Biography
Ed Mead was the principal theorist of the George Jackson Brigade, a Seattle-based militant prison-solidarity formation that conducted a series of bombings of state and corporate targets and bank expropriations in the Pacific Northwest from 1975 to 1978. He was arrested on January 23, 1976, after an attempted bank robbery at the Pacific National Bank in Tukwila, Washington in which Brigade member Bruce Seidel was killed and Mead was wounded. He was convicted of attempted bank robbery and conspiracy and sentenced to 30 years at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Washington.
Inside, he founded Men Against Sexism, the prisoners gay-and-anti-rape organization that confronted the white-supremacist gang structures running 1970s Walla Walla, and edited Prison Legal News for many years. He was released in 1993 after 17 years and has continued to be a major figure in U.S. anarchist and prison-abolition writing.
Founding member of the George Jackson Brigade, a Pacific Northwest revolutionary cell active 1975-1978. Captured January 23, 1976 during the failed Tukwila (WA) Pacific National Bank robbery in which fellow brigadier Bruce Seidel was killed and John Sherman was wounded. Held at Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla, where he co-founded Men Against Sexism. Released in 1993 after 18 years for his political actions (35 years of his life were spent in prisons total). Continued radical organizing post-release.