RAGON

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Letter from the Symbionese Liberation Army

Deceiaber/75.......... ,\?.. .T'l.'.''.". ,f... T."...... LOur Back Pages: B.A.R.C. ............. .3

Letters ........... ,..... 6Nam Brothers: Ashanti, Black Liberation Army...,,......16The Weather Underground Organization film 22Blurbs ................ ,.,....,...* 24Politics in Command: Weather Underground,. «V. »".*-.•••-»-.•".• 25Women* s Gun Pam hj..et; book review.,............»,,,,., .31Kew World Liberation Front, structure. 34New world Liberation Front, community health strategy. .-36The Zapata Unit: B.A.R.C....,,.,..,.,,. ,.,.„... .43

An Open Letter to the People, the Zapata Unit,and New Dawn...,.,*..,........................45

Dragon is printed monthly by the Bay AreaResearch Collective, A six-month subscrip-tion is $5, or whatever you can afford, B'oone will be refused for lack of money,Single issue price.: 500 plus postage.Pree to all prisoners.

BAY AREA RESEARCH COLLECTIVE

BOX 4344, SATHER GATE STA.

BERKELEY, CALIF. 94704

SLA

X

The recent appearance of a pamphlet entitled "History Will Absolve Us"has brought into sharp focus a recurring problem that ?/e feel must be dealtwith. Neither this pamphlet nor any of the so-called S.L.A. communiqueswhich have come out since the capture of Emily and Bill originated from orrepresent the politics of the S.L.A.

Our basic feelings are that the practice of signing "SLA" to politicalstatements is counter-productive and in direct contradiction to the actionoriented politics of the guerrilla. Comrads whose committment lies in fur-thering the revolutionary struggle can best do this by clarifying their eggpolitical positions thru direct action. The strength of the revolutionarymovement lies in the diversity of all of its participants, since there isno singularly 'correct' path leading to the total victory of the socialrevolution.

The four of us are presently working on a detailed analysis of the ac-tions and underlying ideological foundations of the S.L.A., both past andpresent. This should clarify our position and answer many folks questions,including such distorted interpretations as the one put forth in "HistoryWill Absolve Us" that the S.L.A.'s federation concept was meant to lead tothe building of a Karxist-Leninist party at some future date.

We will consistently come out against all future attempts by any otherfolto who use the name of the S.L.A. as a way of giving voice to their ownpolitics, no matter how well-intentioned they may seem. We feel it is im-portant not to contribute to the myths that have grown around the S.L.A.

Guerrilla Love & Rage

ial

* < I 4,4: *

correction.In the last issue of DRAGON, BARC printed a statement signed "Sisters

Of The Symbionese Liberation Army". We also distributed a pamphlet titled"History Will Absolve Us" with about 2/3 of the DRAGONS. We stated inDRAGON that the pamphlet was written and printed by the S.L.A, We werewrong'. We made this mistake due to our failure to fully check out thestatements with the S.L.A. comrades in jail, a very short DRAGON dead-line, and weak analysis on our part. \Ve fully support the position, thatRuss Little, Emily Harris, Bill Harris, and Joe Remiro have the soleright to speak for the S.L.A.

We assume that those who wrote the statements we distributed werewell-intentioned,' and that they will carefully analyze the followingstatement from the S.L.A. to aid them in developing even greater levelsof revolutionary consciousness and strength.

We are distributing Part Two of the H.W.L.F. communi-que of 9/26/75 (part one was in DRAGON $3) in this issueexcept in copies sent to locked down comrades. Part Twoconsists of detailed insfruct'ions on making switches forexplosive devices. We have found previously that suchstuff simply 'doesn't make it through the walls whenmailed. On the first side of the communique on the upperright diagram we have written "illegible" —we could notread what was written in the copy we saw. On the secondside in the lower left diagram where we have "iritator",it should read "initiator".

We have not accomplished what we

set out to accomplish; however this

is not necessarily a cause for exces-

sive self-criticism: our project is

difficult and requires constant crea-

tive thought and work. And, of course

society ill-prepares its children for

the creation of its destruction. At

any rate a cur-rent, and no doubt re-

current project is to examine and at-

tempt to understand our success and

failure arid to learn from our history.

We recieved some feedback indica-

ting that we haven't maintained cla-

rity in our purpose and practice as

an organization, particularly through.

DRAGON. When we formed in 1974, as

when we began to print DRAGON? we de-

fined our practice narrowly: we've

tried to break down the barriers of

cosKnunication surrounding the issue

of armed struggle as an acceptable

(and we think necessary) means for

social change and aid in a desiysti—-

fication process of people involved

in all parts of the movement. Our

emphasis has largely fallen on the

development and growth of a revolu-

tionary underground. Much of the ma-

terial we print has consisted of ana-

lysis and criticism of armed and eiar;

destine activity along with communi-ques from underground groups.**#*•**#*•**#****•* *#*•#*'*****#*****###**

Due to constant exposure, it's

nearly innate in our collective Kind

that expressions of unity with the

revolutionary underground froa the

(local, however we have no indication

that the hay area is unique in this

regard) left are few— the exception

rather than the rule, 7/hile the six

SLA members burned in Los Angeles may

very well begin to appear on lists of

martyrs to be rattled off as examples

of revolutionary courage and heroism,

we see little reason, to think that,

should a similar situation again

emerge, the organized aboveground

left will be much more supportive or

•neoEOQMHiE

constructively critical that it wastwo years ago. While segments of thealxreeground movement have actually

• begun to taclile the issue of clandes-tine revolutionary activity in a se-rious manner, this practice is notyet widespread -and actual expressionsof the undertaking are few. The lefthas learned to dismiss the underground(and, as if by osmosis, its above-ground support) over too often phonyissues., A few have been able andwill continue to combat these com-mon attitudes,

We feel that we have failed tomaintain clarity in presenting oursubject matter in proper perspective.By constantly focusing on clandestinerevolutionary activity ..and our sup-

port for and constructive criticismof it, we have helped create the il-lusion of a stronger and more unifiedlaft than exists. Comrades, (oftenprisoners) for some reason isolatedfrom our perspective concerning tlxelimited capabilities of the movementhave been given false hopes, at leastpartially from reading our material.We are sharply self-critical in thisregard; false hopes are nothing butdetrimental. Prisoners have a real,and often desparate, stake in thesuccess of a revolutionary movement.Our focus presented without perspec-tive can lead comrades to defeatismwhen hopes ignited by desparatioacome into contact with reality. Weaint at the palace gates and ws want

to make it perfectly clear what we'redoing. In fact, the underground issmall, and is consciously ignoredby -too much of the aboveground move-ment; in fact, the entire left isprobably of less consequence to thelife of the country, to "the people",than it has ever been, While we arenot and don't wish to sound defeatist,we repeat: the palace gates aint evenin sight— wishing and pretendingwon't make it.******#•« #*****##***#***********-*-****#

We should also correct a miscon~ception on the part of some comradesas to our status in the movement: weare aboveground and our dialogue withthe underground is purely publicthrough our paper, leaflets and otherpublications. We cannot provide anylink-ups in terms of personell ormaterial with the underground: anydirect link (particularly conside-ring our political stance) wouldconstitute an unthinkable breach of

security for both us and the under-ground comrades.**#********#**#»*********#*****#**#*#

We are interested in discussion ofthis self-criticism. \Ve will attemptto present our material in a truerperspective especially for peoplesomehow isolated from what we takefor granted. Berkeley and the BayArea have developed a mystique as acenter of revolutionary activity andorganisation; the degree to whichthat is a reality is only an indica-tion of the impoverished state of themovement nation-wide. We cannot fanthe flames of false hopes to peopleliving under the subtle or not sosubtle boot of American imperialismand repression. We mustn't allow ourdesire and need for a revolutionarymobilization to cause us to strayfrom concrete fact. We will attemptto maintain in theory and practice aperspective based in -reality.

•me BAWK nt ,•mis soe OF-me sv&eer!MeSTMIIOKALPIGGY"OP AMERICA.

ON RACISThe irajcr element that appears to dominate white left politics is the

tendency to organize around other peoples' struggles. Oppressed g_e_ogtle

will not organize around the needs of others1 That is a luxury that only

the middle class can afford. It is not our job to tell people they are

oppressed; nor is it our job to try to guilt trip people by saying (often

correctly) that there are more oppressed people elsewhere. Our job as re-

volutionaries is to work with others to develope the tools to deal with

our oppression, to develope winning strategy and tactics, people will not

give up what little they have unless they feel they have a reasonable

chance of ending up with a better deal for themselves or those they care

most about. It is through that and an understanding of class struggle

that people will be able to relate in a cocnaitted way to struggles of

others..The line must not point frora other peoples1 struggles back toward

our own, but the other way around. When people realize that they can move

against their enemy, they will; and when they realize that their eneny

is the common enemy, they will embrace the struggles of all sisters and

brothers.

following are several letters we have received which deal with

(among other things) one aspect of this problem: racism and leftist

organizing.

As for Joe's letter criticizing

the left for neglecting the white

partisan, in Prison, and deepening ne-

gative feelings among whits and brown

convicts, hs assessed the problem

well. So much comes to my irdnd on .

this subject I don't even Imow whereto start. There are many mistakes

of the past that need to be overcome

not only with white&brown conviats

but with the same segment of people

outside as well. In most minds,

Hevoiiitioriaries, are equated solelywith "black or guilt ridden liberalwhites who wish, they were black andattack whiteness at every o-pportunity.

In cases where unity among theraces has been effected, such as nu-merous prison strikes in 1970,'?!&'72, the white and. brown segments -felt as if they'd teen "fronted off",and in many cases they ware. Virtu-ally alH decisions t:o strike are ar-rived at collectively among the races.White & Brown usually make up the vastmajority of such strikers, sacrificejustu as much, and get beaten just ashard, yet when it comes to outsidesupport, they see that its primarilyKLack convicts who get it, who recievevisits from "activist" lawyers or or-ganizations. Ehey pick up: a "left"paper and read how ""black convictslead the strike," and how so and sowas "beaten or gassed but no mentionof the Brown and White brothers oneither side who also got beaten orgassed the same way, for the samething. In many instances, whilefelony charges would be filed, theblack convict would have "left" law-yers and support; the white convict

in the same position, would have a

public defender and nothing else,"fronted & left" (to hang). Alongwith this he is put on the defensivefrom white liberals attacking whitepeople in general, when In fact thewhite convict feels he has been fuc-ked over.as bad or worse than black..convicts,, .He doesn't even begin to

ri«r

understand what people are talkingabout y/hen they say "white skin pri-vilege," He is the step child whois pushed aside, and fronted off andattacked, ?/hite convicts, white peo-ple ain't S.In." He sees his whitesisters and brothers who disdain himfor Black people} the reaction isnatural, the rift widens, the bitter-ness grows deeper and a whole segmentof strong, potentially good revolu-tionary people are alienated, leftto become more reactionary; enemiesinstead of comrades.

Now I've only outlined th<3 ge-neral- thinMng and. experiences o.fwhite and brow.u convicts. Some ofIts blcwa out of propor-tio.ru Some ofits wrong, sojae of its right never-theless its the predominant thinkingand feeling.. It isn't the fault ofthe 'black convict so much as it isthe white left, who actually fosterwhat they purport to fight against.

My own position is this; I stru*ggle aa hard as I can., in the mostintelligent effective manner open toa© wherever I am, I'm not looking tobe a superstar or for recognition,I do it for myself, plain and simple.It's become, my life and I wouldn't

feel right doing anything else. ItoQw who the enemy is and I learnhow to fight better every day, andthe most important thing I see inAmerica right now is to stop the blun-ders of the past, and start rea3.1ylooting at the Whole, to start look »ing at those 200 million white peo-ple o\it there. As 1 said before theproblem of .unity is the same out thereas in here, only here its magnifieda great deal a,nd I've had a close lookat it, studied it for many years, sad.understand it. Let me illustrate onemore point and we'll get into remedies.

I've been in a. relatively goodposition among people here. 1 firstcame to prison when I was 20 yrs. old(Scledad and S.Q.) I have many closefriends in. the so-called "prisongangs" White and Chicane. 1 have mut>-ual respect and comradeship with nany.righteous Mack people, Therefore I'mable to communicate freely, and I do.I've always seen the great rsTolution-ary potential and have always triedto cultivate it thru words and actions.

The events of Nov. '73 and Jan.*74 .t&st righteously Electified thesepeople, it crossed all lines,every-body wanted to talk about it, and howrighteous these people were. Peopliewho would dismiss revolutionaries as"shit talkers" or "nigger lovers"•were reading the S.I..A. statements anddeclarations, groups were forming,discussing it, getting into and behindit, and seeing things like for thefirst, time. "Hey, check this in. the

declaration theycultural/racial bsaw the effect oideed, it did it 1people wanted towere identifyingeven to the extersome things theyand the crediblepast collaborate

Shootout in L.A.

the radio, therearid sorrow in a .1everyone uaderstostatement they iaaMo one, not eventionary could takthem,

Ihen shortlywas June 2nd, whothose fucked up tstatements attackSHI2J I watched

-9-declaration they don't deny anyones1cultural/racial heritage." etc, Isaw the effect of propaganda of thedeed, it did it like nothing else,people wanted to talk & listen. Theywere identifying with these people,even to the extent of overlookingsome things they didn't like. (Cinqueanfi the credible disclosures of MBpast collaboration) &ud then came the

Shootout in l.A. that we all heard on

the radio, there were tears of rageand sorrow in a lot of eyes then, andeveryone understood the very profoundstatement they made v;ith their lives,Ko one, not even the most rabid reac-tionary could take anything away from~them.

Then shortly after, I Relieve itwas June 2nd, when Bill & Emily madethose fucked up blundering li"bsralstatements attacking white people*SHI2J 1 watched that bring people

down like a tire going .flat, theysaw that old pattern again and wentback on the defezisive, and I was mad-"der'n a Motherfucker, because 1 knewthe saoae scenario was being, playedout all over. And you might saytwell.fuck all those people if they can'tsee etc. etc. But the thing is; to be-gin with Anj; people, you first haveto get their minds open so they'llthink about and accept what they see,,after that you can criticize and re--fine them because once the basicawareness is there it's like openingthe eyes of a blind person, -they won1 ,go hack to bullshit,

'Jhoae statements were so unneces-sary. If they had jus-fe jaade positivestatements exerting whits people,, eis~phaBiiting class lines, and saylag in.effect, see,, white people are frontline revolutionaries too. We are alloppressed, our interests are theSame, we're under the same heel, .Putall petty differences aside arid letus concentrate our energy on. the Enemyof all working class and poor people,.

Positive statements such, as thesewould've made a world of differenceinstead of injecting division intoit, giving white people the impres-sion they really aren't worthy, orshould move out of feelings of gu.ilrfcetc.. It would in no way detractfrom black, or third world people, norwould it alienate them, .fhey under-stand the need for -unity, and theyalso understand that white peopledo suffer the sane oppression, no mat-ter hpv/ its disguised. Exert the

"10-Whole, accent the Corarnon bonds,we all.share, that is the unifying principle.

AJQ1 Progressive Cadre, Black,White or Brown, are going to have toget out of that old left liberal line,

looking for someone "more oppressed"than they are, singling out one groupthat they believe should be the most

revolutionary or "be the vanguard."To progress and win, we must looktat the ¥hole, arid find ways to gffeo-

iiZ®iZ "tti'fce as rauch of that whole aspossible» 5?his is going to take astrategic reappraisal and principled,hard struggle, but.it must be done*One can say, "yeah, but the fact ismost white people are racist, etc.etc," It's true, and all poor andworking class whites are in the sasieoppressive trick bag, in prison andon the streets, their .racism is playedon to the hilt by the ruling class,to keep this mass of people*from look-

ing at who the true enemy is.How, we jaust accept that most

all people have a certain, amount of

racism, no matter whether it's inhe-rent or environmental, it* these. Andit should be attacked, only not inthe manner it has been generally,

Instead of attacking this ques-tion in the classical liberal manner(which will NEVER be effective as itputs these people on the defensive,and divides rather than unites) It isnecessary to emphasize class lines,

to educate people about who is theenemy of all people are. Don't deny

the good aspects of* white culture,

don't try to put a guilt trip onthem, or try &n<£ make them "take onthe sins of their, fathers" etc. -.Oncetheeo people begin to See what it is

and understand the Class nature oftheir own oppression, their racismwill fall, away, they'll understand

the need for Unity, it couldn't be anyother way. Tliese people won't be ap-proaching the straggle from guilt, orself depreciation or paternalism, butfrom a position of self-respect,

strength and comradeship, the stron-gest bast there is. I know what I'msaying, I've experienced it and ana-lyzed it. I-'-ve also discussed thiswith progressive Black people, andthey agree, it's hard for to havetrue comradeship and mutual respectwith white people coaling from thatold liberal guilt trip, it's the

weak side of thecan we respect so:respect themselvetrust someone whopie and tries totheir contempt fo:

Black peopleressed. White peo;they are in the s;ferent wrapper.

Instead of a

to R.0.A.R. zceeti:what the "enemy"put aside all the:

standard catch ph:caught up into ta!they don 't reali:don't understand •

book dialectical iway they should b<meetings to work iappear as one of •and attack them a*

dogs, but to talk

at the facts, I tJ

the wrong track ar

hands of the goveiThese black.peoplelike we are, they'did this, it's theand here's why theat each others' tt

a cozomittee to Boablack people and £think, let's get iit. out and start p

energy where it beit's not easy, andnot going to changthey're basically

weak side of the racist coin. "Howcan we respect someone who doesn'trespect themselves," or "How can wetrust someone who denies his ov.it peo-ple and tries to Impress us by showingtheir contempt for their own."

Black people know they are opp-ressed. White people need to be shownthey are in the same bag with a. dif-ferent wrapper.

Instead of activists sneaking in-to R.O.A.R. meetings in Boston, to seewhat the "enemy" is doing. They shouldput aside all their slackness, andst§ndari catch phrases (they're socaught up; into talking to each other,they don «t realise common peopledon't understand the language of text-book dialectical materialism), toy-way they should be going to thosemeetings to work with the people toappear as one of them; not to get upand attack them as a bug.ch of racistdogs, but to talk about: "Let's look.

at the facts, I think we've been onthe wrong track and playing into thehands of the government etc. etc.fhese black.people are being used justlike we are, they're not the ones whodid this, it's the governments * fault,and here's why they want to keep usat each others' throat." "Lets senda coiomittee to Roxbury to talk withblack people and see what they reallythink, let's get it together, and workit. out and start putting the blame &,energy where it belongs."— Of courseit's not easy, arid of course you'renot going to change alL of them, butthey're basically just regular peo-

ple who are concerned, and many ofthem.would be reached using this me-thod, good positive work would be don^,But attacking those people,again onlywidens the rift, and putting them onthe defensive solidifys their reac-tion. You have to distinguish be-tween righteous fascist and Nazi or-ganizations, and common people suchas in Boston or North Carolina whoare lashing out because they're sca-red and angry, and ignorant to wherethey should be directing their anger.

Now, I realize what I'm sayingdoesn't conform to popular left "lines"nevertheless if the white left doesn'ttake a basic reassessment, and startft rue1/ applying scientific socialism,Instead of paying lip service to itwith ineffective divisive liberal.bullshit, (it had its time in the 60sand was needed, a start, thens but.its time to progress) then the strug-gle will be infinitly harder to saythe least.

^Ito closing, check Russ & Joes let-ter in Bragon#2 where they are tryingto pull "white" people, the connota-tions had the opposite effect, youcan see how they could have dor.e itsiueh better and far more effectivespositive.REVOLUTIONS ARE THE LOCOMOTIVES OF

HISTORY

Revolutions are the locomotives ofHistory!

Ken CornoPolsom Prison

-1Z-

From a PrisonerIn answer to Dragon 2, page 15,

I agree with comrade Remiro's analy-sis about the racial antagonisms, andthe reasons for it. In fact several:political! oriented persons who •vis-ited me here when I was going for pa-role back in 1973 were surprised that-I was white, all the time we had writ-ten each other- they thought I wasblack! One can repeat formulas ofclass structure according to incomeanfi work and feel, like a lot has beenaccomplished. But what is needed isa concrete analysis of concrete con-ditions, "the living soul of Marxism."What is needed is a method that ana-lyzes the motion of society, the con-tradictions and the changes in. rela-tion to historical realities, possibi-lities, and necessities. In the TJ^S,,in the past twenty years, the whiteindustrial, proletariat has seldom ex-ercised its revolutionary initiative.Many have sought to dogmatically ap-ply Marxism-leninism* The class analr-sis of many New Left in practice re-flect this reality.

The central issue evolves aroundthe position, of the white working

in South Carolinaclass and that of the oppressed na-tionalities. Breaking from previousdogmatic formulas that sought to'-luzapand c&tegorize the lower strata of so-ciety. All classes have enemies with*in, the concept of the luiapen-prole~tariats as being that of the "dange-rous class" has to be analyzed inaccord with existing economic condi-tions which throw millions of peopleout of the work force, and thereforebreaking ties with the productionprocess, Ehis causes sonie to enter

into what capitalist laws denote ascriminal, activity. This does notmake them enemies, in general, dan-gerous,, Also a consistent concreteprogram that educates, organizes, andgives revolutionary aid to prisonersacross the country must be built, Aprogram built collectively by thoseinside and those outside in order towin I

The aid we speak of is not afterwe are murdered and brutalized as Com-rades Dotson and George Jackson haveteen. We are tired of being beaten,murdered, and dehumanized for someoneto Virrite about after. We:all knowthese conditions exist before. Hheneed exists to deal with them now}Many white-led organizations negatein practice the manifestation of ra-cism and the objective conditions of

Jk-diJl

•'

-13-

national minorities. Seeking to uti-lize vague generalizations in theoryand limit their practice to meetingsand demonstrations when they are popu-lar. These same forces have beenquicker to condemn revolutionary vio~lence than the "bourgeios media. Whilenever seriously dealing with thecause of revolutionary violence orthe necessity of advancing many formsof struggle.

Lenin, in. Guerrilla Warfare,pointed out facts that many on theNew Left would rather hide: "It isnot guerrilla actions which dis-organize the movement, but the weak-ness of a party which is incapableof taking such actions, 'under it'scontrol18 In conclusion it is feltthat the Weather Underground, SLA,

EOF, BLA, 1TOLP, can play a vital rolciin the struggle against imperialismand the many other social, ills thatexist. But a crucial point must, bedealt with, that all New left orga~

nizations must "be av*are of: the build-ing of a party and the United Frontdoes not mean that all so-called re-volutionary forces will, be involvedin it, nor is it particularly neces-sitated, (better fewer, but better-Lenin). The aspirations of those whoseek an all inclusiveness, incorpo-rating all Hew left groups only hinderthe riscessary building of the partyand the United Front...Lenin statedthat; " We must first divide andthen unite,"

Thom&a Motley

From a Comrade in San Francisco

I would also like to share my

thoughts with you on Dragon. As I've

said, Dragon is doing a lot and is

great in as much as its doing. Bit

while reading Dragon and other under-

ground writings, communiques and pa-

pers I feel that something is over-

looked. Perhaps because it is taken

fpr granted that people know and un-

derstand that the struggle in this

country is not race, not white against

Black and third world. The struggle

is class, that of the pig ruling class

against the rest of the people. Be-

cause this most important fact is sup-

posed to be known and accepted by the

people'''t no mention is made of it con-

tinuously. Bat perhaps this fact is

not accepted by the people. The Bay

Area left acts at times as though it

does not understand this distinction.

Revolrition and revolutionary acts

by non-whites are cheered by the Bay

Area left, as though through feeling

of guilt it is OK for Blacks to strike

back at the whites for the shit the

whites put on the blacks. What hap-

pens when whites take up the bat-

tle, everyone draws back and no sup-

port comes from anywhere. Ihite and

Black don't mean shit in the struggle

against the pig ruling class. It's

the "People" against the fascist ru-

ling elite. It's time for every one

to help, white and black, brown etc.

I feel that a lot of white people

are feeling left out, that the strug-

gle is net theirs. It is true that

the power structure in amerika is

white, but that's as far as it goes.

Every one knows that the rich pigs

would just as easily shit on a white

as a black or third world if it would

benefit the rich pigs. If white people

would realize what minorities have

learned the hard way, that the rulersof the-declining fascist government

are a class of people not a race, and

it exploits all under its rule, white

included, maybe the revolution will,

gain some much needed support andhelp, •

I know this isn't "the " answer,

but its an obstacle which must be over-

come if the revolution is to grow and

win, I hope I've expressed myselfclearly, and you understand what lirasaying.

She response of the Bay Area to

the S.L.A. is upmost in my mind when

coming to these conclusions. The cap-

ture of the Harris's and Tania rein-

force these thoughts, "ftio in the above

ground came out in support for them?

Iho supported Little and Remiro during

their "fair" trial, when they were

railroaded and found guilty of bull

shit charges and no evidence? Where

were the shouts and screams of injus-

tice, and support?

_

Maybe Bra;different cone!reached, but tdialog betweenare others whoto hear otherlike to see ccin this strugi

1. tool2. Don3. DOI>a federa

-15-Maybe Dragon and BARC have reached

different conclusions as the ones IJ-ve

reached, "but there should at least be

dialog between them. I feel there

are others who feel as I do who need

to hear other view points, and would

like to see constant reminders that

in this struggle it's not white against

blacks, reds, browns, etc. But it's -

repressive fascist pig ruling class

holding down the people, by keeping

them divided into whites, blacks, rec

etc.

Charley Cruger

San Francisco, California

le

Take cft.re of

1. Look before you open your door.

2. Don't let FBI or police in without a warrant.

3. DONT TALK. No law requires that you talk with FBI or police. Lying to any federal official isa federal crime.

MAM BROTH IRS-prow-, Third World N««*>s, November 1975

Sox 4825, Phiiadefphjci , PA.

\Yhat it "be Brother Man—Come onand give me eoiae of that Black dap:

Prom the heart uh huh: On your headfor some more Black knowledge and wis—dom-~-uh huh. Yall know how we use toget down on some "dap"—give up thatmore Black power. That's the way itwas cause .all the brothers v/ere toge-ther. I'm not even talking about nonee-grows cause they may never growand just might have to be pulled out

of the ground with the rest of theweeds .that's defacing our garden oflife.

We were sho-nuff together in theNam but a lot of us just sort of livedthat togetherness without analyzingit to see what was really going on.An analysis of our unity would havegiven us the knowledge needed to trans-port the Kara togetherness to the Blackcommunity where it is still urgentlyneeded at the grass roots level—ourlevel.The swines played one of the most

important roles in bringing the Bro-thers together. Their hate and racismwere what really did it, I rememberone of the less dramatic racist encoun-ters I had with a staff sargent; hetold me to go out on a window ledgeand fix something—before I could an-swer a white guy with me volunteeredto fix it. The sarge told him no, it

was too dangerous for him. I told thesarge if it was too dangerous for thewhite guy then it damn sure was toodangerous for me., and walked away.Then I recall another negative racial .encounter, but this one didn't have

any coyer on it, I was the only Blacksitting there watching TV v/ith five"true grit" kind of red necks. As Isat there watching TV one of them said:"Where I'm from ve usually hang (nig-ger bitches)": before I could say any-thing he said it again. I guess liefigured because I was alone he couldgo ahead and do his thing—especiallyconsidering that I didn't fly into aniiEiaediate fit of rage. But tho thingwas—he _was saying that in referenceto some Sisters singing on TV: I thinkit was the Supremes. The reason Ididn't respond to the suckers rightaway was because the Sisters were look-ing good and I was laying for the com-

mercial. V.'hen the commercial cam*? Iwalked in the middle of four of them,the other guy was sitting back on thenext row: I stood in front of the

"murder mouther" and told him—"Y/hereI'm from we usually fuck up guys likeyou," and proceeded to break theright side of his' face. As 'fast as

his confederates Jumped up I put 'emdown. A sargent broke everything upbefore I could do the rest of them

course, of action,trary to the stalmild form of peacdropping a hint cthey had better <

shit". Other tiidiscussions woul<

the decision to iin order to redr<

which in most carenirid swines whrespect Black peourselves in suener, reaching anlective decisiordown with, thattight. We wereswines ordered vlation meetings,to ordering us 1ble in order toWe -went: we to]promoted—we golvie wanted trans]and we got thatcouple of brotlMted. from going 1ted for two ass;six. When bothseparate occasi<ters and about "we hinted to th<that if the bro'anything could 1fraggings, fire:and shot as in '

responded by imicomrades loose.

We were able •because the govi

-19-course- of action, while being con-

trary to the state's, only involved

mild form of peaceful protest—like

dropping a hint on the state that

they had better cease their "bull

shit". Other tiin.es our political

discussions would terminate with

the decision to employ direct action

in order to redress a grievance:

which in most cases also served to

renind svv'ines why "they wanted" to

respect Black people, v/e conducted

ourselves in such an organized man-

ner, reaching and carrying our col-

lective decisions that everybody was

down with, that the swines stayed up-

tight. Vie were so unified that the

swines ordered us to attend race re-

lation meetings, which was tantamount

to ordering us to the' conference ta-

ble in order to work out a settlement.

We went: we told them who v/e wanted

promoted—we got it: v/e told them who

we wanted transferred to other joes

and we got that too. .Ve even kept acouple of brothers who had gotten bus-

ted, from going to jail: one was bus-

ted for two assaults and the other for

six, Y/hen both of the brothers, on

separate occasions, were at headquar-

ters and about to be led away by K.P.'s

we hinted to the coiiunanding officer

that if the brothers were locked up

anything could happen, worse than the

fraggings, fires, people being stabbed

and shot as in the past. The swines

responded by immediately turning our

comrades loose.

We were able to get our demands met

because the government knew from past

experience that we were able and wil-

ling to go to war if they acted con-

trary to our demands. Mao Tse-tung

very appropriately sunned up this; con-

sideration when he said: "T3ar is the

continuation of politics by other

means." Had the state not capitulated

to our demands then it would have con-

stituted an obetacle to our political

growth as a budding independent self

determining people.

The significance of our getting im-

mediate and positive results from th^

government because of the ar:ned threao

we posed takes on added importance whs

we compare OV.T success with the treat

-20-ent Blacks were accustomed to recei-

••ing while trying to wrench concess-

- ons from the government. In our

efforts to gain civjl and Human rights

v e employed civil- Disobedience, liti-

,taiive actions, and in some cases--

individual confrontations, all to no

avail—except as a learning experience.

During the civil rights hay-day King

and hundreds of thousands of others

marched on Washington to appeal to

the A-meriKKKan conscience to grant

Blacks their civil and human rights.

Upon receiving news of the march

President Johnson wus reported to

have said "ret- 'thew-inarch." I'm sure

he would have had a different outlookhad the marchers possessed arms.

The civil rights protest did gain

some success in the areas of employ-

ment and voting rights. However,

that success was like a* mother giv-

ing a bottle to "her crying baby so

she really wouldn't have to get in-

volved and deal with the real problem,

All the legislative acts That were

passed in the area of employment,

which sounded good at the time, have

proven less than worthless in aiding

Blacks to gain employment or, for

that matter, it had proven worthless

in aiding Blacks to keep the jobs they

had. Ihe same uselessness has come

to pass in regard to the removal of

AN UNAftMED PEOPLESUBJECT TO SLAVERY

f\ A*n* T I IIVI

the grandfather clause in southern

voting rights requirements: which,

was a provision that gave the right

to vote to all persons whose grand-

parents owned property in the county

in question, The clause excluded

most HLacks from voting because our

grandparents were mostly share cro-

ppers on white owned land. Once the

clause was removed Blacks began to

vote in record numbers. However the

government, as the tool of the ruling

class, was able to get around Blacks

new voting strength by passing zoning

laws that annexed white zones to Blacks'

and thus permanently ensured a white

majority vote from the consolidated

area.

In the Nam the government never re-

versed its"positive position on our

demands, whether small or large, be-

cause they would be correct in anti-

cipating a political consequence. We

were able to negotiate and get our

demands met, withour reversals, be-

cause we were willing to go the full

political range, including the use of

force—which is, as Mao said—"politics

with bloodshed."

In the area of law we had our own

unwritten universal laws. If a bro-

ther caused needless harm of any kind

to another brother he was brought be-

fore the collective judgement of all

the brothers and if we decided his

any real daaiag

served,

It was beca

going through

that v/e starte

Being together

our experience

exactly v/hat n

shared our exp

promoting and

cers and KCO's

we weren't squ

ted to keep ou

The "piggie

charge of us a

time brutal tr

from regular r

us into each o

in the Nam, a

earlier we had

"Charlie the r

caping heavy,

Gl's, further

out and be in

Black like us.

Those force:

were obvious ea

much discussion

shoxild have ta!

each factor ans

the only way w,

always examine

flucnce our lii

able to formula

course of actic

The swines,

selves, being :

the "rag man" -I

the count all c

getting togethe

any real damage—damage like they de-served.

It was because a lot of us weregoing through things like the abovethat we started getting together.Being together enabled us to shareour experiences and gain knowledge ofexactly what we were up against, Y/eshared our experiences about who waspromoting and who wasn't; what offi-cers and IfCO's to stay away from ifwe weren't squared away or if we wan-ted to keep our 'fro,

The "piggiest" ways of those incharge of us and the foul and some-time brutal treatment we encounteredfrom regular red necks kind of droveus into each others arms. Then beingin the Nam, a place where a few monthsearlier we had never heard of, with."Charlie the rag man" running aroundcaping heavy, killing up bunches of61's, further encouraged us to seekout and be in the company of BrothersBlack like us.

Ihoj-e forces pushing us togei^herwere obvious and we responded withoutmuch discussion on the matter. V.'eshould have talked about it: tookeach factor and examine it. That'sthe only way -we're going to progress-always examine the factors that in-fluence our lives so we'll be "betterable to formulate a progressivecourse of action.

The swines, being their beastlyselves, being in a strange land andthe "rag man" trying to take ua offthe count all contributed to otirgetting together, but those factors

alone weren't enough to keep us to-gether or enable us to get down toge-ther. Once together it wr.s our deo_-sion to develop the cohesive factornecessary for real unity under anyand all types of pressures. Whatkept us together and what we really.loved being involved in was the "ma-turity" we expressed once we starteddealing (independently) of the beast;The maturity we experienced and ex~presaed from doing our cvvn thinking

and deciding what was best for us.Black people, and standing by ourdecisions and going down for them,

What held and encouraged us tostay together was the self determina-tion and independence we showed indealing with issues that involved ourlives. Our being together and meetirto discuss and take a position on anissue gave us the first chance in ouz-lives to be directly involved in thr.decision making process that not onlv

affected us but also people around

the world. A lot of decisions we made

like not going to work or in the field

or to retaliate against a recent swine

attack, was picked up by media people

all over the world. They reported

on us not just because we stood in

opposition to the government or oc-

casionally launched assaults against

a bunch of red necks: what they were

interested in was the fact that we

were thinking independently and

acting in a self governing manner.

We had all of the features of a

self governing people—and had we

analyzed those features, put them

under a microscope and looked at

them, the knowledge gained would

have made us hellified. -Think about

itj 1,Ve exercised decision making in

every aspect of o>ir lives: economics,

politics, culture, labor, lav/—and

war,

In the area of economies we didn't

go so far as to establish a scientific,

democratic socialistic economic sys-

tem, we lacked the control of insti-

tutions through which to express that,

but we did exercise the principles as

& general unwritten -rule. We were

about collective ownership*—and what-

ever material goods or money we had

we would make available to other bro-

thers in order to bring theia up to

par. That was independent and just

the opposite of the capitalist phil-

osophy which encourages hoarding of

everything for one's personal bene-

fit.

We were independent culturally even

though we didn't appoint a group of

people to deal with and promote cul-

tural matters, We had brothers who

would encourage everybody to get

their head together on so.rne more

Black knowledge. Those Brothers who

already had the knowledge would en-

courage us to read Slack history and

other people's history around the

world who are in the same oppressive

situation: cause they knew the know-

ledge gained would raise our self

esteem and make us more resistant to

all forms of oppression, subtle and

direct. Socially speaking we were al-

ready into our own separate world;

not only different from red necks but

nee-grows too; we had our own music

and listened to such people as John

Coltrane and Jimmy Rendrix, we were

into proudly wearing Afors, power

bands and Slack crosses, which attes-

ted to our belief in a Black Jesus,

All of which culturally distinguished

us frop.1 red necks and nee-grows.

V/e exercised a high degree of self

determination in the political arena

also. As a self governing body all

the brothers used to get together at

the (Black House) and discuss issues

that directly affected us. Although

we didn't elect officials we did have

brothers who were recognized as being

"heavy" and who would informally of-

ficiate over our meeting. We wouldn't

conclude our meeting until we had de-

cided on a position and a course of

action. Sometimes our position and

actions were v/rong them he was madeto apoligize or collectively be os-tracized. I was once personally involved in our independent fora oflaw. I openly, in the presence ofeverybody, criticized a brother forgoing on R and R (rest and recuper-ation) in a blantantly racist coun-try when he could have gone to any

TIOS ISOF "WTtTT.

2J-one of a number of other places, ff'icriticism was correct 'but ray appro?*..was wrong. The issue was raised atthe Black House and the brothers de-cided that because I hadn'd tried v:pull the brother's coat in privatethen I should apoligize for the un-due embarrassment I caused him;which I promptly did.

NEXT

-E2.

Ice following is a letter from the Weather Underground Organization to

those people in the film industry with when they recently worked to make

& film. It was printed in Osowatonie #3, the magazine of the W.U.O.

Following that we are printing an open letter to the W.U.O. concerning

use of the film.

October 1, 1975

Dear Friends:

We hope that you have been well since we did thefilming together and that you are happy with the progressof the film. Your resistance and principled stand ofnon-collaboration with the Los Angeles Federal Grand Jurythat tried to stop this film was exemplary. We are allthe more certain that our work together will make animportant contribution.

We are writing to you for a specific purpose. Manypeople have asked us how they can show their support foryou in your struggle against the Justice Department, FBIand CIA, and for the WUO, We would like you to considerthe following ideas that the film be released in severalsimultaneous benefit showings around the country. Peoplewho come to these showings would contribute to a fund thatwould be evenly divided among these insurgent organizations:Wounded Knee Offense/Defense Committee, Attica Brotherslegal defense, Ruchell Magee, the Puerto Rican CementWorkers strike fund, the San Quentin Six, and the Bach MaiHospital fund. The benefits would be a way to show support foryour struggle to make the film-and to support the WUO,This would also be a way for us to contribute directly tothe struggles of movements fighting serious attacks fromthe government.

It is a mark of respect for you and a good sign thatyou received such strong support from within the movieindustry for your right to raake this film. Your refusalto cooperate and the widespread support that refusalmobilized forced the government to back down. The legacyof the capitulation of the film industry to McCarthyismin the 1950s was turned around,

Our days together were a high point for us and wehope for you. We are looking forward to seeing the filmwhen it comes out,

Vencereraos'.

-23-

open letter to theunderground organization

We address this to the WUO as a criticism of the rationale which leadto -the proposed limited political use of the Y/eather film, as stated inOsowatomie #3. As it stands now, use of the film will be confined almostexclusively to comrades who have the most support nationally. While werealize that these comrades need as much support as possible, we feelthat it is just as important to support those with less popular or lesspublicized trials in process or pending. We feel it is a political con-tradiction that use of this film excludes many revolutionary women, cap~tive BLA and SLA comrades, and other revolutionaries who are facing reac-tionary tribunals because of their consistant struggle for revolutionarychange. There is no practical reason for anyone to be excluded,

Additional distribution of this film could be easily worked out bycontacting the POW's who have been excluded, and asking them if they wouldcare to use this film as a means of building political and financial sup-port for their trials. Most of the PG'»Y's are in contact with folks on thestreets who would be willing to coordinate its showing in their area,

Elmer Geronimo Pratt Jomo Joka OmowaleAnthony Bottom Henry Shasha BrownAlbert Washington Emily HarrisMartin Sostre Bill HarrisMarilyn Buck Eddie SanchezRussell little Joe Remiro

rB.A.R.C, had planned to do some analysis of the politics of the WeatherUnderground Organization in this issue. However, as our deadline forgetting this issue together approached, we were not satisfied with ourresults we felt more time and input were needed to do the job we wan-ted to do. So, we decided on the following: in this issue we are prin-ting Politics in Command by the W.U.O. We are requesting from all com-rades, especially those most directly concerned with the issues in thisWeather statement, their analysis of the subjeat. Those who respond toour request: please, let us know if we can print your response, if wecan edit (indicating that copies of the entire statement are availablefrom us), and if we can/should use your name. Hopefully this will cometogether for the next issue—• if not, then for #7.

•av-

Due to a not untypical 4 a.m. fuckup, there is thisa page between our intro to Politics In Command and thearticle itself -—this page. Sorry about thatl Actuallyit gives us some room to add a couple things we wouldn'thave had room for otherwise.

BARC is more or less out of copies of DRAGON #1. Ifyou really want a copy, we will send a xeroxed copy.Doing that costs a bit under $1 a copy for us to do.

We also have a number of copies of OSOWASOMIE(except #1} which we are asking 550 for —from those .who have it*

•" This issue of DRAGON costs us about $75 more thanlast Issue due to Its increased length and our printing

25% (250 copies) more than previously. Also, postal ratesare going up again. About half our costs this month is

^^a^^^^^^^^coining out of our own pockets — — this can't continue forC \o reasons. Our pockets aint too big; it's politically* i

incorrect to have DRAGON function on such a precarious« »

economic base. We figure the few DRAGON readers who haveC I

any bread have as little as us —-so, getting other com-i i ' s s /

rades to take out subscriptions seems the only way. HELP!

-as-

ON THE QUESTION

OF ARMED

STRUGGLEby the Woathor Underground Organization

The only path to the final defeat ofimperialism and the building of socialismis revolutionary war. Revolution is themost powerful resource of the people,to wait, to not prepare the people for thefight is to seriously mislead about whatkind of fierce struggle lies ahead.

Revolutionary war will be complicatedand protracted. It includes mass struggleand clandestine struggle, peaceful andviolent, political and economic, cultural,and military, where all forms are developedin harmony

no revolution. Without armed struggle therecan be no victory.

There are raany on the left who self-righteously condemn all violence of rev-olutionaries. They are keeping their ownhands clean by avoiding the. full conse-quences of revolutionary ideas. For thesepeople, the revolution will happen onlysome day and hopefully be made by somebodyelse. But power concedes nothing without ademand. Armed struggle is an extension ofpolitical struggle, just as war is politicswith bloodshed. Under certain historicalconditions political struggle leads nec-essarily to armed conflict. When a smallruling class maintains itself in power byforce and violence, when the masses ofpeople are forced to work and live in bru-talized and violent conditions, politicalstruggle both peaceful and violent is theinevitable result.

Violence is not a thing to want or athing not to want. It cannot be called intobeing or wished out of existence. Violenceis a monopoly of the U.S. state, It iswoven into the very fabric of capita-lism; in Rap Brown's words, "as Americanas cherry pie." U.S. official policyis violent and brutal; the brutal imper-ialist war of aggression in Viet Nam, thefascist coup in Chile, the colonial hold or;Puerto Rico, Capitalism is a violent systen:having at its center the violent relation-ship of exploiter and exploited, worker aridboss, a relationship of oppressi'.-a and con-stant struggle. Under capitalism, armies or!women are forced into prostitution, Blackpeople's life expectancy is ten years leasthan that of white folks, old people arediscarded after they've worked away thebetter part of their lives. The status miois murder.

Fighting for the future will be pain-ful, but in the long run it is the onlything that can end pain. Ae Jose Marti saidof Cuba eighty years ago: "The island,like a resurrection, lifts herself in heragony, sees the mud which covers her andthe bloody road leading to liberty andprefers the blood to the mud,"

Reactionary capitalist violence iscriminal; revolutionary violence willbring about the new society. Marxism-Lenism holds that "the fundamental qu.esti<of every revolution is the question ofpower." Marx considered violence as "the

midwife of all old societies about to bringforth a new one," The capitalist system ofprivate property is protected forcibly bya group of violent, dangerous men. Thedevelopment of mass revolutionary violenceis essential to smash the state of the ex-ploiters and to wrest power from the armed

defenders of imperialism.Organized armed struggle shows people

their great strength and potential forseizing .and holding power and shows theweaknesses of the government, corporatecapitalism, and the military. Armed strug-gle can inspire and organize, carry on thetradition of resistance and train fightersby fighting. The capacity to carry out suc-cessful armed struggle in harmony with po-litical struggle must be built at everystage of the revolution and cannot be putoff on the excuse that it is always pre-mature. For the seizure of power from theimperialists, armed struggle will bedecisive.

A generation of fighters was pro-duced by the movements of the 1960s.Opposition to the violence of everyday lifeled to organized popular violence. Thereoellions of urban Black communities weretraining grounds for revolution. RobertWilliams, Rap Brown, Malcolm X, the BlackPanther Party, forced the recognition ofthe necessity of violent revolution.

Resistance to the Viet Nam war includedthousands of people who participated inmilitant protest, clandestine or armedactions against the warmakers, burningdraft boards, destroying corporate andmilitary files. Sabotage grew and spreadthru the armed forces. Bombings of war-related targets were understood and welcomedand built the popular movement; the bombingof power lines into defense plants inColorado in 1968 (an action for whichCameron Bishop Is on trial now), the SamMelville bombings in New York In 1969,the destruction of the Army Math ResearchCenter in Madison in 1970, and the bombingsof.the Capital and the Pentagon by theWeather Underground Organization.

With the development of popular andguerrilla warfare against U.S. imper-ialism on three continents our movementcould not hang back from armed struggle,

nor could its leaders say "not us."

Revolutionary armed struggle is a factof life in the US, conceived and carriedout by a wide diversity of people andgroups and organizations. This Is a signof maturity in our movement. Armed a'ctlonis an integral part of the left, as variedand creative as the nations and peogleswhich exist inside the borders of the US.Although the guerrilla forces are decen-tralized and follow different and sometimescontradictory strategies, we are unifiedin our spirit of love for the people of theworld, hatred of imperialism and determina-tion to make revolution by every means nec-essary. There have been serious losses- -comrades killed and Imprisoned—but stillthe guerrilla community survives, grows andrenews. We greet and support other revolu-tionary groups waging armed struggle andbelieve that the struggle over the stra-tegy for revolution among these forces isa critical one.

in Command

Our job is not only to carry out action-that is comparatively simple. Our job is tosucceed in making a revolution. The guer-rillas, like all revolutionaries, bear theresponsibility of developing full poli-tical strategy, and a mistake in militarystrategy can be deadly. The stakes arehigh, not only for the people and orga-nizations carrying out military work, butfor the course of the revolution. Ho ChiMinh said, "a military without politics islike a tree without roots—useless anddangerous." That is why we use the slogan"Politics in Command."

The critical task of all the diverseforces now engaging in some form of armedstruggle in our country is to learn thelaws of revolutionary warfare and applythem to the concrete conditions of theUS today. We must learn from the revolu-tionary experiences of Viet Nam, Guine-Bissau, Cuba, China, Russia. There is atremendous literature to study such asThe Military Art of People's War byVo Nguyen Glap and Lenin's On PartisanWarfare. We also have a rich althoughildden history of guerrilla warfare in ourawn land to draw upon: the resistance wars

of the Native Arneirailroad, John Brca freed-slave arm>border states, Enwanarchist fightersAbraham Lincoln BiTijerina in New Mtfamiliarize ourselaspects of the en«

aspects of our owistrengths and weaiforces and of ourhonesty.

We are at antracted revolutionto last, to grow ato come, a stratejour forces, armedand political movestudy as well as tas well as escalat

by analyzing the ereflects and builcaccountability toactions win peopleact or develop pasnot a popularity tcomparatively smalactively supportswhich is advancedpeople's understarpeople's willingnegroups and organiamust take all of taccount. This is tin Command."

Our goal is tnization toward ttstruggle becomes ia Marxist-Leniniststage. Organizati<source of the peo[and builds, and m*efforts add up. Oiindividuals,but isthan any one indnprecious,but orgatOnly organizationexperience and leideeds of the indi\s into t}

capable of wagingstruggle around dj

— 2.7

of the Native Americans, the undergroundrailroad, John Brown's attempt to createa freed-slave army in the mountains of theborder states, Emma Goldman and theanarchist fighters, the labor battles andAbraham Lincoln Brigade of the thirties,Tijerina in New Mexico, Most of all we mustfamiliarize ourselves thoroughly with allaspects of the enemy's situation and all

aspects of our own; we must analyze thestrengths and weaknesses of the enemy'sforces and of our own forces with ruthlesshonesty.

We are at an early stage of a pro-tracted revolutionary war. We need strategyto last, to grow and organize for many yearsto come, a strategy to preserve and expandour forces, armad revolutionary forcesand political movement: a strategy forstudy as well as training, tactical retreatas well as escalation. We evaluate action

by analyzing the extent to which itreflects and builds organization, reflectsaccountability to a mass base, whetheractions win people and encourage them toact or develop passivity among people. It'snot a popularity question: at this point acomparatively small sector of the populationactively supports armed struggle. Actionwhich is advanced should pull forward thepeople's understanding of the enemy andpeople's willingness to fight. People,groups and organizations engaged in actionmust take all of these factors intoaccount. This is the meaning of "Politicsin Command."

Our goal is to build communist orga-nization toward the stage where armedstruggle becomes a mass phenomenon led bya Marxist-Leninist party: a revolutionarystage. Organization is the strongest re-source of the people. Organization unitesand builds, and means that each day'sefforts add up. Organization is made up ofindividuals,but is bigger and longer lastingthan any one individual. Individuals areprecious,but organization is decisive.Only organization allows continuity ofexperience and leadership, and carries thedeeds of the individual fighters beyondthemselves into the future. Organizationcapable of waging full internal politicalstruggle around direction, and capable of

uniting in action directs people'senergies like a spear. Only combativeorganization can resist infiltration andrepression and combat the highly organizedand trained forces of the state.

The strategic necessity for thisperiod is to mobilize the oppressed andexploited people against US imperialism.Militarily this is the stage of armedpropaganda; the test of action is primarilythe ability to win the people. Becauseimperialism is in decline, whole sectorsof the poor and working population can bewon to a radical perspective. In Viet Namthe seeds of the liberation army werecalled armed propoganda units--Ho Chi Minhinsisted on emphasizing the word propagandaViet Nam teaches that in revolutionary warfirepower is only one factor, and not thekey factor in determining who wins and wh,.loses. Consciousness is decisive. At this

point, timing is critical because timinghelps make action comprehensible. Guer-rillas must integrate armed struggle withmass political struggle thru precision

and timing, to point out to the movementand to the people the strategic and po-litical necessity for armed struggle andfor revolution. In this stage armed actionprovides a consistencey of militant opposi-tion and action over time and is a beaconof hope to the hopeless.

The bombing of the State Departmentby the WUO in January 1975 is one exampleof effective integration of military andpolitical struggle—millions of peopleopposed increasing aid to South Viet Namand Cambodia, and thousands demonstratedin active opposition to US policy; thetarget and tactic and action were clear.The beauty of the S1A food distributionprogram a year ago was that it broughtthousands of people into direct touch withthe guerrilla struggle, served the peopleand both exposed the scale on which hungerexists in the US and pointed to the enemywho cause it. The active and aware supportof thousands on the food lines was an en-ormous accomplishment. The attack by theBlack Liberation Army on "Manhattan dis-trict attorney Frank Hogan's armed guardin May 1971 was built on years of demon-strations and hatred against that corrupttyrant who was responsible for the unjustimprisonment of thousands of Black people,and the action was widely understood. Allthese actions represent the effective com-bination of military and political struggles.

Three

There are three theories of guerrillawarfare which we reject as the path torevolution in the US: the war against fascismtheory, the foco theory and the retribu--tion theory.

Terrible fascist conditions prevailfor Third World peoples living in the US:intolerable prison life, Indian reservations,mass deportation for Mexicans, widespreadsterilization without consent of Black andThird World women. Of these conditions ofrepression and subjugation there can be nodcubt. But this is different from character-

izing the present stage of the developmentof imperial ism as a fascist system, andtherefore the staqe of the strugr-.Je as thewar against facism. Any view of t'.e -.powerof the state as monolithic is wrong andself-defeating. The cracks within thesystem are also widening. It is our job toput pressure on the cracks, to make a classanalysis of the forces in opposition toimperialism and to develop all of thoseforces on the appropriate level, Everymeans of struggle must be u t i l i z e d . We haveby no means reached the end of mass po-litical struggle and public movements—notunless we declare it so, instead of mo-bilizing it. While the state is increas-ingly computerizing and cen t ra l i z ing itsrepressive apparatus, it is a lso s u b j e c tto major setbacks which the l e f t should beorganizing and pushing. Watergate was oneof these. Other factors hold back the fu l lforce of the state—mass consciousness ofgovernment illegality, suspicion ofinformers, the power of a strong non-collaboration stand in the face of grandjuries.

Based on the war against fasc ismanalysis of this period is a pr imar i lymilitary conception of the role of action:that the criterion of a good act ion is thedamage it does to the state, the toll thatcan be taker,, the fe l t blow. This is oneaspect, but not primary. It becomes moresignificant as contention for powerdevelops, but it is wrong to conclude thatthe revolution is contending for statepower now.

The foco theory holds tha t a revolu»tionary group proves and establ ishes it-self only through armed action, thataction alone gives a group leadership inthe movement--that is, action in command;the guerrilla foco is the l i t t le motorwhich sets in motion the big motor, themass movement. That is, the exis tence ofthe guerri l la s t ruggle in and of i t s e l fpoliticizes the masses. We r e j e c t t h i stheory for the concrete conditions of theUS today.

Revolutionary action inspires andhelps mobilize the people but there is nomagical re la t ionship be tvaen gue r r i l l aaction in and of i t s e l f •• nd successful

The Women's$1,50available f»A Women's PIS2SI Broadua,Oakland, Cal

I come from onfamil ies with lotsin my family hunt,It is considered norelatives who liveguns. My cousins aiunderstand and respto shoot when we wenine or ten.) Nobofamily has ever shous (contrary to theare dangerous amongnever had any accid)In short, guns arenening to me, and thithis commentary.

guns and usThe attitude tl

the women's movemenis compounded half •ization and half ofideology. Guns aresneaky, dangerous,tique is that gunsev i l . There is somepowerful and potentis one reason theythe hands of women,women, so they keep

Liberal reformguns are integral tin the Streets. Ifhandguns, l i f e w o u lv i o l e n t crimes areguns than of the desociety, and I do nideas l i k e gun contthat. The really balways have accessthe Texas Rangers)board of directors

gun controlSo what does "c

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I come from one of those Southernfamilies with lots of guns. All the menin my family hunt, as do some of the womsrt.It is considered normal that my femalerelatives who live alone should own hand-guns. My cousins and 1 were taught tounderstand and respect guns. We learnedto shoot when we were quite young (I wasnine or ten.) Nobody in our enormousfamily has ever shot any of the rest ofus (contrary to the current l.ine that gunsare dangerous among kinfolk) and we'venever had any accidental gunshot injuries.In short, guns aren't mysterious or"fright-enirig to me, and that Is why I ' m writingthis commentary.

guns and usThe attitude that .many members of

the women's movement have about firearmsis compounded half of normal female social-ization and half of liberal gun-controlideology. Guns are seen as masculine,sneaky, dangerous, and powerful. The mys-tique is that guns are almost inherentlye v i l . There is some truth here, fiuns aY.epowerful and potentially deadly. Thatis one reason they have been kept out ofthe hands of women. Hen are afraid ofwomen, so they keep women afraid of guns.

Liberal reformist ideology says thatguns are integral to the rise of Crimein the Streets. If we w o u l d just outlawhandguns, l i fe would be better. Butvio lent crimes are less a function ofguns than of the destructive nature of thissociety, and I do not believe that reformistideas l i k e gun control w i l l ever changethat. The really big criminals will eitheralways have access to guns (the Maf ia ,the Texas Rangers) or not need them (theboard of directors of Mobil O i l ) .

gun controlSo what does "gun control" mean to •

roe? It means an attempt by the State todestroy my most efficient means of selfdefense, to limit further my options forresisting coercion in this rapist society.The truth is that there is no institution,no security force which protects women.The only protection we have is what webuild for ourselves. How far are we witlingto carry self defense? I wonder whetherthe conflict about guns is a result ofinternalized patriarchal values. How farwill we go in defense of our selves, ourbodies, our right to exist? Karate andother forms of unarmed'combat are fine.Carrying knives, can openers, and Maceis helpful. What is so different aboutguns?

self defenseThe answer is that guns are more

effective. The point of self defense issurvival. To roe this doesn't mean sur-vival "if I don't have to hurt anybody,"or "if I don't have to do anything reallyserious." Karate is good in a t ight sit-uation, but I don't want to get that closeto a man who has broken into my apartmentto attack me. What I ' m interested inis doing him some serious damage. And thatmay mean k i l l i n g him.

"But," asks my Leftist conscience,"what about the man? What if he were fromone of the exploited classes, also avictim of the System?"

Too bad. Personal responsibilityhas to start somewhere. I don't havetime to sort out middled ass and upper-class rapists to fight back against.

-32'The man who responds to his own oppressionby preying on me is strengthening the System,not fighting it. Getting killed is one ofthe occupational hazards rapists are goingto have to face, no matter how impeccabletheir class credentials.

the pamphletSo I am glad to see The Women's Gun

Pamphlet. Women are buying more gunsnow, and some guidance is needed. This is

"just what you need if you're thinking of*'buying a gun, own one but don't know how: - jto use it, or are just curious. It is

useful for more experienced gun owners whohave questions about ammunition or gun laws.The technical information is excellent, asare the illustrations. The pamphlet

, considers different kinds of handguns andf bullets, including prices. It tells you

how to pick a.gun, where to buy it, whatto load it with, how to take care of it,and how to learn to shoot it.

The Introduction includes a discussionof guns and the place of women in society.One personal response to the question ofwhether we would be able to use gunsagainst an attacker is presented in an

- insert:The only aay I 'vs figured out. totry and eliminate the all-nurturingmasochist in eaah of us is to r>e~membep that the man or men who attack;rape., mutilate, and try to kill youhaae and will do the same to asmany warren as they can, Miile youdefend yourself, bear in your mindall the women you love that you arefighting for, especially those youknow Ao have been attacked,

Following this, the Technical Informa-tion on ballistics and handguns is givenall in a lump, with clear illustrations(see below) and detailed explanation.Next comes Buying Your Gun and Care of Your

€ Gun {"outsides" and "insides"). ThenT,.chapters on Safety, Learning to Shoot,

and The Law. The final chapter is Thoughtson Inez Garcia.

gun safetyThe authors give strong, clear safety

warnings, two of which I will paraphrasehere for those of us who are likely tocome into contact with firearms:

Always assume that a gun is loaded.Each tine you pick up an "empty"gun, check for yourself that it isunloaded. If you don't know how,ask someone to show you.Never point a gun at anyone oranything "in fun." Never point agun at anyone you don't mean to puta bullet into, even if the gun is"empty". When other people arearound, keep the gun pointed towardthe floor.

If you have a gun, don't talk aboutit too much. If you live with other peopleyou have to make a decision about whetherto tell them. If you do and they don'tknow about guns, be sure you teach each ofthem elementary gun safety. A specialconsideration is if you have roommateswho are suicidal or likely to freak outat times. Think carefully about whereyou keep your gun and about whether youshould keep one at all. Another rea-son to keep quiet is that guns are verypopular objects to steal. Stolen, andtherefore untraceable, handguns are muchin demand by people who specialize inarmed robbery and similar occupations.

guns and childrenOne flaw in this pamphlet is the

omission of a discussion on guns and child-ren. This is crucial for women who livewith kids. Most ideas about guns come fromTV, the movies, and popular myth. Thesesources are all bad. Our children aretaught to view guns as toys and ego en-hancers, not as tools. Guns aredangerous, but so are power saws; child-ren should be educated about both.

The first thing is to keep gunsabsolutely out of the reach of smallchildren. Children younger than 6 or 7are too young to be taught about guns.Put the gun on a high shelf, in a drawer,or on a bureau. Or buy a trigger lock.

With children about 7 you can starta demystificatioo program. Let them see

revolution. Many factors are necessarv;the people must be organized and preparedas well as inspired. These things do nothappen by themselves. The moments whenqualitative leaps of consciousness and leapsinto mass action are taken are built onyears of struggle and organizing. To survivethe hunt of the repressive apparatus,the guerrillas must be protected by anorganized and combative movement, by thepolitical organization of the people, bymass political action. All of these formshelp lay the basis for the eventual mobi-lization of the revolutionarized peopleagainst the state—the armed struggle ofthe oppressed, people's war. The guerrillagroups have a critical role to play butthe gun cannot lead. The gun is necessary,but its usefulness is only realized whenpolitics are in command, when it is part ofthe correct revolutionary strategy.

Even a far higher level of militaryorganization and action than any group inthis country has yet achieved gives noautomatic guarantee of sparking organizedmass movement. The Tupamaros, whose brill-iant actions over ten years almost paralyzedUruguay, criticised their own overly mili-tary approach. The people'reraained unor-ganized spectators and supporters of thewar of the guerrillas against the state,not full participants. The pro-imperialistbourgeoisie has been able to regain andconsolidate their power, to institute aterrible dictatorship which the Tups and theUraguayan people continue to fight.

Armed action, even when it does notsucceed, even when those who carry it outare defeated, even if it is not part of anoverall strategy, provides a revolutionary

example for those who will coiae later, endenters into the heart of the people. Thi;.is true. Action is exemplary, and thebeginnings of armed struggle are a challengeto the comfortable left. It is a layingof self on the line for the struggle, andsparks the imaginations and courage ofthousands of people. Fighters who havegiven their lives are much loved and liveon. But this is not enough. Action must beplanned to succeed: the object is to win.Revolutionary examples always have arisen.and will always arise. They spring fromthe depths of the people's subjugation. Butthe task of the armed revolutionary orga-nization at this point is to make a plan tohelp ensure the victory of the people in along and costly war. The people need success,need victories, need power,

That is why the rationale of theexemplary foco is inadequate. Each action,each risk, must be taken for goodreason. Guerrillas can seldom afford to gointo battle which they know they will loee.This is an axiom of Vo Nguyen Giap. Of coursethis is never entirely within our owncontrol. There are a hundred factors in-volved in every action--we can only takecare of a certain number of them, andsometimes the enemy forces us to act. Butchoosing our own time and battlefield is oneof the great strengths cf the guerrillas.That is how we preserve and build our forces.

Finally we reject the conception thatthe role of the guerrilla force is to createchaos inside the belly of the beast, theoppressor nation, to bring about disorderthrough action. We are not pacifists. Weknow very well that life will be taken andlost in the process of revolution, and

30

that the birth of the new society, like thebirth of a new human being, is bloody andpainful. But revolutionary violence must bespecific, comprehensible to the people,and humane. The violence of the revolutionmust be clearly distinguishable to theoppressed and exploited people,from theviolence of capitalist society. People donot need us to be fearful, or to createchaos. Chaos prevails. Our task is to showthe way out of the madness. All revolution-ary communists love peace. We must win thetrust, of the people that the revolutionrepresents a real alternative, a love ofhuman life unlike the carelessness of lifethat characterizes imperialism,

That is the fault of the strategy ofan eye for an eye in our country at thistime: we can never match the violence ofthe enemy on£ for one, or avenge each deathWe retaliate in order to educate people andto exact a price for imperial crimes, tosow unease, confusion, doubt and fear inthe enemy camp. Our job is. always to dis-tinguish, between the violence of the empireand the violence of the revolution. Thiswill be true even when we are engaged inday to day warfare. This is also the onlyway to prevent the ensmy from carrying outfalse murderous acts in the name of theguerrillas. In the mountains, when theFidelista prisoners were being torturedand summarily executed by the dictatorship,Fidel's doctors healed the wounded enemysoldiers, disarmed them and set them free,Fidel taught the difference between thearmy of Batista and the army of the people.

We must never hesitate to fight, butwe must never build any mystification aroundviolence. We must be a force of armed mili-tants, not militarists. Another importantaspect of this _is that revolutionarieshave to tell the truth; we cannot makeinflated c.laims about who we are and whatwe represent. We must win the trust of. thepeople and this will only develop throughour own consistency of practice over time.

We do not condemn violence that origi-nates from the left, just as we do not con-demn violence that originates from theworking class. The oppressed peoples andthe working class have a right and anobligation to develop armed struggle as ameans to liberation.

It is a right wing error to argue thatonly legal forms of struggle are legiti-mate. For some, no level of mass strugglewill justify armed struggle; these arenaive and irresponsible people, never readyto raise the question of violence or of theneed to fight and ultimately win statepower. They play into the state's strategyto separate out the warriors from the otherparts of the revolutionary movement. Guer-rillas and the fighters who are in prisonmust be supported and struggled with,taught and learned from. Our revolutionwill need both open and clandestine movementslegal and illegal struggle, peaceful andarmed struggle—and we will need harmonyand organization among all levels of thestruggle toward the goal of a revolutionizedand fighting people.

,/ \x or84/ L ! %V»fs,«I / X~4 [

-•33-and touch the gun. Explain how it works.They should understand the destructive powerof guns. The best way is for them to seean animal that has been ki l led by a bullet.The appearance and smell of a gunshpt .wound are better than any lecture. Finda hunter (call your local gunshop qrgun clufc) and tell her/him you are tryingto give, your kids some decent educationabout firearms. When she brings in somefreshly ki l led game, take the childrento see It. This demonstration is par-ticularly effective with "pretty" gamelike deer and squirrel, but it also worxswith snakes and rats. The kids may bea little traumatized by the sight, butthey need some blood to wash away theTV image of sanitary, non-serious gunshotwounds. Don't worry about looking foolishto the gunstore or gun club people. Mostgun owners, especially hunters, are veryinterested in gun education.

Have definite rules about guns, statethem often, and enforce them. When Iwac small, we had rules like, "Don'teven touch a gun unless in the presenceof an adult who gives you permission.Treat all guns as though they were loaded.Never play with a gun; it Is not a toy."

When the children are old enough(say, 9 or 10) let them go with you toyour local gun range or wherever you

practice, let them shoot your gun, so theyknow how it feels. Teach them how toload and unload it, and how to handle aloaded gun safely. All of this adds up toteaching children to treat guns seriouslyand with some'respect.

And we have to be just as serious.For instance, never fire at an intruderbefore giving some warning. He mightgive up peacably. He might turn out tobe your brother you forgot you'd giventhe key to. Or "he" might turn out to beyour roommate or lover, back in townunexpectedly. Never overlook the fact thatguns are deadly weapons. If you shootsomeone from close quarters, the woundwil l be serious and perhaps fatal.

Although this pieae uas writtenfrom a personal viewpoint and -is someahatdirected toaard women who are alreadythinking about guns, I hope it uill stimu~late discussion and debate from all sides,ifliat do guns mean to you? And hou muoh"defense" do you mean when you say "selfdefense"?

by janis kelly

off our backs/november 1975

Noveiuber 25, 197.5STRATEGY FOR HJILDING A UNITED 'FRONT

The NW1P units are expanding, and in order for us to best, serve theinterests of oppressed people, we must coordinate our units around a com-mon strategy as well as tactics. To unify our forces we must take steps.to ensure that newly-forming HV/Iii1 units first meet certain requirements.This is not to discourage armed actions but rather to ensure a secure,unified and coordinated "base and avoid confusion.

Intellect (the coupling of practice with theory) is more importantfor the progressive movement of a revolutionary force than any other ele-ment. It. is important to remember that intellect is the deciding factorin human evolution/revolution and therefore a. key to our victory.

"Sun fzu realized that an indispensable preliminary to battlewas Mo attack the mind of the enemy."

—Sun Tau, The Art of War"Weapons are important but not deeisirwe, It: is a human's, diirec.tr-ing intelligence which counts most."

'Before units move under theNWLP banner they must grasp theessentials of Marxist/Leninist/Maathought. They must grasp the pro-cess of class analysis and dialect-ical, materialism/contradictions.Until a degree of theory is grasp-ed, there are important supportiveactions that can be undertaken.

We ask all units to sendthese communiques to all. revolu-tionary peoples' media any. placein the Bay Area, and we will seethem. Send them to a few differ-ent places. These acts arid com-muniques will be evaluated by theCentral Command. This evaluation

Izu, The Art of War

process will continue until theunit is recognized to move as anOTLP unit. Until units who sup-port our strategy have gonethrough this evaluation process,they are asked not, to declareth&mselvas as HWXP units. Shiawill avoid confusion and prevent.foreseeable errors,

T.O move without a fundamental.understanding of principled theoryis like running in circles , strik-ing out, wanting to move in theright direction but not knowinghow. Confusion moves in when youare unable to understand, and. inter-pret the chains of events happen-ing around you. This will lead

.

- 35"inevitably to a defeatest, dis-

couraged attitude. It's one thing

to have a dreani and to see it's

within grasp, but. it.'s quite anot-

her to have a dream and have the

knowledge of- understanding social

events (theory) to actually grasp

it and make it reality. Theory is

a necessary weapon for victory and

total liberation. PRACTICE,

THEORY, PRACTICE ... one grows out,

of and with the other.

There is much we must unlearn,

re-realize and realize. Armed

with principled theory, we can and

will struggle to smash this "beast

that sucks our life-blood, replaa-

ing it, with a just order that, is

in control of and serves oppressed

people. Armed with principled

theory we can recognize the indiv-

idualistic tendencies this dog-

eat-dog society imposes on us,

Recognition is a step in overcom-

ing these self-centered, "aie-me"

capitalistic ways that help keep

us shackled to this death-order.

Our actions must be guided

by principled theory if they are

to represent and serve the needs

of the people. It. is in the in-

terests of oppressed people that

we take steps to structure our

forces in this manner. To move as

a strong force united and guided

by principled theory is necessary

not only for victory, but for the

shortest victory with the least

amount of suffering. Arm our-

selves with theory to break these

shackles! We encourage all op-

pressed people to arm themselves

with Mao-thoughtJ We've found

that Mao-thought., in clear terms,

gets to the essence of class ana-

lysis, which is essential for our

liberation.

We encourage oppressed, people to read Malcolm X, Ceorge Jackson, Fe-

lix Greene-;Xhe Snemy, Amilcar Cabrai, Che, Sun Tzu, Mao.

Distribute to high schools,

barrios, ghettos, welfare,

foodstamp & unemployment off-

ices & any place poor people

gather.

UNITY IK STRUGGLE!COR SALSA:IHASTA LA VICTORIA IA Class War Is Toward Total. Libera-tion J

Peoples' ForcesCentral CommandNew World Liberation Eroirfc

To all comrades with international ties, we encourage the translation and

worldwide distribution of our communiques, keeping criticism/self criti-

cism in mind as a way to drive the arrow truer to the beast's heart. 'We

welcome this opportunity to learn from our comrades.

Oppressed people unite!

The struggle is worldwide!

-3C-

N

Health StrategyOn November 16th, the New World Liberation Front began a campaign

that appears to mark a new phase in the development of guerrilla strategy

in Amerika. Ehe stags for their action was set a couple weeks previously

when the voters of San Francisco "tarried down several charter amendments

strongly supported by and of direct benefit to the police. The cops res-

ponded by massively ticketing random cars around the city. On the 16th a

training unit of the N.W.L.P. glued shut 1,000 parking meters in the city.

During the early hours of November

16, we sabotaged the locks on ap-

proximately 1,000 parking meters, in

San Francisco with metal glue, at

the direction of the Central Com-

mand.

We sabotaged all. the meters in and

around the San Francisco Center, a

large number downtown, and all the

meters in front of pig headquarters

at 7th an Bryant. At pig head-

quarters we sabotaged locks, at

thres entrances, including the rear

entrance used by squad ear pigs..

In the downtown area we sabotaged

the looks, on a number of banks and

other bastions of piggedness.

If the San Praneiscoo police who are

acting like pigs and harrassing the

people for voting "no confidence"

do not cease their activities im-

mediately, we will attempt to sabo-

tage ev,ei'y parking meter in San,

Francisco, with the assistance of

the hundreds of" thousands of sis-

ters and brothers who are tired e-

nougii with, being pushed around by

the piga to start fighting, back.

Peoples' Forces

lew World Liberation Front

Training Unit 11/16/75

(Shis is an exerpt)

At the same time the Central Command issued its ov.rn statement.;

COMMUNITY SOLIDAHITY STRATEGY November 16, 1975

We must move in solidarity against the police-state tactic o£ ticket-

ing the people in retaliation for their vote, so that oppressed people,

will come t.o realize that they have the power to move against these

1. Tho campaign around the ammendments and the police strike the pre-

vious summer had been marked by numerous instances of pig violence

against those opposing them.

beasts, The power and control can - and will be - in the hands of. tha

people.

WE ARE CALLING OK ALL POOR PEOPLE 10 PR02ES2 THE PIG TACTIC OP TIOKET-

W GOING OUT IN THBIB COKMDKITIES AND JAMMING SHE PARKING METERS WITH

EPOZIED WASHERS, LIQUID STEEL, ETC.

Peoples' Forces New World Liberation Front Central Command

(This is an exerpt)

Nine days later N.W.L.F. Central Command issued a specific demand: money

was ripped off from the people toy the wanton ticketing — it, had to be re-

turned, and in a way that would be of direct benefit to the people — the

demand was for two free health centers run "by the people.

November 25, 1975

UKITED PEOPLE POWER

The plugging of 2,000 parking meters in one night is a strong show of

I solidarity with the people and the NWLP against the pigs' stepped-up t±.c-

j keting policy. Contrary to the media's lies of S!a fiealed-out. act," we

see this as a successful act that has involved the participation of oppres-

sed people and strengthened the realization of united people pcwsr. Shis

show of unity terrified the pigs into stopping their ticketing. They hmre

enough sense to to recognize united people power when they see it! Will

they have enough sense to return, stolen money by way of. medical centers?

Two days after the election

1453 more tickets were issued tiian

on an average busy weekday. In

the first week alone almost $75000

was ripp.ed-off by the city, and by.

now they've taken over $100,000 in

revenge against the people, who

chose to vote against, pig greed

and corruption. The peoples' ae*-

tions have finally .put an end to

this. But that is only half our

battlej since they ripped, off our

money. The city officials surely

see that this is nothing more than

j extortion of the masses.

The city return $100,000 that was

robbed from the people and set up

two free medical clinics run and

controlled by. the people, at loca-

tions acceptable to the people,

with quality care, and with, a 4x8*

sign posted on the outside reading

"Health, is a human rightJ United

People Power!"

If the city, officials fail, to

acknowledge and meet this just de-

mand, then It will, be obvious that

they are either accomplices in

,

38-this-extortion plot or have beenintimidated by. the pigs like other:politicians. In either case they.,will be dealt, with, accordingly.Our Gourse of action is clear -—until the stolen money is return-ed, we will continue to encourage

revolutionary acts to unite thepeople against, these thugs. Ourstrategy is to draw this aocialsore to the surface and let, thepus run out so all can see, thusaiding in the healing process.

2he city, officials have 48- houra to respond to our just demand,for the return of. our stolen money, in the form of' health, centers.

Drive these ruling class parasites, their thugs and their death, orderfrom our lives foreverj Unite! Organize!

WB CALL OH THE PEOPLE AND ALL COMRADES TO UNITE AND DRIVE HOME OUR

JUST EEMAJSB.

If after 48 hours we receive no reply, we would then again encourageall progressive thinking people to step-up pluggung the coin, slots of:parking meters in poor peoples' ooEaaoaities, Eie BWLF will, take furtherappropriate action. United, everything is possible! Plan* Vigilance I

Walk against, the traffic; in pairs, one watching.

Peoples' ForcesCentr-al CommandHew World Liberation Front

The only replyfrom the pigs was a statement saying it was out of. their hands because theBoard, of Supervisors controlled the money. Meanwhile, the K.W.L.P. com-muniques were "being distributed, by Peoples1 Court Comrades (423 Oak St.,San Francisco). BARC printed a DRAGON supplement including, most of thecommuniques with the following, statement o£' support and distributed themto various health centers and clinics:

?/e support the iW/LF demand for clinics run by and for the people. Inaddition, we suggest these clinics emphasise preventive medicine andoccupational diseases •—area ignored by the Aiaerikan medical system.which bases "treatment" on what is most profitable. ~ & A RC

Then another thousand meters were done in by spray painting so thatmeter readers could not tell if the meters had. expired. !Ehis aation wasnot specifically/ claimed,

That weak there were also two unclaimed bomb attacks .interpreted bysome as directly related -~ one on a dentist's Mercedes Bena at a huuse

previously owned by Jerry Growley, head of the police officers association:

Ihe other, undetonatea, was fo-und at the home of s. rcs.n with the seme last

name (Molinari) as one of the supervisors.

In about two days the Central Command issued an open letter to the

Board of Supervisors of San Francisco:

fhe 48 hours, have passed and - as you chose not to answer our 1st com-

munique - we have taken appropriate action. We are hot on your ass.,

Jerry Crowley, and any high official who has the power to implement -

but opposes - these health canters! We will continue to jeopardize

your health until such a tine as when you respect the health, needs of.

poor people. And, we say to all health officials, Doctors and Dentists:

As long as poor people are dying from inadequate health care, we feel

it is a hell of a contradiction for you. to drive Mercedes and Cadillacs.

We will continue with this action and the plugging and spraying of thou-sands of city meters to draw attention to the fact that, money stolen

from the people must be returned in a manner that serves one of the

basic needs of poor people: by starting two free raedical clinics run

by and for the people they serve,

0?he strike—and the ticketing after the election—have shown how the

pigs can openly defy "the law" and get away with it. Shese drunken

j thugs with, guns strapped "to their sides—out on strike, defying court

orders—threatened to shoot anyone threatening their picket lines{ But

when poor people strike, these sane thugs then "enforce" court orders,

and will beat and shoot unarmed strikers pressing for the same type of

demands as their own.

1'he pigs have publically stated that whether or not the stolen money

goes toward starting 2 free medical clinics is up to the supervisors,

Therefore, once again we say to you, reply to this issue I

1, Do you recognize that these thugs ripped off money from the peo-

ple through ticketing?

2, Do you recognize that poor prople are forced to live with inade-

quate and often no medical care and are in need of health care?

3, Do you feel that the stolen money should be returned to the peo~

pie and—-if so—why net in the form of free medical clinics, one of

the basic necessities denied to poor people that should—and will be—

a human right?

let it be clearly understood that we can not and will not live in these

dehumanising, rat and roach-infested shitholes, believing that that is

40our place in life I

I'f you fail to respond to and back this issue, we will have to aasuiae

that you are more concerned about your standing with the pigs than you-

are about the misery and Buffering that afflicts poor people daily, or—

that yon have "been intimidated by these thugs; It's not right that

these thugs get away with their lawless terrorism and this is an oppor-

tunity for you to take a step to put an end to this and demonstrate

your concern for the too-often-neglected poor of San Francisco. We hope

your actions demonstrate a strong concern for the -welfare of poor peo-

ple. If you fail to show concern, for poor peoples' health, we will show

contempt for your health!

Central Command—Peoples* Forces

(This is an excerpt.) Hew World Liberation Pront

This time a response came quickly. Dianne Peinstein, President of the

Board of Supervisors requested police protection for all the Supervisors.

Supervisor John Sarbagelata, running for mayor, decided not to show uj> for

a pu'blic debate. Then Peinnteioi issued a statement clai.ai.ng that San Fran-

cisco health facilities were quite adequate, praising the city/county hos-

pital (a notorious pit), and & challenge to the people: "If a group of ci~

tiaeKfj presents a .proposal for specific health care needs which are curren-

tly unmet, we will see to it that prompt action is taken,'*

1'he H.Vi.L.P, had set up the Supervisors and Feinsteln had taken the

bait. It was now time for a direct response i'ron the c-oiaauiiity. On Dec.

6f BfiJRC issued an open, letter to the Supervisors,

On December 7, president of the Board of Supervisors Diane Peinsteinissued EI response that is an insult to a.ll San Franciscans,Clearly Peinstein never* had. to lie out in the halls of San PranciecoGeneral Hospital for five hours waiting to be- -treated for a gunshotwound, or have &n incompetent abortion from a sexist doctor, or watchher family suffer from malnutrition, or work at a Job with sickeningconditions so hsr boss could make a few extra "bucks profit off her, orhave to worry about the confidentiality of her records at a city V.I)«clinic, or chase z'ats out of her kitchen, or tried to get medical aidwhile in jail, or had her brains fried by electroshocls: "therapy".Clearly she is unaware of the sickness of a society that produces a citywith one of the highest suicide and alcoholism rates in the country, acity where 28 of the 30 hospitals are located north of fcarket Street,Or, maybe she is aware and just doesn't care I

Equally clearly Peinstein and the other supervisors are scared—notso nuch of a threat to their own health but of exposure of the crimi-nally inadequate system of health care in Ssja Francisco for which theymust bear much of the responsibility.

We support the I1.W..L.P. deraend for adequate health care arid the re-turn of the 5100,000 to the people of San Francisco, recognizing thatthis sum of money is merely a small beginning and will be usef O. only

insofar as it is controlled, by the people through a. program designedby the people, IVe would also suggest that a focus be m?.de on preven-tive medicine and occupational health—areas of least profitabilityand therefore of least concern to the Aeerikan medical system.

We are also encouraging all sisters and brothers to add to this pro-cessby stating their needs and proposing their own analyzed conclusionsfor dealing with the issues concerned,

(Ihis is an excerpt.)

It was our analysis that what "was needed were developed plans for ful-

filling the health needs of the people. In the meantime it was necessary

to keep up the momentum and pressure. To do this in a way that would truly

represent the people, meant involving those groups most involved in fight-

ing for anci knowledgeable about the health needs of their own people. To

that end we sent copies of our letter to about 40 such groups with a cover

letter explaining our intentions/reasoning.

We also talked, with several groups personally and found people quite

receptive to the whole thing. There appeared to be fairly broad recogni-

tion that the underground guerrilla forces were relating very directly to

the concrete everyday needs of the people, in practice, not just in theory

as has often been the case. It has only been several days since our let-

ter and it is impossible to further evaluate peoples response at this time.

On December 10th Peoples Court Comrades distributed a statement poin~

ting out that at the same time Feinstein was making her remarks about ade-

quate health care, funding for neighborhood health centers was being out

2Qja. While this was happening the N,\V.L«F. issued a new open letter to theSupervisors. _____ ^ __ r

You have failed to respond adequately to our 1st open letter to you and 1we say, if you continue with this bullshit, intellectual run~a,rotmd that 1doesn't speak to the demands directly, we will use tactics you cannothandle! Certain of us can walk right by you in the streets or at CityHall and you don*t even know who we are. Justice time and the elementof surprise are on our side. :,,'e tell you this so you will be. sure toanswer in a clear, direct manner this time or suffer the consequences,.

Clearly, S100,QGO is only a drop in the bucket, since greedy rich poli-ticians cut poor1 peoples1 medics1 services by millions-—Mission HealthCenter along was denied SI.3 nillion and at Grant Avenue R.B. KedicalServices, cuts are "upsetting the whole program", which means poor peo-ple suffer once again, contrary to what Diane Feinstein says,,

Upon further consideration, we've eoncludid that the interests of poorpeople would be served test if the £100,000 is spent on medical care atthe county jail in Sac Bruno. The prisoners will decide by concensushow this raoney is spent, since they are in a position to know best what'slae&ing medically.Jails end prisons are another tentacle of this ruling class octupus beastthat strangles the life out of poor people. This death-order imprisonsthousands of peonle for 10 or 20 years for "stealing" S10. Yet, peoplewho are driven to "stealing" $10 are nost always poor, and have little-hope for a good lifo in this dog-eat-dog racist order. Poor people

have been robbed for centuries by "legalized" robbery and now you super-,visors are allowing armed thugs to "legally" rob us on the streets, be-cause those thugs got pissed-off like spoiled brats who didn't get theirway—except, these aren't brats—they're armed, racist, dangerous thugs.If you fail to yeild to these just demands, we will drive you to your •gravel Thousands of poor people suffer and die daily in this countryfrom no or foul medical attention, as the rich get richer and the poorget poorerj and suffer, and die.. 'He say, help- correct poor peoples'health or suffer poor health yourselves. We want to live too, as we'resure you and your families do. We recognize that—while you didn't cre-ate this situation—you do control the thugs who have created and exe-cuted this robbery, V,e feel that you and your families—rich families—have no more right to live a decent life than, do poor people and ourfamilies. You cannot stop the rage and determination of our forces inour struggle for these rightsJ

You have until 12;00 P.M. Monday, December 15, to respond directly to—and meet—these just demands:

1. the stolen $100,000 will go toward badly needed medical care atthe San Bruno county jail.

2, A concensus of the prisoners will decide which health need thismoney goes toward, as they are in. a position to best know what's lackingmedically.If you fail to do so, we will take further action, and encourage allprogressive-minded people to drive these rich politicians from ourlaidst.John Barbagelata—your heart cold with contempt for the needs of uspoor people is not strong enough to endure our rage and determination!v/e"have studied your weaknesses and you are a weak deranged buzzard withlittle or no concern for the suffering of oppressed people. liONJDAYl12;00 P.M.I

Peoples1 Forces, Central CommandKew V/orld Liberation Front

December 11, 1975

(This is an excerpt.)

She changing of the specific demand for the $100,000 to go to the

county jail was good. It avoided a lot of potential bureaucratic bullshit

around setting up the clinics and directly answered a previously defined

need—even the sheriff had been trying to get the none3" from the supervisors

for years. Also, the K.V/.l.P, was recognizing the necessity for a broader

health plan—one worked up by the community,

BAKC believes that the Kew V/orld Liberation Front has shown execelent

analysis and initiative in its campaign for adequate health care. We be-

lieve that it is now necessary for those of us aboveground and locked down

to state our needs and organize to deal with them.

We believe that this situation is an execellent example of the way

that the people and their guerrilla forces can and should work together.

Each can and must do its part. Bach must recognise the indispensable role

of the other and strive for a dialogue and joint effort to produce a win-

ning strategy. We strongly encourage all comrades to participate in this

ongoing process.

OUR O B L I G A T I O N TO ANALYZE

AND EVALUATE

Over the past year and a half,BABChas been aware of numerous statementsclaiming to be from underground groups.Some we print and some we don't. Somewe do not print because we feel otherletters, articles, etc. are more im-portant in helping accomplish, ourgoal——dialog among underground,lock-eel down, and aboveground comrades. Agood number we do not print for otherreasons. We run across many thingsclaiming to be from folks that clear-ly have no part in what is being donein their name, There art- others bytypewriter "guerrilla organizations"whose claims dry up with their ink,Some stuff is simply off the waJUL orincoherent. Others are phoney set-ups from the pigs. Sometimes -thereare statements by well-meaning com-rades who have simply jeapordizedtheir (and possibly others') secu-rity by what they write. All ofthis we try to sift through. We be-lieve it is our obligation to ana-lyze,, and not merely accept at facevalue, whatever we come across——whe-ther it is from comrades locked downaboveground, or underground.' If weconclude something will contributeto revolutionary dialog we will tryto print it—-even if we don't com-pletely agree with its content. We

accept full responsibility for ouranalysis and for determining what wewill distribute/print. We encourageand expect feedback and criticism onthis and all our practice to help inour development.

BARC has been aware of a groupcalling itself the Zapata Unit sincelast August. We have very conscious-ly chosen not to print any of theirstatements. We have had too manyquestions as to both the content andorigin of statements and actions sup-posedly from them. We are offeringthe following observations concern-ing the Zapata Unit and the "Open ,'Letter to the People, The Emilis.noZapata Unit, and New Dawn," not toparticularly begin a dialog on thembut rather to help clarify one partof the process that all comradesshould go through in evaluating any-one and anything.

The first statement from the Za-pata Unit announced its existence,In content it was self-righteous,lacking in political analysis andbig on sounding heavy. Since thattime, we have been aware of eightother statements allegedly from thesame people. In September, twostatements were issued claiming at-tacks on a guard at San Quentin and

on the Gaslight Theater on SleekerStreet in New York. Beither of thesehave been verified and to the bestof our knowlege no such place as theGaslight theater on Sleeker St. ex-ists I In the beginning of Octoberthe Unit claimed a bombing on a P.G.&E. tower near Belmont, Ca. Fromwhat we understand, a small devicewas found undetonated. In the samemonth they claimed to have taken 1500dollars from "drug merchants" (notstated whether this meant smack dea-lers or a drug store) also unveri-fied. At the beginning of November,there was a statement saying thatthey had taken some high explosives,reiterating their previous two "act-ions.- They stated that all theseactions could be done by great massesof people ignoring the fact thatpeople were still essentially beingpresented with non-actions.

The Zapata Unit took responsibil-ity for the Halloween bombing of aSafeway in Oakland. Not only wasthis action done in a way that di-rectly threatened people living inthe neighborhood, but the Dnit wentso far as to blame Safeway for theirown incompetency. Another Safewaybombing was claimed on Thanksgivingday. This action was apparently donecleanly and their communique was tothe point—-except they pointedlycontinued to refuse responsibilityfor endangering people in their Oak-land Safeway bombing.

Finally a longer statement wasissued, with some attempts at ana-

44--lysis and criticism. They begin bysaying, "The main significance of(our first) communique and of theZapata Unit itself, is the escala-tion of the communist revolution in.this country to a higher level, ofarmed struggle: from bombings andsmaliL expropriations, to politicalassassinations and kidnappings, bank,appropriatjjxis, and large scale de-molitions....11 This appears to bearno relationship to their practice.The Unit then states that their de-parture from a non-injury policy on-ly refers to the ruling class, notthe people. Fine! —but still noself-criticism for their OaklandSafeway attack. Next they go on toexplain that what they meant by theirtheir intention to deal "...with anyso-called revolutionary groups, col-lectives, or individuals who are mo-tivated by ego-gratification, i.e.superstar positions, gangsterism, adadventurism, etc." refers only torevisionists, and "... and those whouse the people to enrich themselvesor make a name for themselves."

The statement concludes with anattack on the Barb, KPFA, and pos-sibly KSAH and KPOO their intenton the latter two is not clear. Cou-pled with this is an appeal to theworkers in these media to resist re-formism and offering "concrete sup-port " in any struggles they may havewith their bosses when it is tacti-cally correct.

Some folks have good intentionsbut produce bad results* SOrtfc FOV.KS

HAVE SAD )^TE«-riOrtS that appear

good in order to suck us into their

trip. At all times we must examineappearances very carefully to see

beneath the surface. We must not

confuse our hopes and expectations

with what we can see through care-

ful analysis. She revolutionary

process is not well served by un-

questioning acceptance or sloppiness.

On Deceafcer 5, KPFA reported that

the Smiliano 2apata Unit had issued a

communique charging that KPFA had been

taken over by the U.S. Communist Party,

and serves only to divert the people's

struggles into reformist channels and

dead end trips. According to XPFA,

the Zapata Unit called on the people

to investigate these charges and re-

port their findings.

As an active member of the under-

ground guerrilla forces in this region,

I feel compelled, first to respond to

these charges and second, to ask sorae

Questions of the Zapata Unit. Before-

hand, however, I must criticize JSPFA

for not broadcasting this communique

in full. This coBununique has not yet

become readily available to someone

in flip position, making it difficult to

thoroughly evaluate and understand it.

Still, the apparent thrust of the

charges seems absurd enough to respond

to,

KPFA is, without a doubt, one of

the best sources in the San Francisco

Bay Area for overall international,

national and local news, They are

one of the few alternative news sour-

ces around who do not drastically co-

lor their reporting in favor of any

particular dogmatic political line,

or in order to siake a profit. KPFA

bears no resemblance at all to the

pig media—the big business radio sta-

tions, TV stations, newspapers, maga-

zines and press services who delib^

erately lie and distort the facts in

order to deceive the people and pro-

tect the ruling class.

KPFA does deserve soae criticism,

In. general they have reported fairly

and fully on the growth of the guer-

rilla struggle here during the past

few years, though scinstiaies with a

notable lack of enthusiasm. The KPPA

news department for instance, has at

times been too willing to accept the

pig media's damage estimates after

guerrilla attacks. Still, they-,-are re-

ported, and our communiques read or ex-

plained with relatively little distor-

tion. It is fundamentally important

to the growing guerrilla forces that

our communications reach the broadest

possible sections of oppressed and wor-

king people.

KPFA, clearly, is no tool of the

ruling class. It is very difficult to

understand why the Zapata Unit has cho-

sen to attack KPFA in this manner.

There is no purpose served by drawing

unnecessary battle lines between the

underground and those who serve the

people.

The people should carefully analyse

this situation, and draw whatever con-

clusions are appropriate and necessary,.

1

For ay part, I will relate here eoneobservations about the Zapata Unit,and address several questions to them.I feel that these questions reflect thewidespread concerns of many people, andthat it could only help to clarifythings if the Zapata. Unit would respondto them in a forthright manner.

I hasten to add that I have no in-formation about the Zapata Unit otherthan their public words and deeds,

The Zapata Unit issued its firstcommunique on August 13, 1975 (EA.RB,8/22/75: IKE PEOPLE UKITSD, 9/75).The Zapata Unit claims to "be an "un-derground People's force,.. a multi-national unit determined to destroythe fascist imperialist insect... Toaccomplish this v;e will engage in po-litical kidnapping, political assassi-nations, bank expropriations , all car-ried out by commando units. We willalso uee very high explosives to eli-minate certain capitalist agencies andinstitutions, ..We will be focusing .first of all on the treasury agentsdeployed in the Bay Area," The ZapataUnit also threatened to employ "tacticssuch as raiding radio stations and ta-king control temporarily. . .Also we aremaintaining safehouses from which weare able to break into redio frequen-cies by means of short wave radios,if any of our communications are dis-torted by the pig media, ..or even thepeople's media."

further, the Zapata Unit promisedto "deal with any so-called revolu-tionary groups, collectives or indi-

viduals who are Kjutivated by ego-gratification, i.e.superstar • posi-tions, gangsterism adventurism, etc."RLnally, the August 12 communique'-claimed that "a complete politicalstatement,,.will appear soon."

In the four months since the Za-pata Unit issued this communique therehave been three verifiable bombingswhich they have taken credit for.There have been, however, no knowattacks carried out on Treasury agents,no political kidnappings, no politicalassassinations, no bank robberies andno raiding of radio stations carriedout in their name. Kot have they issueda full political statement. In themain, this first communique appears to"be largely a collection of unfufilledthreats against both the pigs_ and cer-tain unnamed elements of the left. Ihave five questions for the Zapata Unitconcerning this communique:l)>Vhy did you promise to "first of all"focus on Treasury agents if you werenot sure of your ability to attack them?2) V/'hy did you threaten kidnappings,assassinations, bank robberies, and therading of radio stations if you aid nothave workable plans to carry them out?Surely you must realize that makingpromises that you cannot fufill canonly make the underground appear vvoak.3)' Why did you threaten to "deal with"revolutionaries "motivated by ego-gratificaticns" without explaining tothe people just who you were talkingabout, and just how you planned to"deal with" them? A vague threat likethis can only be expected-to cause dis-

7f7-trust, fear and paranoia within therevolutionary 'movement.4) Ys'hy have you*not issued "a co6i~plete political statement" as youpromised?5) Shy did not issue a communique be-fore you had taken any actions whichthepeople could use to evaluate yourpolitics- and capabilities?

The Zapata Unit got in the news nearthe end of August when State SenatorH.L. Richardson called.a.press confer-ence and released the Zapata Unit'sforst communique to the media. Hich-ardson claimed that he didn't want togive "terrorists" publicity, but justhad to let the people know about theZapata Unit since their communique wasbeing passed out of the streets ofBerkeley.

"FIRST AHfciED ATTACK"In September, the Zapata Dnit claims

to have "carried out its first armedattack on the Amerikan ruling class."In a communique dated September 14,and circulated by Kew Dawn (THS PEOPIEUNITED, 10/75), the Zapata Unit claims"the fire-bombing of...a prison guardfrom San Quentin." There is no evi-dence that such an attack ever tookplace, nor has the Zapata Unit made itpossible to investigate this allegedact. Who was this prison guard? He isdescribed as "chosen because of hisespecially pig-like attitude and ac-tions," yet remains unnamed. New Davvnspeculated that the attack was not .-,.successful, but the communique "had ..,,

already been sent put before." Shisstill deep not explain why the guardis unnamed. . She Zapata Unit coazauai-cue also premises, similar action .sgainst other prison guards"on ourlist which has bean compiled from

information given us by our trustedcomrades arid supporters inside the •Karros of Kalifcrnia." The Zapata Unithas not claimed any further attackson prison guards since this threat .wasmade three months ago. I have thesequestions for the Zapata Unit.6) Did this attack actually take place.If not, why have you not cleared up the-confusion by saying to the people?7) Why was the prison guard you al-legedly attacked unnamed? Why are his"especially pig-like attitude and ac-tions" not detailed or explained?8) V.'hy did you once again make threatsthis time against prison guaiJs—with-out backing them up?

Sometime after this prison guardcommunique appeared, the Zapata Unitclaimed credit for a "gasoline andblack powder bomb" at a P.G.&E. trans-mission tower in the woods near Bel-mont. According to media accountsthere was little damage done. I amnot sure precisely when this bombingtook place.

In a communique that Kew Dawn re-ceived on October 29 (and circulatedonly by New Dawn) the Zapata Unitclaims to have "successfully execu-ted an armed expropriation of$1500 from drug merchants..." using"two automatic weapons with bananaclips, 30 shot, with extra clips,"

*

-48Like the alleged fire-bombing of the

San Quertin guard, this claim is also

impossible to verify. According to

the Zapata Unit, "the names of the

reactionary elements and location are

withheld for security reasons." I

have only one question concerning this

communique:

9) V.'hy would you send a communique

about an action which is impossible to

verify? V.'h&t purpose does it serve?

In another communique, received by

Mew Dawn on Kovermber 1 (and again cir-

culated only by them) the Zapata Unit

claims that "powerful explosives were

expropriated from private ownership."

The night before New Dawn received

this communique the Zapata Unit pro-

vided graphic proof that they did

indeed have powerful explosives.

JgS HALLOV/32H BOMBING

At 9:30 on Halloween evening a po-

werful bomb exploded outside a Safe-

way store on 18th Street in Oakland.

This bomb clearly endangered the lives

of the children who could be expected

to be on the streets at this time. It

was only by luch that no children were

in the area when the bomb went off.

The bomb did blow in the windows of

nearby working class homes, and must

have shaken up the 'workers at the store

who, the media reported, were still in-

side, having just closed the store.

On November 1, the Zapata Unit took

credit for this bombing (BARB,11/7/75).

According to the Zapata Unit, they

called XPFA "shortly after the bomb

was planted." The KPPA management de-

nies having received any such warning.

Either way, this bombing was defini-

tely carried out in a revolutionary

manner. Bombs should not be set off

on the street. Y:arning or no warning,

this was a totally unnecessary risk.

While Safeway is a fine target, there

was no reason it had to be bombed on

Halloween evening.

In addition, ''this homb v?£s placed

dangerously close to the homes sur-

rounding the store. There were bet-

ter places to set the bomb—places that

would have resulted in less damage to

the surroiuiding., community, and more

damage to the store. The Zapata Unit's

demand that.»Safeway "reimburse its

neighbors for the" damage that its un-

neighborly, exploitative policies have

forced the liberation forces to cause"

in inadequate. The Zapata .Unit was

not forced to cause damage to Safeway»s

neighbors, and they nust know aaian well

that Sfcfeway .;on't pay for it.

The queutior.t- I have for the ZapataUnit concerning this bombing are the

most inportani cf all:

10) Why did you ignore the obvious

risks involved in setting off a bomb

on the streets on Hallow en evening?

11) V.'hy did you plant such a power-

ful bomb so near people's homes?

12) Why have you not apologized to

the people for the damage and fear

that you caused?

She third and latest verifiablebDmbing took place on Thankgivingevening. This time the bomb was well-placed behind a San Prancisco Safewaystore. A fair amount of damage wasdone. The bomb was v/ell shielded fromthe public, and there were no workersin the store. It would be nice tothink that this bombing was the resultof a re-evaluation by the Zapata Unitof the mistakes of their Halloweenbombing, but in the absence of enypublic self-criticism, fB|1' earsonlyspeculate. -^». * %I hope that the ZapataJtfni'P'wi.ll

choose to set forth so:ae.'»ser:j us self-criticism. The people /sj^fe a right tohear some explanationeen bombing, for yourgainst the left, andunfilled promises ofthat the twelve question^- I'-4iave askedhere would be a good place to start.I await your response.

NSW DAY;N

1 think that this would also be agood time to ask a few questions tothe Ivev Dawn Party. While the 3ABBhas printed a couple of the ZapataUnit's com:..uniques, Hew Dawn is theonly organization which has consis-tently reprinted and distributed themall. Yet New Dawn had offered verylittle criticism of any of the Zapa-ta Unit's actions or communiques,despite the many questions that peoplehave had. For instance, Hew Dawn ap-

plauded the 2a_;&ta -Unit's first com-munique: "Some h:.ve questioned theauthenticity. V/e judge the polities,,

feel

The are right, ew Dawngoes on TO approve of the Zapata Unit'sthreats against certain unnamed revolu-tionary groups: "Kany organization:'are giving lip service to these politics...without taking to heart or even hav-ing a desire to take to heart what mo-tivates so many to put their lives onthe line. These are opportunists andpotentially very dangerous enemies be-cause they appear in our form. ZapataUnit seems to have a good understandingof the conditions here."

The Zapats Unit's communique doesnot show "a good understanding" about"opportunists" at all. If they did,they would have at least pointed outa few examples in order to clarifywhat they are talking about. NewDawn's statement about unnamed enemies"in our form", like the threats of theZapata Unit, only create confusion anddistrust.

I would also like Sew Lawn to ex-plain its uncritical acceptance of theZapats. Unit's Halloween bombing,

I hope that this letter will be ofsome use in starting to clarify thequestions surrounding the Zapata Unit.It would help, I think, if it is re-produced and rebroadcast in order to ,reach all concerned. I send greetingsto all my comrades-in-arms.

Venceremos,Jones