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Welcome to the Freedom Archives' Digital Search Engine.The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings which date from the late-1960s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements. We are also in the process of scanning and uploading thousands of historical documents which enrich our media holdings. Our collection includes weekly news, poetry, music programs; in-depth interviews and reports on social and cultural issues; numerous voices from behind prison walls; diverse activists; and pamphlets, journals and other materials from many radical organizations and movements.

North American Social Movements

This collection is comprised of North American organizations and social movements. Many of the sub-collections contain materials from anti-imperialist organizations in solidarity with national liberation struggles, White anti-racist organizations and allies of the civil rights and later the Black Liberation movements of the 1960-1970s. Many of these organizations also operated in solidarity with national liberation movements in Africa, Central America, and Vietnam. This collection can be divided into three main parts.

Organizations: These sub-collections contain audio and paper materials from the following organizations-> May 19th Communist Organizations; John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC); The Moncada Library (A Project of May 19th Communist Organization), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC), The White Panther Party, The Weather Underground Organization (WUO), and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). These sub-collections include periodicals, recordings, communiques, pamphlets, and other organizational news and campaigns. 

Movements: These sub-collections contain mostly audio but some paper materials about the Asian-American, Anti-War and Environmental movements. The bulk of the materials in the Anti-War sub-collection are focused on protests and opposition to the Vietnam War and Judi Bari and the activities of Earth First is a main focus of the Eco-Justice sub-collection. 

Other: Chicago Conspiracy Trial has rare actual courtroom audio, as well recorded interviews and analysis of the Chicago-8 conspiracy trial following the 1968 Democratic Convention and protests in Chicago. Sue Supriano is entirely audio and Arm the Spirit is entirely paper.   


Subcollections

  • American Communism
    This collection consists of materials published by and about the North American communist movement.
  • Anti-War
    Anti-War
    This collection primarily contains materials opposing the war in Vietnam. Extensive accounts from the May Day Pentagon Protests in 1967 are included as well as student and GI perspectives on the war.
  • Asian American Struggles
    Asian American Struggles
    The Asian American Struggles collection features a selection of several newspapers and pamphlets produced by Asian-American progressive communities, such as New Dawn, Gidra, and more.
  • Chicago Conspiracy Trial
    Chicago Conspiracy Trial
    One of the most unusual courtroom spectacles in American history, this collection contains materials from the 1969-70 trial of eight radicals accused of conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
  • George Jackson Brigade
    George Jackson Brigade
    Combining veterans of the prisoners', women's', gay and black liberation movements, The George Jackson Brigade used armed propaganda as a means to destroy capitalism and unite against the international imperialist class.
  • Health and Environmental Justice
    Health and Environmental Justice
    Includes a range of audio, video, and paper materials concerning movements that fight corporate and state exploitation of the environment.
  • John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
    John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
    JBAKC was formed in 1977 to promote the mobilization of white people to fight white supremacy and combat the growing resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.
  • May 19th Communist Organization
    May 19th Communist Organization
    The May 19th Communist Organization derives its name from the birth-date of Ho Chi Minh and Malcolm X. Their principle task was supporting, both politically and with material aid, the wars of national liberation, outside and within the borders of the US.
  • Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC)
    Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC)
    Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC) was an anti-imperialist activist group advocating social change through collective direct action.
  • Social Movement Periodicals
    Social Movement Periodicals
    Collection of periodicals produced by Arm the Spirit, Seize the Time, White Lightning (Spirit of Logos Organization) and the White Panther Party.
  • Sojourner Truth Organization
    Sojourner Truth Organization
    Sojourner Truth Organization (STO) was active between 1969-1986 and organized and published political education, criticism, theory, and propaganda around intersections of issues including labor, international anti-imperialism, white supremacy, and feminis
  • Student Activism
    Student Activism
    This collection contains audio and print materials focusing on student activism and movements in the 1960s and early 1970s. Material primarily focuses on student activism at colleges and universities but also some materials from high school students.
  • Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
    Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
    An educational and social action organization dedicated to increasing democracy in all phases of our common life.
  • Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)
    Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)
    The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a California leftist revolutionary group active from 1973 through the mid 1970s.
  • The People's Party
    This collection contains issues of Grass Roots, a monthly periodical published by the People’s Party, with major topics including electoral politics, healthcare, labor organizing, class struggle, and more.
  • Weather Underground Organization (WUO)
    Weather Underground Organization (WUO)
    The Weather Underground Organization (WUO) was a clandestine, militant anti-racist organization which aimed at the overthrow of US imperialism, foreign and domestic.

Documents

Death to the Klan! Summer 1986 Death to the Klan! Summer 1986
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeYear: 1986Volume Number: No. 6 SummerFormat: PeriodicalCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
In this Issue: Klan Using Cable TV to Reach Millions; Centers for Black Survival; A look at the Puerto Rican Independence Movement; Fighting for Freedom (News on Political Prisoners); Commentary on Libya. Also, Chicago to be "racist capitol of the word" says Klan; Marines Train NC Klan; Mobilizations Against Prison Control Units; Sandinistas Fight Amerikkka's Contras; Carrying on the Tradition of John Brown (by Marilyn Buck); Who is Mutulu Shakur; Stop Big Mountain Relocation; Azania: the Land Belongs to the People.
Stop the Grand Jury! Stop the Grand Jury!
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeDate: 11/1984Format: PeriodicalCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
Articles on wave of grand juries in 1984
No KKK! No Fascist USA! - Spring/Summer 1989 No KKK! No Fascist USA! - Spring/Summer 1989
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeYear: 1989Volume Number: Spring-SummerFormat: PeriodicalCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
Newspaper of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee. In this issue: unity between the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis; Tom Metzger; the formation of the "Syndicate", an anti-racist organization made up of anti-racist skinheads; the origins of fascist and Neo-Nazi movements in Europe; an overview of Nazi white-supremacist actions throughout the U.S.; anti-racist response to Nazi Skinheads; the murder of an Ethiopian man by Nazi skinheads; KKK run out of Atlanta; Anti-Racist Resource List; Imari Obadele on the implications of the term "African-American"; book review of Fire on the Mountain; update on the fight to free Geronimo Pratt; movie review of Mississippi Burning; letters from readers.
Death to the Klan! November 1979 Death to the Klan! November 1979
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeDate: 11/1979Volume Number: Vol. 1-1Format: PeriodicalCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
This is the first issue of the newsletter of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee. Articles include Assata Shakur's escape from prison, an overview of advances in the Black liberation movement, an update on the fight to free the Pontiac Brothers, the murder by white police of a Black man in Texas, an editorial about Klan terror, the fight against white supremacy at City University of New York (CUNY), and information about a forum addressing the struggle to free the land for the Republic of New Afrika. This issue also includes the "Principles of Unity" outlining what white people need to do to actively oppose white supremacy.
Death to the Klan! December 1979 Death to the Klan! December 1979
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeDate: 12/1979Volume Number: Vol. 1-2Format: PeriodicalCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
This issue of the newsletter includes articles about Klan activity, Zionist and white supremacist unity in opposition to Arab and Black liberation, the struggle against gentrification in Brooklyn, a march against the Klan in Texas, the assassination of Puerto Rican freedom fighter Angel Rodriguez Cristobal, a forum on U.S. imperialism and the struggle to free the Black nation, brutality against women in New Hampshire. The issue also includes the "Principles of Unity" which outlines what white people need to do to actively oppose white supremacy.
Death to the Klan! Jan/Feb 1980 Death to the Klan! Jan/Feb 1980
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeDate: 1/1980Volume Number: Vol. 1-3Format: PeriodicalCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
Newsletter of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee. In this issue: the Ku Klux Klan in the Northern United States; an editorial on the struggle against the Klan as a struggle against genocide; the murder of Emery Robinson, a Black teenager, by police in Westchester County, NY; an update on the struggle to free the Pontiac Brothers, facing charges stemming from a rebellion in Pontiac prison; Black students organizing against white supremacy at City College in New York, NY; Zimbabwe's victory against Britain.
26 Ways to Say No 26 Ways to Say No
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeYear: 1989Format: FlyerCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
Just Say No to Nazis campaign vs. nazi skinheads.
Death to the Klan June 1985 Death to the Klan June 1985
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeDate: 6/1985Volume Number: No. 5Format: PeriodicalCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
Newsletter of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee. In this issue: response to police brutality in New York, NY, after a police officer receives a manslaughter conviction for killing Eleanor Bumpurs, in the course of an eviction; the rise of the White American Bastion; resistance again the Grand Jury in Washington D.C.; the Movement Against Racism and the Klan (MARK) and principles of non-collaboration; Political Prisoners at the MCC in New York, NY, protest torture; charges against captured revolutionaries, The Ohio 5; segregationists rioting in Chicago, IL; racist action by police around Lake Tahoe, NV and San Francisco, CA; Know Your Enemy report on white supremacist activities across the U.S.; Harper's Ferry, Part II; the Aryan Nation's use of a computer bulletin board to circumvent Canada's censorship laws; The Black Nation in Struggle report on the struggle for Black liberation throughout the U.S.; Israel's invasion of Lebanon; a review of the book Zionism in the Age of the Dictators; an interview with Nick Tucker of the Azanian People's Organization; Nelson Mandela's statement to Botha; a statement from Tim Blunk and Susan Rosenberg on revolutionary resistance; Chokwe Lumumba on the criminalization of the Black community; an editorial on the case of Bernhard Goetz; libel suits against news organizations reporting on Palestine and Vietnam; a report by Red Guerrilla Resistance on the Patrolman's Benevolent Association; the obituary of Puerto Rican poet and head of La Liga Socialista Juan Antonia Corretjer.
Stop Racist Attacks on Arab People in the U.S. Stop Racist Attacks on Arab People in the U.S.
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeYear: 1991Format: FlyerCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
Flyer listing racist attacks on Arabs during the early 1990s and advertising a panel on racism during wartime.
No Nazis! No KKK! No Fascist USA! No Nazis! No KKK! No Fascist USA!
Publisher: John Brown Anti-Klan CommitteeYear: 1989Format: FlyerCollection: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC)
Flyer for a counter-protest against a Nazi Skinhead recruiting rally in Rocklin, CA.