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Prarie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC)

An anti-imperialist group that began as the Prairie Fire Distributing Committee in 1974 to distribute Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism, written by members of the Weather Underground Organization. After its initial publication, groups sprang up around the country to discuss the book. PFOC was formally organized in 1976 and was active in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Chicago until the mid-1990s. Their work embraced a broad range of issues: international solidarity with national liberation struggles in Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, Nicaragua and El Salvador; and with the struggles for self-determination of Puerto Rican, African-American, Mexicano, and Native peoples inside U.S. borders; support of political prisoners; opposition to white and male supremacy and support of women’s and gay liberation.

Subcollections

  • Breakthrough
    Breakthrough
    Breakthrough was the journal of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC), published by the John Brown Book Club from 1977 to 1995.

Documents

Breakthrough Breakthrough
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeYear: 1985Volume Number: Vol. 9-1 Spring-SummerFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Breakthrough
Editorial: Disturbing their Peace p. 2 - The Next Wave: Thoughts on Revolutionary Feminism p. 4 - Azania: the Fire This Time by New Afrikan People's Organization p. 15 - De Pie y en Guerra, interview with Puerto Rican POW Oscar Lopez Rivera p. 23 - Don Juan Antonio Corretjer 1908-1985 p. 25 - The New Right: with God on Their Side p. 35 - From the Clandestine Movement: Red Guerrilla Resistance Bombs NY Patrolmen's Benevolent Association p. 45 - Can't Kill the Spirit: Staements from Revolutionary Prisoners: New York 8 p. 47 - Ohio Five p. 48 - Susan Rosenberg and Tim Blunk p. 50 - Write to the Prisoners p. 51
Breakthrough Breakthrough
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeYear: 1989Volume Number: Vol. 13-1 SpringFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Breakthrough
Editorrial: El Salvador p. 1 - Editorial - Political Prisoners in the US: Breaking the Silence p. 3 - Post-feminist Mystique by Judith Mirkinson p. 5 - We're PISD, We're Gonna Seize Control, Ferd Eggan PISD Caucus of ACT NOW p. 10 - Battlezone L.A, Makungu Akinyele, New Afrikan People's Organization p. 15 - Namibia and Angola: Free at Last? Felix Shafer p. 19 - Women of the Philippine Revolution, interview with Makibaka p. 22 - Mexico: Cardenas, the Left and the PRI, interview with Gabino Gomez, Comite de Defensa Popular p. 33 - Occupied Mexico: Land Struggle in Tierra Amarilla p. 37 - Write Through the Walls p. 43
Breakthrough Breakthrough
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeYear: 1990Volume Number: Vol. 14-2 FallFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Breakthrough
AIDS: Action = Life; Native Americans: This Land is Their Land; Central American Symposium: Where Do We Go From Here?; Report from the West Bank: With Stones and Honor: Palestinian Women in the Intifada; Interview with Boris Kagarlistky: An Extremely Socialist Way of Being Capitalist The Soviet New Left Critiques Perestroika; Interview with Sergo Mikoyan: Latin America: a Soviet View; Deutsch Marks or Karl Marx? The West German Left faces Reunification; Alan Berkman: Fighting for his Life; Write Through the Walls
Barbaric Prison Conditions Hit Barbaric Prison Conditions Hit
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeYear: 1993Volume Number: Vol. 17-1 SpringFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Breakthrough
Editorial: Queer Rights are Human Rights Are Queer Rights p. 1; Telling the World: a Retrospective Look at the Marches, Jewelle Gomez p. 3 - Gay and Puertorriqueno, Carlos Ortiz p. 6 - Ball-busting Feminist Dykes Unite! How the Backlash on Feminism Has Hurt Lesbians, Sally Thomas p. 12 - Voices of People with HIV: Letter to the Dead, Marlon Riggs p. 17 - Unmasking the Epidemic: Women with HIV Speak Out, Women Organized to Resist Life-threatening Diseases (WORLD) p. 22 - Buying Time, Moving Toward the Milennium, Ferd Eggan p. 25 - Lesbian Visions p. 28 - The Choice is Ours: Gays in the Military Michael Job p. 30 - Getting Down and This is Where I Was Born, poems, Chrystos, p. 35 - Fighting Operation Bigotry in Oregon, Suzanne Pharr p. 36 - I Am Your Sister: Blck Women Organizing Across Sexualities, Audre Lorde, p. 40 - Sexual Terror, poem, Tede Matthews p. 44 - Can't Jail the Spirit: Building Bridges, Lin Elliot p. 46 - Free Norma Jean Croy p. 49 - AIDS Wars: DC Jail, Susan Rosenberg p. 50 - Inside Looking Out: Thoughts on the March on Washington, Laura Whitehorn p. 52 - Remember your Sons and Daughters: Prisoner with HIV, Charles W. Perry, CMF-Vacaville p. 54 - Write Through the Walls p. 56