Sign-In
Cart
Prairie Fire: The Politics Of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism - The Political Statement Of The Weather Underground (Reprint From The Original)
Paperback
International RelationsSocial Movements
ISBN13: 9781957452012
Publisher: Warcry Communications
Published: Jan 18 2022
Pages: 162
Weight: 0.38
Height: 0.35 Width: 5.50 Depth: 7.50
Language: English
The original Weather Underground manifesto, in its original layout.
Prairie Fire was a 188-page political manifesto published by the Weather Underground in 1974, articulating the radical splinter group's ideology, and endorsing revolutionary violence.
Prairie Fire was distributed in radical bookstores, food coops, headshops, on college campuses and many other places that movement activists met. It was met with a combination of strong emotions throughout the Left. Ultimately, the ideological arguments articulated in Prairie Fire led to a new split in the Weather Underground, with some gravitating toward the Prairie Fire Collective, which favored mass-based, above-ground revolutionary politics, and the May 19th Communist Organization, which remained underground and pulled off the infamous Brinks robbery in 1981.
In 1974 when Prairie Fire was written the Weather Underground had realized the shortcoming of there underground tactics in the previously stated sense. So Prairie Fire, called for the creation of both mass and clandestine, or underground, organizations. The clandestine organizations would be in charge of the development and early creation of a people's militia, as well as carrying out previous underground tactics, and raising consciousness. That mass organization would support and encourage armed action to the mass of the public, in a more legitimized fashion. Under this ideology The Weather Underground could facilitate a far larger mass fallowing, while still advocating for a violent militant revolution.
The name for the manifesto was derived from the writings of Chinese Communist revolutionary, Mao Zedong. In his Little Red Book, he wrote, a single spark can set a prairie fire as an analogy for revolution. The manifesto encourages a mix of mass-organizing and clandestine revolutionary violence. Never disassociate mass struggle from revolutionary violence, the author's argued. To leave people unprepared to fight the state, they said, is to seriously mislead them about the inevitable nature of what lies ahead.
Abbie Hoffman publicly praised Prairie Fire and believed every American should be given a copy. The manifesto's influence initiated the formation of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee in several American cities. Hundreds of above-ground activists helped further the new political vision of the Weather Underground.
Essentially, after the 1969 failure of the Days of Rage to involve thousands of youth in massive street fighting, Weather renounced most of the Left and decided to operate as an isolated underground group. The decision to build only an underground group eventually caused the Weather Underground to lose sight of its commitment to mass struggle and made future alliances with the mass movement difficult and tenuous.
By 1974, Weather had recognized this shortcoming and in Prairie Fire detailed a different strategy for the 1970s which demanded both mass and clandestine organizations. The role of the clandestine organization would be to build the consciousness of action and prepare the way for the development of a people's militia. Concurrently, the role of the mass movement (i.e., above-ground Prairie Fire collective) would include support for, and encouragement of, armed action. Such an alliance would, according to Weather, help create the 'sea' for the guerrillas to swim in.
The Prairie Fire Collective faction started to surrender to the authorities from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The remaining Weather Underground members continued to attack U.S. institutions.
This is the complete text of Prairie Fire, in its original layout.
Also in
Social Movements
Philosophy After Marx: 100 Years of Misreadings and the Normative Turn in Political Philosophy
Henning, Christoph
Paperback
The Unity of the Capitalist Economy and State: A Systematic-Dialectical Exposition of the Capitalist System
Reuten, Geert
Paperback
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
Kaba, Mariame
Hayes, Kelly
Paperback
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Davis, Angela Y.
Paperback
Re-Inhabited: Republic for the United States of America Volume I America's Truthful History
Hertler, Jean Hallahan
Paperback
Re-Inhabited: Republic for the United States of America: Volume II The Story of the Re-inhabitation
Hertler, Jean Hallahan
Paperback
College Girl, Missing: The True Story of How a Young Woman Disappeared in Plain Sight
Cohen, Shawn
Paperback
The Lost and the Found: A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family, and Second Chances
Fagan, Kevin
Hardcover
The ABA Right to Read Handbook: Fighting Book Bans and Why It Matters
American Booksellers Association
Polefrone, Philomena
Paperback
The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth
Fowler, Jermaine
Paperback
Operation Breadbasket: An Untold Story of Civil Rights in Chicago, 1966-1971
Deppe, Martin L.
Paperback
Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity
Appelbaum, Yoni
Hardcover
King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life of Struggle Outside the South
Theoharis, Jeanne
Hardcover
New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement
Williams, Juan
Hardcover
Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax of the Century, Its Enduring Impact, and What It Reveals about America Today
Tinline, Phil
Hardcover
Valley So Low: One Lawyer's Fight for Justice in the Wake of America's Great Coal Catastrophe
Sullivan, Jared
Hardcover
Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them)
Posobiec, Jack
Lisec, Joshua
Hardcover
Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World--And How You Can, Too
Oluo, Ijeoma
Paperback
Pay the People!: Why Fair Pay Is Good for Business and Great for America
Driscoll, John
Pearl, Morris
The Patriotic Millionaires
Paperback
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America (20th Anniversary Edition)
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else)
Táíwò, Olúfẹ́mi O.
Paperback
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence
Ghodsee, Kristen R.
Paperback
Chaos Comes Calling: The Battle Against the Far-Right Takeover of Small-Town America
Abramsky, Sasha
Hardcover
Black Marxism, Revised and Updated Third Edition: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition
Robinson, Cedric J.
Paperback
Socialism: The Real History from Plato to the Present: How the Deep State Capitalizes on Crises to Consolidate Control [With Paperback Book]
Federer, William J.
Paperback
Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments
Roth, Kenneth
Hardcover
Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times
Montgomery, Nick
Bergman, Carla
Paperback
A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine
Hedges, Chris
Paperback
The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America
Whitaker, Mark
Hardcover
Socialist Reconstruction: A Better Future for the United States
Socialism and Liberation, Party for
Paperback
Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism
Lorber, Ben
Burley, Shane
Paperback
Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.I.
Cant, Callum
Muldoon, James
Graham, Mark
Hardcover
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible
Cobb, Charles E., Jr.
Paperback
As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake
Paperback
Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the Fbi, the Kkk, and the Bombers Beyond Their Control
Phillips, Betsy
Paperback
Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone
Jaffe, Sarah
Paperback
We Are the Union: How Worker-To-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big
Blanc, Eric
Paperback
Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
Pahlka, Jennifer
Hardcover
Slavery After Slavery: Revealing the Legacy of Forced Child Apprenticeships on Black Families, from Emancipation to the Present
Berry, Mary Frances
Hardcover
Black Power Scorecard: Measuring the Racial Gap and What We Can Do to Close It
Perry, Andre M.
Hardcover
Kindred Creation: Parables and Paradigms for Freedom--Black Worldmaking to Reclaim Our Heritage and Humanity
Davis, Aida Mariam
Paperback
Disaffected!: Access vs Apathy: Why Every Election is The Election of a Lifetime
Pittman, Sean
Hardcover
Solidarity Is the Political Version of Love: Lessons from Jewish Anti-Zionist Organizing
Vilkomerson, Rebecca
Wise, Alissa
Paperback
His Name Is George Floyd (Pulitzer Prize Winner): One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice
Samuels, Robert
Olorunnipa, Toluse
Paperback
Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
Pahlka, Jennifer
Paperback
The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence
Hakim, Jamie
The Care Collective
Chatzidakis, Andreas
Paperback
Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Futures of Promise (Reach Alienated Youth and Break the Conflict Cycle Using the Circle of Courage)
Brendtro, Larry K.
Brokenleg, Martin
Van Bockern, Steve
Paperback
We Are Heirs of the World's Revolutions: Speeches from the Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87
Sankara, Thomas
Paperback
The Naked Communist: Exposing Communism and Restoring Freedom
Skousen, W. Cleon
Skousen, Paul B.
Paperback
Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora
Hernandez Castillo, Marcelo
Joseph, Janine
Lin, Esther
Paperback
The Volunteer: The Failure of the Death Penalty in America and One Inmate's Quest to Die with Dignity
Toboni, Gianna
Hardcover
Arabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Secretly Transforming America
Walter, Scott
Hardcover
Rules to Win by: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations
Lawlor, Abby
McAlevey, Jane F.
Hardcover
Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street
Luckerson, Victor
Paperback
A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and Some Bears)
Hongoltz-Hetling, Matthew
Paperback
Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military
Lohmeier, Matthew
Hardcover
Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply
Popovic, Srdja
Miller, Matthew
Paperback
White Evangelical Racism, Second Edition: The Politics of Morality in America
Butler, Anthea
Paperback
Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do
Terkel, Studs
Paperback
Bodies of Others: The New Authoritarians, Covid-19 and the War Against the Human
Wolf, Naomi
Paperback
A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Shepard, Kris
Carson, Clayborne
Paperback
Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism - A Popular Outline: Unabridged with original tables and footnotes (Aziloth Books)
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich
Paperback
Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet and What We Can Do about It
Fraser, Nancy
Paperback
የሴራ እርካብ፤ የደም መንበር
Shemeles, Yayesew
Paperback
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America
MacLean, Nancy
Paperback
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects
Wollstonecraft, Mary
Paperback
Plantation Theory: The Black Professional's Struggle Between Freedom and Security
Graham, John
Paperback
The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality
Sunkara, Bhaskar
Paperback
School Social Work: Practice, Policy, and Research
Massat, Carol Rippey
Constable, Robert
Kelly, Michael S.
Paperback
Training Your Own Service Dog AND Psychiatric Service Dog: 2 Books IN 1 BUNDLE!
Matthews, Max
Hardcover