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.
Documents
Breakthrough
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeYear: 1992Volume Number: Vol. 16-2 FallFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Breakthrough
Editorial: Who Decides? Sally Thomas p. 1 - 500 Years: Recovering the Past, Revisioning the Future, Editors, p. 2 - To Regain Our Sovereignty, interview with Leonard Peltier p. 2 - Unraveling the Myths, Jose Lopez p. 8 - Sister Activist: Liberating the Church, Sister Mary Kay Hunyady p. 13 - From Columbus to Rodney King: the Los Angeles Rebellion and Beyond Akinyele Umoja p. 19 - Through Artists\' Eyes p. 24 - Fear of the Shivers of Freedom, Ingrid Strobl p. 30 - La Patria es Una!, Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional Mexicano p. 35 - Back to Backlash, Margaret Power and Melinda Power p. 38 - Can\'t Jail the Spirit:Uprising at Lexington Federal Women\'s Prison, Laura Whitehorn p. 41; Dhoruba Bin Wahad Threatened with Reimprisonment p. 42 -From Death Row: this is Mumia Abu-Jamal p. 43 - Write Through the Walls p. 48
Breakthrough
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeYear: 1992Volume Number: Vol. 16-1 SummerFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Breakthrough
Goodbye, Columbus: Thoughts on Western Civilization, Jimmy Emmerman p. 1 - El Salvador: the Road Ahead, interview with FMLN Representative Ramon Cardona p. 4 - A Feminist Guide to the Galaxy, Judith Mirkinson p. 9 - Backlash: the Undeclared War on American Women by Susan Faludi, reviewed by Sally Thomas p. 15 - De Ambiente, interviews with the Nicaraguan Movement of Lesbian Feminists and Gay Men p. 17 - Will Postmodernism Kill the Movement? Les Gottesman p. 24 - Black Women and AIDS: the Second Epidemic, Judy Gerber p. 32 - Supermax: Control Unit Prisons, Nancy Kurshan p. 40 - Can\'t Kill the Spirit: Political Prisoners Update p. 46 - Write Through the Walls p. 47
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
Breakthrough
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeYear: 1994Volume Number: Vol. 18-1 SpringFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Breakthrough
Editorial: Defend Democracy in Cuba, Restore Democracy to Haiti p. 1 - Eritrea, Dawn, Les Gottesman and Frank Duhl p. 3 - Red Light, Green Light: the Global Trafficking of Women, Judith Mirkinson p. 10 - Palestine: Reflections on a Besieged Homeland, Elias A. Rashmawi p. 16 - It's Hard to Forget...the Pain of Apartheid Still Lingers On, and I Can't Stop Crying, Simon Nkoli p. 23 - Contested Ground: the Struggle for Democracy in Burma, Alan Senauke p. 25 - Waiting Out the Storm: Haiti's Season of Terror, interview with Pierre Labossiere, commentary by Timothy Pershing, Nancy Laleua, Max Blanchet p. 32 - Cry Till Day: African Women Confront Violence, Elsa Gebreyesus p. 41 - Stolen Island: Hawai'i Demands Sovereignty, Kekuni Blaisdell p. 47 - GATT: The Great Global Rip-off, excerpts from The Uruguay Round and Third World Sovereignty, Mrtin Khor p. 50 - Message from Chiapas, documents from the Zapatista Natinoal Liberation Army (EZLN) p. 56 - AIDS in the World: a Global Report, reviewed by David Gilbert p. 60 - Write Through the Walls p. 64
Breakthrough
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeYear: 1995Volume Number: Vol. 19-1 SummerFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Breakthrough
Editorial: Contract with a Vengeance p. 1 - Reading, Writing, and Rebellion: Reflections on Education in the 90s p. 2 - "Ours is the First History: Raza Youth Speak Out," edited by Robert Roth and Annie Johnston p. 4 - Clemente! Chicago's Puerto Rican Community Takes Back its High School, Douglas Spalding p. 14 - Berkeley High: the "School Colors" Debate, Hodari Davis, Annie Johnston and Regina Segura p. 19 - Schoolgirls: Gender and Self-esteem, interview with Peggy Orenstein by Sallly Thomas and Judith Mirkinson p. 25 - Talking Queer in Kindergarten: Stopping Homophobia Before it Starts, Camomile deQuelquechose p. 31 - Minds at Work: Journeys in the South Bronx, photos by Ruth Morgan, poetry by South Bronx students p. 36 - East Timor: an Island Prison, Pam Sexton p. 41 - The Waste Makers: studies by and for the Environmental Justice Movement review by Mickey Ellinger p. 47 - Throwing Away the Key: Crime and Punishment U.S.A., Charles King p. 50 - Write Through the Walls p. 56
Breakthrough
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeVolume Number: SupplementFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Breakthrough
A discussion of the relationship between the modern Olympics and Imperialism and state repression.
reprint from Breakthrough, political journal of Prairie Fire Organizing Committee.
No War No Way
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeDate: 2/1991Volume Number: FebruaryFormat: PamphletCollection: Breakthrough
A special anti-war supplement
The Split of the Weather Underground Organization: Struggle Against White and Male Supremacy
Publisher: John Brown Book ClubDate: 2/1977Volume Number: FebruaryFormat: MonographCollection: Prarie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC)
Prairie Fire Organizing Committee published documents of the split in the Weather Underground Organization.
CONTENTS: Intro by John Brown Book Club; Class and Revolutionary Politics: the meaning of the Hard Times Conference (Feb.1976); In Defense of Prairie Fire by Clayton van Lydegraf (July 1976); WUO Public Self-Criticism by the RC (Oct.1976); Criticism of the Central Committee by the Revolutionary Committee (Nov. 1976);Tape from Bernadine Dohrn (Nov. 1976); Letter from sisters in the WUO to the women of PFOC (Sept. 1976); John Brown Book Club's Self-Criticism; Open Letter to the RC from Native American Warriors (Jan. 1977); Statement on the Bombing of the INS by the RC (Feb. 1977)
Women's Liberation and Imperialism
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeDate: 11/1977Volume Number: NovemberFormat: MonographCollection: Prarie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC)
PFOC document on Women's Liberation and Imperialism
Preface; Overview; Historical Roots; Structure of Women's Oppression Under Imperialism; Double Shift; Work in the Home; Women's Oppression and Waged Labor; Institutions of Social Control; History of Women's Struggles in the US; Women and the Anti-imperialist Left; I like to think of Harriet Tubman
People's Power After Marcos: interview with Jose Maria Sison
Publisher: Prarie Fire Organizing CommitteeFormat: TranscriptCollection: Prarie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC)
Interview w. Jose Maria Sison, founder, Communist Party of the Philippines.
