David Gilbert #83A6158
Wende Correctional Facility
3040 Wende Road
Alden, New York 14004-1187
David Gilbert, a longtime anti-racist and anti-imperialist, first became active in the Civil Rights movement in 1961. In 1965, he started the Vietnam Committee at Columbia University; in 1967 he co-authored the first Students for a Democratic Society pamphlet naming the system “imperialism”; and he was active in the Columbia strike of 1968.
He went on to spend a total of 10 years underground, building a clandestine resistance. David has been imprisoned in New York State since 10/20/81, when a unit of the Black Liberation Army along with allied white revolutionaries tried to get funds for the struggle by robbing a Brinks truck. This tragically resulted in a shoot-out in which a Brinks guard and two police officers were killed. David is serving a sentence of 75 years (minimum) to life under New York State’s “felony murder” law, whereby all participants in a robbery, even if they are un- armed and non-shooters, are equally responsible for all deaths that occur.
While in prison, he has been a pioneer for peer education on AIDS and has continued to write and advocate against oppression. He’s been involved with the annual Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar since 2001 and has written two books from prison that are available from Kersplebedeb and PM Press: No Surrender and Love and Struggle.
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