54.

NEW DAWN PARTY.

An original flyer issued by the New Dawn Central Council printing a text “On the Underground” in which they argue that “the mindless advocacy of unprincipled terrorism by irresponsible individuals on the left is politically incorrect.” Np. (Berkeley, CA:, nd. (c. 1975). Printed in black on goldenrod paper, recto only. Illustrated. 27.9x21.6cm.

The New Dawn Collective was based in Berkeley and called for a workers’ revolution, describing itself as an overground voice for revolutionary groups. It was associated with the Weather Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the Emiliano Zapata Unit (named after the Mexican revolutionary) and the New World Liberation Front, and distributed communiqués by these and other groups as well as producing its own newspaper, The People United (referred to in the text), which gave propaganda support to the Zapata Unit. It also sponsored study groups to study “basic Communism” and contemporary revolutionary practice.

After a shoot-out at a house in Lagunitas, California in February 1976, one of those arrested, Lawrence Allan Kissinger, aka Larry Allan, was identified as a member of the New Dawn Collective, at which point the police realised that the New Dawn Party was a cover-up for the Zapata Unit. When seven more members of the Zapata Unit were arrested shortly afterwards, police found 150 pounds of explosives and bomb components, a discovery seemingly at odds with the flyer’s statement that “The New Dawn Party strongly feels that sisters and brothers engaged in urban guerrilla warfare must stay clear of this sort of practice”. The arrests led to the demise of both the Zapata Unit and New Dawn.

Near Fine.

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