On August 7th, 1970 Jonathan Jackson, in an act of radical abolition and resistance to the repression of the Civil Rights movement, entered the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California and attempted to negotiate the freedom of the Soledad Brothers (which included his older brother George) by holding Superior Court judge Harold Haley for ransom. (see below for more on why)
In the ensuing gunfire from police four people were killed (including Jackson and Haley) and two wounded. The incident reverberated though-out the world, providing a stark glimpse of a divided America and further galvanizing the movement for black life.
So in August we remember Jonathan Jackson and all of our people who lived, fought, and died for our lives and for our liberation.
"All black people, wherever they are, whatever their crimes, even crimes against other Blacks, are political prisoners because the system has dealt with them differently than with whites. White-Americans get the benefit of every law, every loophole, and the benefit of being judged by their peers—other white people. Blacks don't get the benefit of any such jury trial by peers. Such a trial is almost a cinch to result in the conviction of a black person, and it's a conscious political decision that blacks don't have those benefits" Howard Moore Jr, attorney.
"The purpose of the chief repressive institutions within the totalitarian capitalist state is clearly to discourage and prohibit certain activity, and the prohibitions are aimed at very distinctly defined sectors of the class- and race-sensitized society. The ultimate expression of law is not order— it's prison. There are hundreds upon hundreds of prisons, and thousands upon thousands of laws, yet there is no social order, no social peace.
Anglo-Saxon bourgeois law is tied firmly into economics and protects property relations and not social relationships. The cultural traits of capitalist society that also tend to check activity—(individualism, artificial politeness juxtaposed to an aloof rudeness, the rush to learn "how to" instead of "what is")—are secondary really, and intended for those mild cases (and groups) that require preventive measures only. The law and everything that interlocks with it was constructed for poor, desperate people like me.
Jonathan, my younger brother, understood this point perfectly. The purport of the raid on the Marin County Courthouse was more significant by far than its calculable effects. I knew him well, since lie was and still is my alter ego. He went to liberate and to educate with aggressive and free action. He knew that as he proceeded in liberating there would be more action. He wasn't a speech-maker, and neither am I.
To escape from the myth, the hoax, by moving people into action against the terror of the state—counter-terrorism—is the real significance of the August 7th affair.
Proof of these theories was built right into the action: five desperate men were offered arms as a means to freedom—three took them. Proof of the role of law within the totalitarian authoritarian relationship was also built into the action. In a fit of reckless, mindless gunfire, one hundred automated goons shot through the bodies of a judge, district attorney, and three female noncombatants to reestablish control over all activity.
To prevent certain actions, no cost in blood is too high. It would seem that so much free fire would be difficult to explain, but it is not. Freedoms are invariably being protected with this gunfire. Freedom must then be interpreted a thousand separate ways, but it actually comes down to freedom for a few families and their friends—freedom to prey upon the world.” George Jackson
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