DESCRIPTIONS

Complete collections of statements and communiques from the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a California leftist revolutionary group active for 22 months, from 1973 through 1975, formed by ex-convicts and middle-class radicals. The original members included Willie Wolfe, Emily Harris, Bill Harris, Nancy Ling Perry, Russell Little, Joe Remiro and Donald DeFreeze. SLA members were associated with a number of crimes, including robbery, murder, and kidnapping. While the SLA is known primarily for the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, which occurred on February 4, 1974, the kidnapping was only one of many actions executed by the SLA, and just one episode in a progression of activities that would occur during the SLA's movement toward complete economic, social, and political liberation. A primary goal of the organization was the"gaining of freedom and self-determination and independence for all their people and races." The SLA utilized tactics of expropriation, direct action and armed propaganda to stimulate public awareness and action around issues of poverty, housing, racism, women's rights, and prison issues. Despite undertaking a number of controversial and sometimes polarizing actions, one of the foremost successes of the SLA was forcing the Hearst family to give away millions of dollars worth of food from Safeway grocery stores to impoverished communities in the Bay Area. This collection includes original SLA communiqués, statements and publications; and press releases, as well as statements from other Bay Area radical groups concerning SLA actions and ideas. Included within: All known SLA organizing papers and manifestos. Indictments handed down by the SLA "court of the people." SLA letters. All SLA taped message transcripts. Statements from hostage-turned-SLA-member Patty Hearst An appendix including public responses by government and groups who supported the SLA. This is the definitive collection of documents and official communications from the 22-month history of the SLA.