This book is also perhaps the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of that increasingly important symbol — the political prisoner. Of her trial, Miss Davis writes, "I am charged with three capital offenses — murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy. My life is at stake in this case — not simply the life of a lone individual, but a life which has been given over to the struggles of my people, a life which belongs to Black people who are tired of poverty, and racism, of the unjust imprisonment of tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters.""I stand before this court," she declares, "as a target of a political frame-up which, far from pointing to my culpability, implicates the State of California as an agent of political repression....I declare publicly before the court, before the people of this country, that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the State of California."On the central theme of this book Miss Davis contends that "the offense of the political prisoner in his political boldness, his consistent challenges — legally or extra-legally — of fundamental social wrongs fostered and reinforced by the state. He has opposed unjust laws and exploitative, racist social conditions in general, with the ultimate aim of transforming these laws and the society into an order harmonious with the material and spiritual need and interests of the vast majority of its members."Regarding his own defense, Ruchell Magee, the only prisoner who survived the same revolt and one of the many impressive contributors in this invaluable volume which includes George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, John Clutchette, James Baldwin, Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins, states, "For over seven years I have been forced to stay in slavery on fraudulent pleas of guilty, made by attorneys, court-appointed attorneys, over my objection, over my plea of not guilty, and over my testimony of not guilty."

    Unique in his belief that the destiny of African Americans could not be separated from that of oppressed people the world over, Carmichael's Black Power principles insisted that blacks resist white brainwashing and redefine themselves. He was concerned not only with racism and exploitation, but with cultural integrity and the colonization of Africans in America. In these essays on racism, Black Power, the pitfalls of conventional liberalism, and solidarity with the oppressed masses and freedom fighters of all races and creeds, Carmichael addresses questions that still confront the black world and points to a need for an ideology of black and African liberation, unification, and transformation.

    Gandhiji was solidly rooted in Indian tradition and the practice of civil disobedience was a vital method of social protest which he inherited from the same tradition. Gandhiji acknowledged this profound debt when he wrote: 'In India, the nation at large has generally used passive resistance in all departments of life. We cease to cooperate with our rulers when they displease us.'Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition is the story of a major satyagraha against a new series of taxes including a house tax proposed by the British in the city of Benaras and other areas under British colonial rule around 1810. The book comprises the almost day by day account of the day account of the popular resistance to the tax, and its eventual withdrawal by the British, revealed through the letters of anguished district magistrates and imperious officials. The accounts are preceded by an introduction written by Dharamapal in which he sheds light on several other available indigenous forms of political protest including dharna and traga and discusses incidents of resistance, similar to those at Benaras that erupted in other areas of the country as well.Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition is the second in the series of five volumes of the collected writings of Dharampal