Symbionese Liberation Army

"Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people" The motto of the Symbionese Liberation Army

Formation and initial activities

Prison visits and political film

Russ Little remembers that the SLA began to form as a result of a prison visitation program (Venceremos) and a series of San Francisco film screenings within the Radical Left. The idea of South American style urban guerrilla activity appealed to a number of people around Willie Wolfe who was an anthropology student involved in studying the prison system.

Related Topics:
Venceremos - Film - Radical Left - Urban guerrilla - Willie Wolfe - Prison system

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Amongst anti-prison activists within the New Left it was a common belief that America's prisons were concentration camps designed to repress African Americans. This led some sections of the radical left to believe that all African Americans were political prisoners, and that Black power ideology would naturally appeal to all prisoners. Cujo developed this ideology into a plan for action, linking student ideologists with prisoner militants. (Stone 2004).

Related Topics:
Anti-prison - New Left - Concentration camps - African Americans - Black power

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DeFreeze escapes prison

The SLA formed after the escape from prison by Donald DeFreeze, who adopted the name "Field Marshal Cinque." Cinque took this name from the reported leader of the slave rebellion which took over the Spanish slave ship Amistad in 1839. Cinque escaped from the Soledad State Prison on 5 March 1973.

Related Topics:
Donald DeFreeze - Amistad - Soledad State Prison - 5 March - 1973

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DeFreeze had been active in the Black Cultural Association while at the California Medical Facility, a state prison facility in Vacaville, California, where he had made contacts with members of the radical political organization known as Venceremos. He sought refuge among these contacts, and ended up at a commune known as Peking House in the San Francisco Bay Area. For some time he shared living quarters with future SLA members Willie Wolfe and Russ Little, then moved in with Patricia Soltysik, also known as "Mizmoon". DeFreeze and Soltysik became lovers and began to outline the plans for forming the "Symbionese Nation".

Related Topics:
Black Cultural Association - California Medical Facility - Vacaville - California - Venceremos - Peking House - San Francisco - Willie Wolfe - Russ Little - Patricia Soltysik

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In the manifesto "Symbionese Liberation Army Declaration of Revolutionary War & the Symbionese Program" DeFreeze explained that "the name 'symbionese' is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body"; apparently the founders of the SLA had different human races in mind when coining the term. Although the SLA considered themselves leaders of the Black revolution, DeFreeze was the only Black member.

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Russ Little attests that the group's primary activity during this period was acquiring, storing and training in firearms at various public shooting ranges (Stone 2004).

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