Catalyst Project is honored to have received a letter of solidarity from anti-imperialist political prisoner David Gilbert. Click here to read his letter, learn more about David and his forthcoming book Love and Struggle: My Life and Times in the Weather Underground and Beyond.

We Remember Fred Hampton

Dear Catalyst, Dear Comrades,

Thank you for sending me the 2010/2011 Catalyst Project report. Naturally I loved the colorful and spirited photos of all of you and many of your programs, photos of people with whom I feel so very close.

More fundamentally, my deep appreciation goes out to you for all the vital and vibrant work you do. I’m sure that it often feels like you’re not accomplishing enough, and it’s healthy that we all want to do more, but your programs are very on-point and worthwhile. Right on to your work with Vermont Workers Center, Anti-War/GI Resistance, No Room for Racism, Justice and Ecology, National Political Education and, of course, the Anne Braden Anti-Racist Training Program.

The recent wave of Occupy Wall Street protests, while I’m sure they’re beset with many shortcomings, are a breath of fresh air- and you have so much to offer. Let’s hope and work for a growing momentum of fundamental opposition to this rapacious and cruel system.

Solidarity,

Information about David Gilbert from our friends at the Freedom Archives

David Gilbert is among the longest held anti-imperialist prisoners in the world. As a teenager David began working against the Vietnam war and for Black civil rights, and later became a leader of the Columbia University student strike and Students For A Democratic Society (SDS). He was an organizer at a time of great social upheaval. In 1969, 120 cities burned in Black uprisings, and in the same period 400 campuses organized student strikes against the Vietnam War. In the 1970s he joined the Weather Underground Organization and worked underground for more than a decade. He was arrested in 1981. Along with others, he was convicted on a conspiracy charge for his participation in an action to raise funds for the Black Liberation Army. David is serving a sentence of 75 years to life, without possibility of parole.

Click here to can order a copy of his forthcoming book Love and Struggle: My Life and Times in the Weather Underground and Beyond.

For more information on David or to order a video interview “A Lifetime of Struggle” produced by the Freedom Archives click here.