Some of you may know that between the ages of three and six (1968-1971) I lived in a Marxist-Leninist commune in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was home to student members of SDS and adult members of the Progressive Labor Party (the PLP, or just PL for short). Those who know their radical history will remember that, at a critical juncture in “the movement”, SDS split into two factions. One faction, which believed that the time for violent revolutionary action had not yet come, retained the name SDS. The other faction, held that the sheer scale of imperialist atrocities committed daily, both at home and abroad, not only justified but also required immediate action of every kind. The name chosen for themselves by the violent faction was the Weather Underground.
My parents were Communists. They were also academics and both were professors of Philosophy. Like most other academics, at least in the pre-digital age, my parents kept an extensive library of printed materials, even when we our living conditions were somewhat cramped. One day while I was in my freshman year of High School, on a shelf of dusty volumes from both my parents and my grandparents collections, I was delighted to find a little crudely printed book entitled Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism. Reading the book, I quickly realized that what I had found was a rare copy of the Manifesto of the Weather Underground.
Because I was young and foolish, not understanding the value of this rare treasure I had found and also wanting to show it off, I quickly lost my copy of Prairie Fire. Many times, over the years, I tried to find another copy via. used book searches and the like. I had no luck. Today, however, when I searched the internet for this book, I found a PDF copy online. I have now uploaded a copy of this document to this site for others to enjoy and learn from.
Also, in case you wondered, the title of the book comes from a quote from Mao Tse Tung, “A single spark can start a prairie fire.”
Click the link below to read Prairie Fire now.
Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism