Queer Fire – AudioZine

Queer Fire: The George Jackson Brigade, Men Against Sexism, and Gay Struggle Against Prison – Published by Untorelli Press – MP3 – Read – Print – Archive – Torrent – YouTube A collection of histories, speeches, and interviews with members of the George Jackson Brigade and Men Against Sexism. These stories give inspiration for the … Continue reading Queer Fire – AudioZine

Queer Fire: The George Jackson Brigade, Men Against Sexism, and Gay Struggle Against Prison – Published by Untorelli Press – MP3 – Read – Print – Archive – Torrent – YouTube

A collection of histories, speeches, and interviews with members of the George Jackson Brigade and Men Against Sexism. These stories give inspiration for the multiform queer struggle against prison, capitalism, and the state.

“The Brigade’s diversity extended beyond the political as well. The group consisted of black and white members; gay, straight, and bisexual members; college graduates and ex-cons. Where groups such as the Weather Underground were, by and large, coming from the upper-middle class, Brigade members’ experiences gave the group a more nuanced view of struggle. The struggle against prison was, from the beginning, central to the Brigade’s activities, influenced, in no small part, by the fact that members of the Brigade had been in and out of prison their entire lives.”

One of the GJB members whose writing is featured in this audiozine, Bo Brown, has some serious health problems with which she needs support. Please click here to help her out if you can.

“I stand before this mockery of justice court to be condemned as its enemy – and I am its enemy! I am a member of the George Jackson Brigade and I know the answer to Bertolt Brecht’s question: “Which is the biggest crime, to rob a bank or to found one?” It is to my sisters and brothers of the working class that I am accountable – NOT to this court that harasses and searches my peers before they can enter what is supposed to be their courtroom. NOT to this or any court whose hidden purpose is to punish the poor and non-white in the name of the U.S. government. A government which perpetuates the crimes of war and repression has NO right to prescribe punishment for those who resist the continuation of worldwide death and misery.”

Musical Interludes

Nina Simone – I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Barbara Dane – I Hate The Capitalist System
Hawkwind – Urban Guerilla
Joan Baez – George Jackson (Live) 
Sing Me Home: Songs Against Prison – I’ll Break Out Again Tonight
Ani DiFranco – Every State Line
Sing Me Home: Songs Against Prison – Send Me Back Home
Rolling Stones – Street Fighting Man

RESOURCES

Concrete Mama: Prison Profiles from Walla Walla – Ethan Hoffman, John McCoy
Creating a Movement with Teeth: A Documentary History of the
George Jackson Brigade – Danial Burton-Rose (editor)
Earful of Queer interview with Ed Mead
Ed Mead interview on the Prison Industrial System
The Gentleman Bank Robber: The Life Story of Rita Bo Brown
George Jackson Brigade Information Project
Guerrilla USA: The George Jackson Brigade and the Anticapitalist Underground of the 1970s – Daniel Burton-Rose
Metropolis: The George Jackson Brigade
The New Abolitionists: (Neo)slave Narratives and Contemporary
Prison Writings – Joy James (editor)
That’s Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation –

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (editor)

QUEER ANTI-PRISON STRUGGLE

Bent Bars Project (uk)
Black & Pink
Free Niara
Indiana Queer Prisoner Solidarity
Prisoner Correspondence Project (canada)
Prison Rebels Against Gender Violence
Tranzmission Prison Project