Workshop Outline for Violence, Nonviolence, and Leftist Underground Organizations in the United

States

Goals:
1. Explore individual and communal understandings of violence and nonviolence
2. Differentiate between ideological and tactical nonviolence
3. Deconstruct the stories of movements used to justify nonviolence and learn hidden histories of
tactical violence
4. Understand the ideology behind militant underground groups based in the United States
5. Learn the history of left political bombing, bank robbing (expropriating), and other tactical violence

Introductions:
Go around the room and share name, where home is, gender pronoun, one hope and one fear about the
workshop.

Covenant/Ground rules:
Create a list of actions and ways of behaving that participants can expect of one another during the
workshop. This is a living document and can be revisited during the workshop as needed. Some things
to include are: active listening, try things on, engage in conflict lovingly, step up/step back
(specifically be aware of social power dynamics such as race, gender, class, etc.), turn off or silence cell
phones, and others

Brainstorm definition of violence:

Materials - Butcher paper and markers
Set up - At the top of butcher paper write, "violence."

(sample script for facilitator)

In our culture violence is often discussed without any reflection on the importance of a common
definition. While we will not likely come up with one singular definition at this moment I would
like for us to brainstorm some words that each person would want to see in a definition of
violence. You are also welcome to share working definitions you have for yourself that I can also
list on this piece of butcher paper. Please remember to give everyone an opportunity to share.
If participants get stuck or are quiet the following are some guiding questions -
1. Does power have a role in the definition of violence?
2. Is violence always physical?
3. Are only humans violent?
4. Is it possible for something to be violent for one person to do but not violent for another? For
instance, is it more violent for a gang member to shoot and kill a police officer than it is for a police
officer to shoot and kill a gang member?
5. Is physical self-defense violent?

Brainstorm definition of nonviolence:

Materials - Butcher paper and markers
Set up - At the top of the butcher paper write, "nonviolence." Underneath the top piece have two others
with "tactical nonviolence" and "ideological nonviolence" listed at the tops respectively

(sample script for facilitator)

Nonviolence is another term that is often used without further exploration of its meaning. While
we will not likely come up with one singular definition at this moment let us continue the
brainstorming exercise by listing words or working definitions each person has for nonviolence.
(If someone early on differentiates between tactical and ideological nonviolence move the top sheet
that does not distinguish between the two and continue the brainstorm by asking participants to
determine if the words/definitions they offer should be listed as "tactical" or "ideological." If no one
distinguished between the two, part way through the brainstorm the facilitator should offer the
differentiation.)
Clearly there are many pieces that go in to this definition and I want to add another challenge.
Nonviolence is often looked at with at least two possible lenses, tactical and ideological. From the
list we have just created are there pieces that more specifically fit underneath one or the other of
these categories of nonviolence?

Understanding Nonviolent Leadership in History

Materials - Butcher paper, markers, pens
Preparations - Hang up around the room pictures of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Vietnam Era
Protests. Under each picture hang a piece of piece of butcher paper. On the back side of the pictures
list the role violence played towards achieving the goals of the movement.

Gandhi:
1. "Prior to the decimation of British troop strength and the virtual bankruptcy of the Imperial treasury
during World War II, Gandhi's movement showed little likelihood of forcing England's abandonment of
India. Without the global violence that destroyed the Empire's ability to forcibly control its colonial
territories, India might have continued indefinitely [under England's control.]" Ward Churchill
2. During the Gandhian struggle there were other militant violent organizations as well.
"Chandrasekhar Azad... fought in armed struggle against the British colonizers, and revolutionaries
such as Bhagat Singh won mass support for bombings and assassinations as part of a struggle to
accomplish the overthrow of both foreign and Indian capitalism." Peter Gelderloos

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement:

1. "Elevated by white and Black elitist to the heights of social acceptance, Dr. King's message of
Christian forbearance and his turn-the-other cheek doctrine were calming to the white psyche. To
Americans bred for comfort, Dr. King was, above all, safe. The Black Panther Party was the antithesis
of Dr. King. The Party was not a civil rights group... but practiced the human right of self-defencse...
The Black Panther Party made (white) Americans feel many things, but safe wasn't one of them."
Mumia Abu Jamal
2. "The pacification, through nonviolence, of people of color intersects with the preference of white
supremacist power structures to disarm the oppressed. The celebrated civil rights leaders, including
King, were instrumental to the government's 'bullet and ballot' strategy in isolating and destroying
militant black activists and manipulating the remainder to support a weakened, pro-government
agenda centered around voter registration." Peter Gelderloos
3. According to King, "those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution
inevitable."
4. While King may have been nonviolent and much of the white media recognized Civil Rights
Movement was nonviolent there were many, many elements of the movement for Black equality/equity
that adopted a diversity of tactics. Some people and organizations to understand and know include the
Black Liberation Army, Robert Williams, Angela Davis, and others. To say that the Civil Rights
Movement was nonviolent is to erase the history of many other types of resistance that were going on
alongside the pacifists.
Anti-Vietnam War
1. Many former hippies and others who organized against the war like to claim that the nonviolent
movement in the United States successfully stopped the war machine. Statements such as this ignore a
more complex reality that includes the fact that the Viet Cong tactically and militarily outsmarted and
outdid the United States military. Even as the military carpet bombed the country the people were still
winning the war. There were also U.S. soldiers who were violently resisting their commanding officers,
killing them if they tried to force the soldiers to continue fighting and dying (the documentary Sir No
Sir is a vital piece of history to learn).
2. The Weather Underground bombed over forty different federal buildings and military recruitment
centers to forcibly stop the war machine. While their actions were not always effective they were
attempting to cause financial casualties at home. (Dan Berger)

(sample script for facilitator)

Around the room you will find images of leaders and movements celebrated for their
commitment to nonviolence and their successes because of their nonviolent organizing. Please go
around the room in groups (count off 1 - 3) and list what you know about the nonviolent
organizing efforts by these movements and what their successes were and are. Each group will
have five minutes at each station.

After they have finished going around the room, the last group at each image should report back to the
whole group what is written on the piece of butcher paper. Ask them to then take down the image and
read what is listed on the back. After each group reads the commentary from the back of the image
encourage the group to share what they feel or are thinking, though emphasize the feeling connection.

Break

Nonviolence and Oppression

Materials - 2 sheets of 81/2''X11'' paper
Preparations - On one sheet of paper write "Agree" on the other write "Disagree." Prior to the
workshop print the following quotes on separate pieces of paper:
1. "I don't favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by
peaceful means, well and good. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I'm also a
realist. The only people in this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people." - Malcolm X
2. "[White pacifists]preach nonviolence to the people at the bottom of the racial and economic
hierarchy precisely because nonviolence is ineffective, and any revolution launched by those people,
provided it remains nonviolent, will be unable to fully unseat white people and rich people from their
privileged positions." - Peter Gelderloos
3. "Some recent 'feminist' critiques... have condemned militancy as being sexist and non-
inclusive to women... This idea is actually the sexist one." - Laina Tanglewood
4. "I do not wish to kill or be killed, but i can foresee circumstances in which both of these
things would be by me unavoidable. We preserve the so-called peace of community by deeds of petty
violence every day. Look at the policeman's billy and handcuffs! Look at the jail! Look at the
gallows! Look at the chaplain of the regiment!" - John Brown
5. "It is the obligation of every person who claims to oppose oppression to resist the oppressor
by every means at his or her disposal. Not to engage in physical resistance, armed resistance to
oppression, is to serve the interests of the oppressor; no more, no less. There are no exceptions to the
rule, no easy out." Assata Shakur
(sample script for facilitator)
I am going to hand out five statements from individuals who have engaged in and/or support
violent resistance within the United States. On two sides of the room are the words "Agree" and
"Disagree." As the quote is read I want you to place yourself along the spectrum from agree to
disagree. Take some time to think about it and then we will get reflections from as many people
as who want to share. (Pass out pieces of paper and invite the readers to go in order 1 - 5)

After each statement is read give time for people to finish walking to their spots before inviting
conversation. If you realize that everyone is in the same space try to offer other perspectives for the
group to consider. Focus on feelings along with intellectualized thoughts. Invite people to consider
what it must feel like to believe one has tried every avenue to achieve liberation yet continue to be
denied.

Reacting to a Communique
Preparation - Print out enough copies of the following communique for all participants.

International Women‟s Day

The full text of the following communiqué was printed as “Text of Brigade Communique” in the Post-
Intelligencer, March 31, 1976 and in Dragon, no. 8, April 1976, 7-9.
On March 10th, members of the George Jackson Brigade rescued our comrade John W.
Sherman from police custody. John had been captured during our unsuccessful attempt to
expropriate $43,000.00 from the Tukwila branch of the Pacifc National Bank of Washington.
A brutal attack by Tukwila police and King County sheriffs left our comrade Bruce Seidel dead,
Sherman shot in the jaw, and Sherman and comrade Ed Mead in custody. All other
participating units of the Brigade escaped after fring on police from the rear in an attempt to
assist our three comrades trapped in the bank.

There can be no revolution without money—for weapons, explosives, survival, organizing,

printing, etc. The people are poor. We will make the ruling class pay for its own destruction by
expropriating our funds from them and their banks.

We have so far identifed the following tactical criticisms of the Tukwila action: 1) We were
unprepared for the level of violence that the pigs were willing to bring down on us and the
innocent people in the bank. We should have had better combat training. 2) We waited too long
to open fre on the pigs. We should have fred without hesitation on the frst pig to arrive.
Failure to do this allowed the police to murder our comrade while he was trying to surrender,
and endangered everyone in the bank. 3) A silent alarm was tripped when we removed all of
the money from a teller‘s drawer. When the phone began to ring to authenticate the alarm, our
comrades should have split immediately with whatever they had in their hands. Instead, they
stayed to clean out the safe. 4) Our comrades across the street should have had more frepower
than they did. We had an enormous tactical advantage which we were unable to exploit
because it took so long to bring the superior frepower that we did have into action. 5) Our
getaway route was excellent. Comrades were able to remain in the area, fring on the pigs until
the three comrades inside the bank were taken into custody, and still get away clean. Over all,
this action failed because we were not prepared to meet police terrorism with a suffcient level
of revolutionary violence.

In the course of the escape raid it became necessary to shoot the police offcer guarding
Sherman. We did not shoot offcer Johnson in retaliation for Bruce‘s murder. In fact, it was our
intention to avoid shooting him. He was shot because he failed to cooperate as fully as possible
with the comrade who was assigned to him. One of the many lessons we learned from Tukwila
is that we cannot afford to give the police any slack when confronting them. While we don‘t
particularly want to shoot police, we don‘t particularly care either. We will shoot without
hesitation any police offcer who endangers us. Also, we fully intend to get justice for Bruce‘s
murder, but we prefer to retaliate against the murder[er]s themselves: offcers [Joseph L.]
Abbott and [Robert W.] Matthews.

Bruce saw himself as an inevitable product of the mass movement. Years of struggle for
progressive change taught him that poor and working people will not listen to communists
who are unwilling and unprepared to back their demands with revolutionary violence. Bruce
understood the need for a movement with real (not symbolic) teeth, and he set about changing
this understanding into a reality. His contribution to this process is beyond measure. Had he
survived beyond his mid-twenties, he would have changed far more than the shape of
Northwest politics.

Bruce recognized and implemented the need to expropriate banks as a means of furthering
specifc political goals. He also understood the possible risk of capture or death involved in
such an undertaking. Unlike so many of his racist counterparts, Bruce did not believe the lives
of U.S. communists to be somehow more precious than those of comrades throughout the world
who are fghting and dying in the international class war against imperialism. The death of
our comrade weighs like a mountain on our shoulders. We loved Bruce in life and we love him
in death. His passing leaves us with more than grief and sorrow; it has kindled a rage that will
not be abated until his killers and the class they serve are destroyed along with the misery and
suffering they bring to all humanity.

We are learning to avoid the self-appointed ―left; to go directly to the people and to rely on
them for our strength. The people in our community have made enormous sacrifces and have
given us shelter and sustenance and safety from the pigs. Because of this, the escape raid is a
complete success. The victory belongs to the people.

We‘re also learning to rely on ourselves. Using urban guerrilla ingenuity, members of the
George Jackson Brigade removed the torsion arch bars from comrade Sherman‘s mouth.
Our comrade is free, the pigs have been badly beaten and they‘re throwing a temper tantrum.
They are using their Grand Jury to try to terrorize the people by issuing subpoenas to
numerous progressive people and hauling them before their star chamber. Now they have
started taking hostages from among progressive above ground fghters. But they will soon
learn that the people don‘t terrorize so easily. And they would do well to remember that what
goes around—comes around.

We send our greetings and love to our comrade Ed Mead still in custody and to all freedom
fghters above ground, underground and locked down. Take heart Ed, we miss you and we will
continue fghting. Later.
We urge all progressive people in Seattle to organize and fght the Grand Jury. Struggle for
correct politics. Don‘t talk to the FBI. Don‘t testify. Don‘t collaborate. Support the hostages.

CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN‘S DAY

CELEBRATE THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN STRUGGLE
Love and Struggle,
GEORGE JACKSON BRIGADE
March, 1976

In order to authenticate this communique, we are sending a bullet recently fred from a gun
used across the street from the bank to the Post-Intelligencer (Seattle). We are also sending
one of the torsion arch bars from comrade Sherman‘s mouth to KZAM, a Bellevue radio
station.

We‘re not all white and we‘re not all men

said a white male member
of our collective
to a liberal masked media man
Why struggle with
arms, tools, commie Q‘s?
dykes niggers cons
when you could slip away with
left support action
or vague mass movement construction
I can love
I can slip into class, bitch privilege
love don‘t mean unity with another
privilege doesn‘t change alienation
both mean slipping into darkness
alienation is masses of couples buying
coca cola and grapes at safeway
and owning own stereos t.v.‘s and cribs
Just like slumlords pimps I.T.T.
organized us
We will dis organize
learn struggle and skills
movement action new ways
Not the vague vanguard
We are a collection
of oppressed people turning
inside out with action
this united few breaks
barriers of
race class sex
workers and lumpen
all going together
combatting dull sameness
corporations, government
and the established rule of
straight white cocks
I cannot be one
acting alone with my
little toe outside the line
its both feet
whole body
ain‘t no turning back now
no more mass meetings stale mating action
Loving learning laboring
with a few comrades
oh won‘t you harbor me?
joining you sistah brother
in freedom, Sue, Assata
George, Jill, Martin
new family being sane
small, not like charlie‘s
leader ship
We are cozy cuddly
armed and dangerous
and we will
raze the fucking prisons
to the ground

[signed by hand] Love and Struggle, GJB

(Sample Script for Facilitator)

I want you to break up into small groups of no more than three people. I want you to read the
communique from the George Jackson Brigade, a working class, queer, multi-racial, formerly
incarcerated, multi-gendered underground revolutionary organization that was based in Seattle
during the 1970s. This particular communique was written after they liberated a member of
their organization from jail. The George Jackson Brigade took part in many political bombings
and expropriations (AKA bank robberies). The role of the communique is to relate to the
communities they came from and to clarify the work they were doing as well as motivate people
to further action. While you are in your group I want you to discuss the following -
1. Were they justified in breaking their comrade out of jail?
2. How do they justify robbing banks and what are your feelings about it?
3. What would your response have been to a communique like this if you received it in the
1970s?
4. The role of identity and intersectionality is very important to this group, unlike any
other underground organization, does that impact your opinion of them?
5. One of their comrades was murdered by the police, what do you think of their reaction?
6. What other thoughts do you have?