, offering the "Convention Movement" members as mediators between the state government and state prisoners, in disputes over demand for prison reform. On various occasions, COOK led loud and disorderly protest groups into the offices of the Washington State Adult Corrections Authority at Olympia, to make demands related to the "Convention Movement" program. COOK was also a leader in the highly militant "Black Panther" chapter formed inside the walls of the WSP at Walla Walla.

About Summer of 1974, MARK COOK became an active volunteer with a program known as "The Family Group," an organization formed by a former inmate at WSP to provide a program of self-help to increase wages for prisoners at the WSP. This program lasted about seven months and was dissolved.

The "Sunfighter" newspaper continued publication through 1974 and into 1975.

About the latter part of 1975, an underground group emerged from the above semi-legitimate prison reform groups, calling itself the "George Jackson Brigade." The group, founded on a communist philosophy, was apparently dedicated to the commission of acts of urban guerilla warfare, including acts of violence to further the realization of the imagined ideals of the organization.

Members of the George Jackson Brigade

From information resulting from members who have been arrested, or from records discovered in a search of a house previously occupied by members of the GJB, the following persons were determined to be members of the George Jackson Brigade:

JOHN WILLIAM SHERMAN, aka Karl Joseph Newland, Barry Albert Grimes, Jay R. Newmarch, Paul Davis, William Harris, George Lindsay: white, male, American, born August 28, 1942, 5'10"-11," 170 pounds, brown hair, hazel eyes, medium build (Fugitive).

THERESE ANN COUPEZ, aka Carol Alice Newland, Katherine E. Wilson: white, female, American, born November 30, 1952, 5'6," 120 pounds, blue eyes, brown hair, usually wears glasses, slender build (Fugitive).

RITA DARLENE BROWN, aka Anna Joyce Blakely, Carole Alice Newland, Nikki Marie Simpson: white, female, American, born October 14, 1947, at Klamath Falls, Oregon, 5'6," 150 pounds, hazel eyes, brown hair, stocky build, _______________ (Captured, awaiting trial).

BRUCE RICHARD SIEDEL, white, male, American, born April 17, 1949, at Chicago, Illinois, 5'6," 150 pounds, hazel eyes, brown hair, medium build (Deceased — Died of wounds from police bullets received at bank robbery January 23, 1976).

MARK EDWIN COOK, Male, Negro, American, born October 26, 1936, at Seattle, Washington, 5'10," 170 pounds, brown eyes, black hair, medium build, _______________(Captured and convicted of bank robbery and assaulting an officer).

EDWARD ALLEN MEAD, male, white, American, born November 6, 1941, at Compton, California, 6', 160 pounds, blue eyes, blond hair, slender build (Captured and convicted of bank robbery).

Since the capture of RITA DARLENE BROWN, the only known active members of the GJB are JOHN WILLIAM SHERMAN and THERESE ANN COUPEZ. One other female is referred to in notes kept by the GJB, as apparently residing with Sherman, Coupez and Brown within the past year. Her identity is not known and it is not known whether that person has engaged in any criminal activities or criminal conspiracies with the GJB.

Several writings found as a result of a search of a house previously occupied by GJB members indicate that certain "meetings" were held between members of the GJB and apparent "above ground" support persons in August, 1977. The identities of the persons are unknown, and it is unknown whether those persons engaged in any criminal activities or conspiracies with the GJB.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE GJB

In their "communiques" the members of the GJB justify their various acts of violence by stating they are done to further the ends of a revolution of the "masses" to overthrow the present governmental and international business structures and establish a system of communism. Robberies of banks and liquor stores, they explain, are merely "expropriations" of money from "the ruling class" to finance the "revolutionary activities" of the GJB.

The communiques and notations written by the GJB indicate a strict dedication to the precepts and disciplines included in the writings of KARL MARX. The writer for the GJB claims adherence to Marxist-Leninism, and to the example of South American communist guerilla leader Che Guevara. According to the GJB communiques and writings, the GJB sees the international business monopolies of the world, holding the world's masses, particularly those in the "third world" (including Africans, Asians, Latinos, and in a large sense, women in general) in a vice of oppression. The GJB, by committing violent acts and publishing communiques, apparently envisions itself as a kind of fulcrum upon which a great communist inspired uprising can be successfully mounted, as promised in the writings of KARL MARX, and the masses will thereby be freed to live in peace, without want.

Unlike other recent student-revolutionary groups, the GJB does not envision itself as an "elite" faction that will provide a leadership faction for an ultimate revolutionary government, and criticizes those groups who would place themselves in such a role. Rather, the GJB sees itself more as a catalyst to make the masses aware of their oppressed state, and inspire them to create their own general uprising to overthrow their "oppressors."

ACTIVITIES OF THE GJB: A CHRONOLOGY

All of the following events were claimed by and/or have been directly attributed to the GJB:

May 31, 1975, a bomb exploded in the offices of the Adult Corrections Department, Capitol Center Building, Fourth and Sylvester Streets, Olympia, Washington.

August 5, 1975, a bomb exploded in a men's washroom adjacent to the resident agency offices of the FBI in the U.S. Post Office, Customs House and Court House, 1102-A Street, Tacoma, Washington.

September 15, 1975, a bomb exploded inside a Safeway Grocery Store, 1410 East John Street, Seattle, Washington. (This explosion, which injured several customers of the store, was reportedly in support of a young self-styled communist, RALPH PATRICK FORD, who blew himself up three days previously, while attempting to place a bomb at the same location.)

December 31, 1975, a bomb exploded at an electrical power substation of Seattle City Light, Northeast 41 and 45 Northeast Avenue, Seattle, Washington.

December 31, 1975, a bomb exploded at the Safeway grocery stores Distribution Center, Bellevue, Washington.

January 23, 1976, an armed robbery of the Pacific National Bank of Washington, Tukwila Branch, 13451 Interurban Avenue South, Seattle, Washington, occurred. The robbers were thwarted in their attempt by the prompt response of Tukwila Police. The robbers refused to surrender and began to shoot at the police officers with handguns. One of the robbers, BRUCE RICHARD SEIDEL, was killed by police bullets. Two more, JOHN WILLIAM SHERMAN and EDWARD ALLEN MEAD, were captured by the police. Another suspect, seated in the getaway car across the street from the bank, fired several shots at the police, missed, and struck JOHN WILLIAM SHERMAN in the jaw with one of his bullets. The suspect drove away from the bank, and escaped. He was later identified as MARK EDWIN COOK.

(Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: PM Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1604862238
• ISBN 13: 9781604862232
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Burton-Rose Daniel