<html>
<body>
<font size=3>
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs04032009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs04032009.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">April 3-5,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>A Review of
Diana Block's "Arm the Spirit" <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Artifacts for Survival
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By RON JACOBS
<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">I</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>n a nation like the United States, where
history is not only forgotten, but intentionally suppressed, it is no
surprise that most US residents do not understand the Puerto Rico is a
colony of Washington. Consequently, it is also no surprise that
very few people in the US know about the movement against Washington's
colonization and for Puerto Rican independence. Of those who are
aware of the situation, many are convinced that the movement for Puerto
Rican independence is composed of nothing but a few dozen
"terrorists" who deserve to spend the rest of their lives in
prison. Of those who actually support the independentista
movement, many would be surprised that its members and supporters include
folks different nationalities and backgrounds.<br><br>
Diana Block's recently published book
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904859879/counterpunchmaga">
<i>Arm the
Spirit</a></i>
:<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904859879/counterpunchmaga">
<i> A Woman's Journey Underground and Back</a> </i>is the personal tale
of one such supporter. A white North American women involved in the
feminist, lesbian and gay rights and new left movements in the United
States of the 1970s primarily as a member of the Prairie Fire Organizing
Committee (PFOC) , Ms. Block joined forces with other white North
Americans to support the endeavors of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación
Nacional (FALN ) in its endeavor to free Puerto Rico. Her support
resulted in several years underground as the result of her partner's
entrapment in an FBI sting operation. The tale she tells in these
pages is the story of those years and the decisions and circumstances
that brought her to them. It is also the story of her family's
lives underground. For those who were involved in or at least paid
attention to the left in the 1970s and 1980s there will be descriptions
of moments that jog the memory. For those that didn't, this
will open their eyes to the reality that existed within Ronald Reagan's
morning in America. <br><br>
This is a very political book. It is also a very personal
book. It is about lives determined as much by one's political
beliefs as they are by personal emotions and about the juncture between
the two. It is about very political people in an apolitical
time. Many of those who had been involved in the antiwar and
antiracist moments of the 1960s and 1970s were moving their lives into
more conventional arenas that involved making money and buying
things. Others, meanwhile, had drifted deeper into the life of the
street and poverty, leaving their political personas behind in the daily
struggle to survive. Meanwhile, the men and women involved in
leftist groups like Prairie Fire Organizing Committee were existing on
the fringes of US society trying to figure out how to maintain a
political relevance. It may have been that existence on the outside
that colored the decisions they made: going underground when they maybe
should have involved themselves in a more public type of organizing;
adopting immovable positions that alienated them from other groups with
similar agendas, to name a couple such decisions. <br><br>
Block's memories of that period are consistently evocative and
occasionally emotionally wrenching, compelling the reader to stay glued
to the text. Her reflections on the thoughts about how the
decisions made by her and her partner Claude Marks affected the lives of
their children and families reveal caring and thoughtful parents
whose politics are motivated by a love as deep as the love they have for
those closest to them. They also provide an insight into the
difficulties involved in living a life of resistance inside the belly of
the imperial beast that is the United States. To put it
succinctly, it is safe to say that <i>Arm the Spirit</i> is about the
multitude of forms love takes: familial, romantic, comradely and
revolutionary. It is also about the difficulties we face trying to
meet the ideals these loves represent, especially when they come into
conflict with one another. <br><br>
Besides the aforementioned political and emotional realities revealed in
this book, there are the descriptions of daily life on the run.
Periods of normalcy when you and your family are as normal as the
neighbors next door interrupted by days and weeks of uncertainty tinged
with fear after your picture makes the FBI's Ten Most Wanted. Joy
and tears as you wrestle with how much information you should share with
your maturing child. <br><br>
Genuine friendships made under assumed names that must be broken when the
presence of the law gets too near. The frustrations felt because
your political self can not speak out when the Empire attacks for fear
you will be recognized and taken away in chains. The decision to
finally give up your underground status and face the courts. The
period of adjustment to once again using your family name and living as
the person you couldn't be while underground.<br><br>
Politically, Block's experiences as a revolutionary and a woman lead her
to a conclusion perhaps best expressed by the writer and revolutionary
Margaret Randall: that the inability of almost all twentieth-century
revolutionary movements to develop a feminist agenda contributed to their
failure to evolve new and equitable forms of power sharing that might
have helped keep them alive. The period of adjustment mentioned in
the previous paragraph provokes some other interesting observations
by Block. Foremost among them are her observations regarding the
changes in the progressive movement in the 1970s and the movement today,
especially her remarks that much of the work formerly done by
organizations with no financial portfolio now being done by what she
calls the nonprofit industrial complex. <br><br>
The shortcomings of this movement are even more apparent today as funding
for these nonprofits dries up in the wake of the economic shocks
throughout the capitalist world. This factor doesn't even touch the
political timidity of many of today's organizations--a timidity certainly
influenced by their need to gather money from beneficiaries of the very
system whose excesses and wrongs they hope to remedy. <br><br>
One other insightful observation is that, despite the multitude of single
issue movements and organizations, many of the groups and individuals
involved have no underlying philosophy to bind these issues together and
present a systemic analysis that would propel the struggle for economic
and social justice forward. Although Block does not examine this
much further, it is clear that she sees the need to develop and provide
that analysis as part of the role of her and others involved in the
struggles of the latter half of the twentieth century. After all,
the fundamentals of that analysis are the same as those the left has
always referred to. The economic crisis of capitalism and the wars
of Washington make that clear.<br><br>
<b>Ron Jacobs</b> is author of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga">
The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is
just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured
in CounterPunch's collection on music, art and sex,
<a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html">
Serpents in the Garden</a>. His first novel,
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0977459098/counterpunchmaga">
Short Order Frame Up,</a> is published by Mainstay Press. He can be
reached at:
<a href="mailto:rjacobs3625@charter.net">rjacobs3625@charter.net</a>
<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>