This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
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that → bring → scholars
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Earlier this month, sandwiched between story time and Tai Chi classes, the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) held an event that could fairly be described as a gathering of former domestic terrorists.
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that → sandwich → terrorists
“A Generation of Political Prisoner Support and Archiving Resistance” featured former Weather Underground member David Gilbert alongside former members of the Black Liberation Army, the Puerto Rican separatist terrorist group FALN, and various prisoner-support organizations with close ties to other militants.
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Generation → feature → militants
Together, the panelists reflected on their revolutionary struggles in America and how those lessons could be passed on to the next generation.
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lessons → reflect → generation
It’s the anniversary of what panelists called the “liberation of Assata Shakur,” a militant member of the Black Liberation Army convicted for the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper.
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panelists → ’ → trooper
By “liberation,” the panelists meant her escape from prison in 1979, which was followed by her flight to Communist Cuba, where she remained until her death last year.
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she → mean → death
That the San Francisco Public Library, with support from the Friends & Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library, would host an event glorifying political violence and seeking to inspire imitators should be cause for concern.
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host → host → concern
The panelists’ goal, underwritten by public subsidy, was clear from their words: preserving their movement’s legacy, raising money for other “political prisoners” still behind bars, and inspiring a new generation of militants.
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goal → underwrite → militants
The event featured the Certain Days Collective (CDC), a prison abolitionist organization that describes itself as “anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer- and trans-liberationist.”
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that → feature → itself
The CDC counts among its founders Gilbert and Herman Bell, the latter a former Black Liberation Army member convicted of murdering two NYPD officers in 1971, as well as voluntary manslaughter in the death of a San Francisco police sergeant in that same year.
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latter → count → year
After a brief land acknowledgment, SFPL librarian Charlie Harmon started the event with a discussion of items in SFPL’s collection relating to the speakers and explained how attendees could access their literary works.
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attendees → start → works
He then ceded the floor to moderator Josh Davidson, who identifies as “an anarchist and abolitionist.”
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who → cede → anarchist
Davidson’s résumé includes work with the Zinn Education Project, editing the book of a militant Antifa activist, membership in the Certain Days Collective, and an upcoming children’s book advocating prison abolition.
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résumé → include → abolition
Davidson then asked the panelists to introduce themselves.
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Davidson → ask → themselves
These included Gilbert and Laura Whitehorn, both former members of the Weather Underground; Bell; Claude Marks, another Weather Underground member who later became associated with the Puerto Rican separatist group FALN; and Dequi Kioni-Sadik, the widow of Sekou Odinga, who masterminded Shakur’s prison escape.
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who → include → escape
This rogues’ gallery was unsurprisingly chary about discussing their crimes.
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gallery → discuss → crimes
To his credit, Bell was the only speaker who didn’t shy away, though he framed his arrest as being “in connection with” the murder of the two NYPD officers.
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he → shy → officers
He did not discuss his time on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
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He → discuss → list
Whitehorn did not mention her conviction and imprisonment for involvement in multiple bombings, including the U.S. Capitol, the National War College, and other sites.
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Whitehorn → mention → Capitol
She described herself as a former political prisoner.
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She → describe → prisoner
Gilbert described being “in the underground resistance for ten years” rather than mentioning his role in the 1981 Brink’s robbery by Black Liberation Army members and former Weather Underground militants.
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Gilbert → describe → members
That crime left three people dead, including two police officers and a security guard.
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crime → leave → officers
Marks’s most candid description of his past was that he spent “many years in clandestinity.”
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he → spend → clandestinity
He did not discuss the plan to disrupt the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles violently in order to free FALN leader Oscar Lopez Rivera, plans that involved 37 pounds of what he and co-conspirators believed to be explosives.
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he → discuss → conspirators
Nor did he mention FALN’s campaign of more than 100 bombings during the late 1970s and early 1980s, or his own stint on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
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he → mention → list
After these modest introductions, the conversation turned to Shakur and her legacy.
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conversation → turn → Shakur
Whitehorn said that there had been “so much hatred and so much vilification of Black revolution,” but that “Assata’s Liberation” ushered in “the biggest narrative change ever” and was a “tremendous victory.”
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Liberation → say → change
Whitehorn credits Shakur’s autobiography as a radicalizing text, especially for women in prison.
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Whitehorn → credit → prison
Bell and Gilbert praised Shakur’s prison break, with Gilbert even wishing he had been there, describing it as “a beautiful example of what well thought out and carefully planned and brave clandestine action can do.”
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action → praise → what
For the panelists, the symbolic importance of Shakur’s escape was as a textbook example of the kinds of lessons these formerly imprisoned revolutionaries want to pass on to the next generation of radicals, and of the importance of projects like the Certain Days Collective.
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revolutionaries → imprison → Collective
The panel then turned its attention to the work of CDC.
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panel → turn → CDC
Gilbert explained that one of the group’s main objectives is to educate younger activists and sustain the “continuity of struggles.”
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one → explain → struggles
As he put it, “that entails for us who were political prisoners a responsibility to pass on lessons, both about what we did right and what we did wrong.”
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we → put → what
That work includes publication of CDC’s annual “Freedom for Political Prisoners” calendar.
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work → include → calendar
The project combines revolutionary history and political education and serves as a major fundraising tool for the organization.
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project → combine → organization
Bell, a co-founder of CDC alongside Gilbert, explained that proceeds from the calendar not only sustain the group but also allow it to support outside organizations.
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it → explain → organizations
Whitehorn confirmed that her organization, Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), receives financial support from CDC.
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organization → confirm → CDC
“We come out of the revolutionary movement,” she declared, distancing RAPP from the nonprofit world.
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she → come → world
“We don’t take money from like the Ford Foundation and shit.”
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We → take → Foundation
Ironically, RAPP operates under the fiscal sponsorship of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit through which it solicits tax-deductible contributions.
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it → operate → contributions
…and 38 more, not listed.
The Aporia
