The Prairie Fire Organizing Committee is an activist group whose members advocate the overthrow of the current capitalist system as the only solution to racism, sexism, homophobia, classism and imperialism. The group emerged from opposition to all forms of oppression that the members believe is created by the U.S. government. It is a group that has a long history of fighting for rights of all people. They oppose white supremacy in all its forms, and believe it persists through practices such as racial profiling. They call attention to prisoners that have been deemed political and state, “We know that close to 100 women and men are in U.S. prisons because they have dared to struggle for the liberation of oppressed peoples”. The group’s members are typically activists fighting U.S. imperialism. Their work proceeds from the premise that, while the U.S. remains in the global position that it currently occupies, there will be no freedom or peace for anyone.

Prairie Fire:The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism

The Prairie Fire Organization began in 1975. It sprang up from the radical group known as Weatherman

Weather Underground (organization)

Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...

. Members of the group, Bernardine Dohrn

Bernardine Dohrn

Bernardine Rae Dohrn is a former leader of the American anti-Vietnam War radical organization, Weather Underground. She is an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law and the immediate past Director of Northwestern's Children and Family Justice Center...

, Bill Ayers

Bill Ayers

William Charles "Bill" Ayers is an American elementary education theorist and a former leader in the movement that opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He is known for his 1960s activism as well as his current work in education reform, curriculum, and instruction...

, Jeff Jones, and Celia Sojourn (a pseudonym for several individuals who were unnamed), created a six-part book titled Prairie Fire:The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism (1974), composed of sections titled, “Arm the Spirit,” “Vietnam,” “On the Road: Impressions of US History,” “Imperialism in Crisis: The Third World,” “Imperialism in Crisis: The Home Front,” and “Against the Common Enemy”. The book’s preparation was a 12 month process, written collaboratively and adopted as the collective statement of the Weather Underground. Mark Rudd

Mark Rudd

Mark William Rudd is a political organizer, mathematics instructor, and anti-war activist, most well known for his involvement with the Weather Underground. Rudd became a member of the Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society in 1963. By 1968, he had emerged as a leader...

 stated that the book “was an attempt to influence the movement that we had abandoned back in 1969. It tried to reach out to many thousands of New Leftist and former New Leftists by saying, in effect, 'Don’t despair, we’re all part of the same thing'". Bill Ayers explains that Prairie Fire “was an attempt to sum up our thinking since the ‘Weatherman’ paper and especially since the townhouse. Through it we hoped to consolidate our political organization and to forge unity with progressive activist”. Ayers is referring to the 1970 Greenwich Village townhouse explosion

Greenwich Village townhouse explosion

The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion was the premature detonation of a bomb as it was being assembled by members of the American radical left group, Weatherman – later renamed the Weather Underground – in the basement of a townhouse at 18 West 11th Street between Fifth Avenue and...

 which killed 3 members of Weatherman, Diana Oughton

Diana Oughton

Diana Oughton was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society Michigan Chapter and later, a member of the 1960s radical group Weatherman. Oughton received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, Oughton went to Guatemala with the VISA program to teach the young and older...

, Theodore Gold, and Terry Robbins

Terry Robbins

Terry Robbins was a U.S. leftist radical activist. A key member of the Students for a Democratic Society Ohio chapter, he led Kent State into its first militant student uprising in 1968. Robbins was credited for drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s song Subterranean Homesick Blues which later...

. The book was a call to organize. It was Weather's attempt to ask the questions that all revolutionary groups faced and to apply the lessons of former revolutionary groups to the present fight against imperialism. By creating this book, the Weatherman Underground required help from the aboveground community to distribute the book including Van Lydegraf and Jennifer Dohrn. This is how the Prairie Fire Distribution Committee was created which later became the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee.

History

In 1974 the book Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism was created by various members of the group Weatherman Underground. At this time discussion groups were started to discuss the issues that arose from the book. There was also help needed from people above ground to distribute the book to others. In 1979 the victory of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

 and the FMLN-led people’s war in El Salvador

El Salvador

El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

 put the ideals of a just society in the center of attention. In the 1980s there was a large solidarity movement that developed in the U.S. in response to America’s military intervention in Central America. The Prairie Fire Organizing Committee actively participated. In 1980, the U.S. government arrested eleven Puerto Ricans, members of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (FALN, the Armed Forces of National Liberation), who were committing acts of terrorism to gain independence for Puerto Rico. Prairie Fire worked as alliances with the Puerto Rican independent movement to demand the release of the prisoners. Since 1984 Prairie Fire has been active in the annual International Women’s Day that is held on March 8 in Chicago. Members participate in marches and programs based around the event. In the 90s, Prairie Fire joined WAC, the Women's Action Coalition, to take direct action against sexism by fighting for women’s rights to their bodies and access to women’s clinics. In 1996 Prairie Fire initiated the Not On The Guest List Coalition which organized a demonstration at the Democratic National Convention

Democratic National Convention

The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...

in Chicago. It was a demonstration that focused its attention on the Death Penalty, racism and classism within the criminal justice system, and for the release of political prisoners which are held within the U.S. prisons. Currently, Prairie Fire also works with thousands of people in the U.S. to protest the war against Iraq and they are activists in many other domains of societal issues that are prevalent in the global community.

External links

• http://www.prairiefire.org/
• Prairie fire : the politics of revolutionary anti-imperialism : the political statement of the Weather Underground [San Francisco] : Communications Co., 1975