"This Is People's History" - Claude Marks on The Freedom Archives, Black August and Liberation Struggles

In this episode we interview Claude Marks the co-director Freedom Archives. The Freedom Archives the best archive we know of documenting the history of revolutionary, radical and progressive movements of the 1960’s through the 1990’s. 

In this conversation we talk about Freedom Archives and its collections, most of which are available at FreedomArchives.org. 

Claude shares a brief overview of his own radical media work and participation in struggles which led to his political imprisonment. And talks about the plight of political prisoners, and the broader communities targeted and impacted by the prison system, in the US today. 

Claude also shares some reflections that are timely for Black August including historical importance and current relevance of George Jackson, which Freedom Archives honored with their excellent 99 Books digital exhibit last year.

We talk about the FBI’s counterintelligence program, which is detailed in the Freedom Archives documentary COINTELPRO 101 and ask Claude about the relationship he sees between the state’s counterinsurgency in that era and today.

He emphasizes the importance of studying movements that were successful and of understanding the work of political prisoners as part of the struggle that is embraced and supported within more advanced movements. 

We close by asking about projects that Freedom Archives has on the horizon and ways that folks can get in touch with them and also support their critical work. You can donate here to Freedom Archives.

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This episode will include audio clips from George Jackson, Assata Shakur, Corky Gonzales, Dylcia Pagan, & the BPP Kids (these last three are all a part of the Vinyl Project of Freedom Archives) we include these just to showcase some of the amazing material that Freedom Archives brings together. We’ll include links in the show notes to all of these clips, some of which are available in longer form on Freedom Archives.