May 19th Communist Movement
Encyclopedia
The May 19 Coalition was a US-based, self-described revolutionary organization formed by members of the Weather Underground Organization. The group was originally known as the New York
chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee
(PFOC), an organization devoted to legally promoting the causes of the Weather Underground. This was part of Prairie Fire Manifesto change in Weather Underground Organization strategy, which demanded both aboveground mass and clandestine organizations. The role of the clandestine organization would be to build the "consciousness of action" and prepare the way for the development of a people's militia. Concurrently, the role of the mass movement (i.e., above ground Prairie Fire Collective) would include support for, and encouragement of, armed action. Such an alliance would, according to Weather, "help create the 'sea' for the guerrillas to swim in." The M19CO name was derived from the birthdays of Ho Chi Minh
and Malcolm X
. The May 19 Communist Organization was active from 1978 to 1985. M19CO was a combination of the Black Liberation Army
and the Weather Underground. It also included members of the Black Panthers and the Republic of New Africa (RNA).
This alliance between the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army had three objectives:
1. Free political prisoners in US prisons
2. Appropriate capitalist wealth (armed robberies) to fund the third stage, and
3. Initiate a series of bombings and terrorist attacks
M19CO committed the acts listed below. From 1982 to 1985 it committed a series of bombings, including bombings of the National War College
, the Washington Navy Yard Computing Center, the Israeli Aircraft Industries Building, New York City's South Africa
n consulate, the Washington Navy Yard Officers' Club, New York City's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, and the United States Capitol Building. Three officers were killed during the Brinks Robbery, but no one was injured or killed in their bombings.
Almost all the M19CO members were all convicted in a US Court of Law for these offenses, Elizabeth Ann Duke
remains at large.
By May 23, 1985 all members of the group had been arrested, with the exception of Elizabeth Duke, who remains a fugitive. At a 1986 trial, group members Laura Whitehorn
, Timothy Blunk, Alan Berkman
, Susan Rosenberg
, Marilyn Buck
and Linda Evans
were tried and convicted of multiple counts of domestic terrorism in the Resistance Conspiracy case. The Black Liberation Army members; including Jeral Wayne Williams (aka Mutulu Shakur
), Donald Weems (aka Kuwasi Balagoon
), Samuel Smith, Nathaniel Burns (aka Sekou Odinga
), Cecilio "Chui" Ferguson, Samuel Brown (aka Solomon Bouines) were also all eventually captured by 1986 and sentenced to long prison terms.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee
Prairie Fire Organizing Committee
The Prairie Fire Organizing Committee is an activist group whose members advocate the overthrow of the current capitalist system as the only solution to racism, sexism, homophobia, classism and imperialism. The group emerged from opposition to all forms of oppression that the members believe is...
(PFOC), an organization devoted to legally promoting the causes of the Weather Underground. This was part of Prairie Fire Manifesto change in Weather Underground Organization strategy, which demanded both aboveground mass and clandestine organizations. The role of the clandestine organization would be to build the "consciousness of action" and prepare the way for the development of a people's militia. Concurrently, the role of the mass movement (i.e., above ground Prairie Fire Collective) would include support for, and encouragement of, armed action. Such an alliance would, according to Weather, "help create the 'sea' for the guerrillas to swim in." The M19CO name was derived from the birthdays of Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
and Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
. The May 19 Communist Organization was active from 1978 to 1985. M19CO was a combination of the Black Liberation Army
Black Liberation Army
The Black Liberation Army was an underground, black nationalist-Marxist militant organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981...
and the Weather Underground. It also included members of the Black Panthers and the Republic of New Africa (RNA).
This alliance between the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army had three objectives:
M19CO committed the acts listed below. From 1982 to 1985 it committed a series of bombings, including bombings of the National War College
National War College
The National War College of the United States is a school in the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active. It was officially established on July 1, 1946, as an upgraded replacement for the...
, the Washington Navy Yard Computing Center, the Israeli Aircraft Industries Building, New York City's South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n consulate, the Washington Navy Yard Officers' Club, New York City's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, and the United States Capitol Building. Three officers were killed during the Brinks Robbery, but no one was injured or killed in their bombings.
Almost all the M19CO members were all convicted in a US Court of Law for these offenses, Elizabeth Ann Duke
Elizabeth Ann Duke
Elizabeth Anna Duke is a former teacher and militant fugitive best known for her involvement with a number of political organizations, and subsequent flight from prosecution. She is currently wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.- Personal life :Duke was born in Beeville, Texas on...
remains at large.
- In 1979 three members walked into the visitor’s center at the Clinton Correctional Facility for WomenEdna Mahan Correctional Facility for WomenEdna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women is a prison facility for women of the state of New Jersey Department of Corrections, located in Union Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, near Clinton. Its official abbreviation is EMCFW. The facility was named for Edna Mahan Edna Mahan Correctional...
near ClintonClinton, New JerseyClinton is a Town in Hunterdon County, New Jersey on the South Branch of the Raritan River. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 2,719....
, took two guards hostage, and freed Assata ShakurAssata ShakurAssata Olugbala Shakur is an African-American activist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army...
, a member of the Black Liberation Army. Shakur was serving a sentence of life plus 26 to 33 years for the murder of a state trooper.
- Several months later they arranged for the escape of William Morales, a member of the Puerto Rican separatist group, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriquena (FALN), from Bellevue Hospital in New York City where he was recovering after a bomb he was building exploded in his hands.
- In 1981 Weather Underground members Kathy BoudinKathy BoudinKathy Boudin is a former American radical who was convicted in 1984 of felony murder for her participation in an armed robbery that resulted in the killing of three people. She later became a public health expert while in prison...
, Judith Alice ClarkJudith Alice ClarkJudy Clark, an activist with a long-standing history in the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, is currently in prison for her participation in the attempted robbery of a Brinks truck in 1981 that left a guard and two police officers dead. Clark was convicted for a secondary role in the...
, and David Gilbert, together with several members of the Black Liberation Army, participated in a robbery of a Brinks armored carBrinks robbery (1981)The Brink's robbery of 1981 was an armed robbery committed on October 20, 1981, which was carried out by Black Liberation Army members; including Jeral Wayne Williams , Donald Weems , Samuel Smith, Nathaniel Burns , Cecilio "Chui" Ferguson, Samuel Brown ; several former members of the Weather...
at the Nanuet Mall, near NyackNyackNyack may refer to:*Nyack, New York, a village*Nyack College, located in the village*USS Nyack, the name of two U.S. Navy vessels...
, New York. Upon her arrest Boudin was identified as a member of the May 19 Communist Organization. Three officers were killed.
- Jan. 28, 1983, M19CO bombed the federal building on Staten Island, N.Y.
- April 25, 1983, they were responsible for a bombing at the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.
- November 7th, 1983 US Senate Bombing1983 United States Senate bombingThe 1983 U.S. Senate bombing was a bomb explosion at the United States Senate on November 7, 1983. Six members of the "Resistance Conspiracy" were arrested in May 1988 and charged with the bombing, as well as related bombings of Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard.On that day, the Senate...
- August 18, 1983 bombed Washington Navy Yard Computer Center
- April 5, 1984 Bombed the Israeli Aircraft Industries Building
- April 20, 1984 bombing at the Washington Navy Yard Officers Club
- On November 3, 1984, two members of the M19CO were arrested at a mini-warehouse they had rented in Cherry HillCherry Hill-Places:In the United States:* Cherry Hills Village, Colorado* Cherry Hill, Baltimore, Maryland, a neighborhood** Cherry Hill in Maryland*Cherry Hill, Michigan, an unincorporated community in Canton Township, Michigan....
, N.J. Police recovered more than 100 blasting caps, nearly 200 sticks of dynamite, more than 100 cartridges of gel explosive, and 24 bags of blasting agent from the warehouse.
- September 26, 1984 bombed the South African consulate
- The M19CO alliance’s last bombing was on February 23, 1985, at the Policemen’s Benevolent Association in New York City.
By May 23, 1985 all members of the group had been arrested, with the exception of Elizabeth Duke, who remains a fugitive. At a 1986 trial, group members Laura Whitehorn
Laura Whitehorn
Laura Jane Whitehorn was born in April 1945 to Lenore and Nathaniel Whitehorn of Brooklyn, New York. As a college student in the 1960s, she organized and participated in civil rights and anti-war movements. as well as involvement in a series of revolutionary bombings and armed robberies...
, Timothy Blunk, Alan Berkman
Alan Berkman
Alan Berkman was an American physician and activist in the Students for a Democratic Society and Weather Underground who went to prison for his involvement in a number of robberies staged by the organizations and their offshoots. Released after eight years in prison for armed robbery and...
, Susan Rosenberg
Susan Rosenberg
Susan Lisa Rosenberg is an American radical political activist, author and advocate for social justice and prisoners' rights. Rosenberg was active in many radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s...
, Marilyn Buck
Marilyn Buck
Marilyn Jean Buck was an American Marxist revolutionary, convict, and feminist poet, who was imprisoned for her participation in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur, the 1981 Brinks robbery and the 1983 U.S. Senate bombing...
and Linda Evans
Linda Evans (U.S. radical)
Linda Sue Evans is an American radical leftist who was convicted for militant activities. Evans was sentenced in 1987 to 40 years in prison for using false identification to buy firearms and for harboring a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery, in which two police officers and a...
were tried and convicted of multiple counts of domestic terrorism in the Resistance Conspiracy case. The Black Liberation Army members; including Jeral Wayne Williams (aka Mutulu Shakur
Mutulu Shakur
Mutulu Shakur , is a former proponent of the Republic of New Afrika and a close friend of Geronimo Pratt....
), Donald Weems (aka Kuwasi Balagoon
Kuwasi Balagoon
Kuwasi Balagoon , born Donald Weems, was a Black Panther, a member of the Black Liberation Army, a New Afrikan anarchist, and a defendant in the Panther 21 case in the late sixties. Captured and convicted of various crimes, he spent most of the 1970s in prison...
), Samuel Smith, Nathaniel Burns (aka Sekou Odinga
Sekou Odinga
Nathanial Burns known better as Sekou Odinga is an American activist who was imprisoned for actions with the Black Liberation Army in the 1960s and 1970s....
), Cecilio "Chui" Ferguson, Samuel Brown (aka Solomon Bouines) were also all eventually captured by 1986 and sentenced to long prison terms.
External links
- May 19 Communist Order profile at the Terrorism Knowledge Base