George Jackson, born on this day in 1941, was the revolutionary author of "Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson" and co-founder of the Marxist-Leninist Black Guerilla Family.
In 1970, Jackson was charged, along with two other Soledad Brothers, with the murder of prison guard John Vincent Mills in the aftermath of a prison fight. The same year, he published "Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson", a combination of autobiography and manifesto addressed to a black American audience. The book became a bestseller and earned Jackson personal fame.
Jackson was killed during an attempted prison escape on August 21st, 1971. Quoting communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, Jackson freed twenty-six prisoners and took hostages at gunpoint. Jackson and five other men were killed.
Fay Stender, George Jackson's former lawyer, was shot and paralyzed for her alleged betrayal of Jackson by Black Guerilla Family member Edward Glenn Brooks. Brooks entered her home, tied up her family, and forced Stender to say "I, Fay Stender, admit I betrayed George Jackson and the prison movement when they needed me most" before shooting her several times. Left paralyzed and in chronic pain, Stender testified against Brooks and committed suicide a year later.
"Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution."
- George Jackson
Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson :gold-communist:
blood in my eye george jackson :red-fist:
It's been 30 years since George Jackson died in a pool of blood at San Quentin. His death still reverberates in America SFGATE :hammer-sickle:
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It feels weird being a 30-something millennial. You're old enough to remember things that boomers do like rolling up windows by hand in cars or rotary telephones and yet you can't really bond with said boomers. On the other hand, you know the memes young people are into and are tech-savvy and yet you really can't relate to young people sometimes either. It's like being in this strange limbo that's wholly unique. I just hope when I'm older I don't end up bitter like my father.
I get what you mean. I remember what it was like before cell phones, I remember using DOS, I remember hanging out with friends primarily at a certain food court near the school and everyone biking/scootering to the designated hang out house. There was no meetup app so you were stuck going to bars or clubs even if you really didn't like them, and if you wanted a job you would get an application in person and call back a week later to show the manager that you cared or whatever.
I feel like millennials, since we straddle the moment the Internet proliferated, have a unique insight into which parts of it made the world better and which parts made it worse - but we're completely disempowered so there's nothing we can do about it. A whole generation of Cassandras.
I feel this. Like seeing some things stop, some things continue, and we can yell about how terrible this or that is but we’re overshadowed somehow. Or how small the transitional window was that some things that were important to us just lasted less than 4 years or something. So for zoomers looking back, it almost looks like there was nothing there from the start
That's a great way to put it. The social media age has really been a double-edged sword in a lot of ways. I'd almost say it's more detrimental and alienating than anything else honestly. It was all supposed to connect the world and make people bond more than ever but the end result has been intense polarization and an age where people simply do not know how to communicate with one another. I have fond memories of web 1.0, the internet really felt like a community back then, with people bonding over technology or hobbies while the internet of today is just so disposable. There's parts I wish I could bring back, like you said, hanging out in person with people and just being there. While also having the world wide web to be able to communicate with people around the globe and share ideas. I dunno, there's still a utopian part of me that sees some untapped potential in the internet, when in reality it's done a lot more harm than good, as evidenced by the rise of fascism globally.
Social media combined with the determined destruction of every single public space and venue. Even drinking at a dive bar is really, really expensive now. And I can't think of anywhere you're allowed to just exist in public without buying things. Like parks if you're the right color and dress right. And libraries. But what else is there?
Can zoomers even do this? I get the impression that malls are pretty much all dead and there's been a lot of crackdown on existing in public spaces without buying things.
There's been so many times I've related to boomers and almost got through to them only to have them say or do something bad that totally soured the experience. I guess my point is to talk to people. The gulf between ages isn't that severe and there's common ground to be had. It really is a lonely age filled with intense alienation for everyone.
It's just a matter of time talking to any boomer until they say something extremely fucked and refuse to listen to any pushback on it.
And it's so rarely something that isn't important. It's always like "blah blah blah and also I don't consider this entire class of people to be human beings".