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David Gilbert

Anti-Imperialist Political Prisoner

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Want to know more than the couple minutes of interview with David in The Weather Underground documentary? Read his brief history of SDS/WUO: Students for a Democratic Society and the Weather Underground

"Only global justice can provide a solution to terrorism"

      [It is hard to fathom] just how devastated Afghanistan already was by the preceding 20 years of war; the reality of more bombings raining down on these people is heartbreaking. Within the us, the momentum toward a permanent warfare-security state makes this a somber time. I feel particular worries about what the new security obsession combined with likely future budget crises will mean for prisoners and will mean for the poor in general.
      I want to salute those of you helping to build an antiwar movement. As small as we are, it's encouraging that we didn't collapse under the onslaught of jingoism and the real sense Americans have of being under attack. That keeps open some hope of a voice for a sane/ humane alternative as the costs of/reasons for bush's escalating cycle of violence become clearer over time. I'm definitely with those who emphasize that such a movement must be anti-racist at its core and who look for synergy with the anti-globalization movement. Only the emphasis of global justice (including for an independent Palestinian state) can provide a long-run solution to terrorism.

9/11/01 – The Terrorism That Terrorism Has Wrought
David Gilbert
Attica prison, November 11, 2001

About David Gilbert

"The starting point for me is identifying with other people. That solidarity, that tenderness, mandates standing with the oppressed -- the vast majority -- against the power structure. The 50% of children in sub-saharan africa suffering from severe malnutrition, the women and girls sold into sexual bondage in Thailand, the homeless kids scavenging in the streets of Sao Paulo, the prisoners with AIDS locked in isolation cells in Alabama . . . They are all precious human beings whose lives matter.

"Reality burst into my consciousness when I was 15, with the Greensboro sit-ins of February 1960. I guess I had been unusually naive in that I fervently believed in America's rhetoric about democracy and equality. This promise was totally belied by the patent racism, as well as by the U.S. practice of imposing brutal dictators on third world nations around the globe. The Civil Rights movement also showed me more of a sense of humanity and nobility of purpose than I found in the white suburbs where I had grown up.

"In 1962 I joined the Congress of Racial Equality, and in 1965 I started the Committee Against the War in Vietnam at Columbia University. I was one of the founding members of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) chapter there, and in 1967 I wrote the first national SDS pamphlet that named the system as 'U. S. Imperialism.' I participated in the Columbia strike of 1968.

"The rise of the women's movement and determined efforts by women comrades showed me the importance of struggling against sexism and of striving to live our humanist values in our personal relationships.

"In response to the murderous government assault on the Black Liberation Movement and the unending, massive bombing of Vietnam, the Weather Underground formed in the early 1970's. I spent 10 years in underground resistance. On October 20, 1981, Iwas captured when a unit of the Black Liberation Army and allied white revolutionaries attempted to take funds from a Brinks truck, with the unfortunate result of a shoot-out in which a guard and two policemen were killed. Myatari Shabaka Sundiata was subsequently killed by police, while numerous other comrades were captured and given long sentences. I was sentenced under New York State's "felony murder law" (even with no allegations of doing any shooting, a participant in the robbery can be given full legal responsibility for all deaths) to 75 years to life, which makes my earliest parole eligibility in 2056.

"I am very fortunate to have a thoughtful, loving, magnificent son and to have many fine friends and family who have stood by me. In prison, I have tried to continue to contribute through political writings. Also, since my co-defendant Kuwasi Balagoon died of AIDS on December 13, 1986, I have been intensely active as an advocate and educator around AIDS in prison."
                  – David Gilbert, from Can't Jail the Spirit, 4th edition, March 1998.

Visit the PARC political prisoner listing for David Gilbert's current address.

By David Gilbert

How you can support David Gilbert

Write him: David Gilbert # 83-A-6158, Attica C.F., P.O. Box 149, Attica NY 14011.

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