Dossier: Robert McKinley Thrower
Age: 56
Ethnicity: African American
Status: Incarcerated

Mr. Thrower comes from a family with a long history of civic participation and civil rights advocacy. His grandmother, Mary Bryan-Moore, who was honored by the city of Denver with a day named after her for her work in founding the east Denver rescue mission and women's suffrage contributions, was also the reverend of St. Luke's CME church in which Robert was raised. Travis Thrower, Robert's father, was the longtime regional head of the west central civil rights office of the Dept. of Justice, a position which Robert later took over in the late '70s.

His grandmother's brother was a union organizer in Georgia in the '50s while his grandfather's sister's husband was the first acting president of the Green Party. His uncle, Paul Thrower, was an active member of the Black Panther Party and credited with obtaining a favorable early settlement during negotiations over a phone operators union strike, which took place in Denver in the '80s.

Mr. Thrower's political focus is on the western transnational working poor class struggle and conflict in a radical context, which takes a broad approach to global issues. In Mr. Thrower's own words:

"I am a radical hippie/yippie, but my mother raised me in an African American civil rights church community which involved Bible studies in the church basement and involvement in planning community events. My involvement with the housing and political needs of the black community helped establish me as a respected organizer and civil liberties advocate regionally. Due to the opposition to these activities, I ended up in prison with a life sentence and am a recognized political prisoner by various groups. Yet prison has only expanded my commitment to civil rights work and activism.

"In society, I was the western central regional head for Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) until I ended up in prison with a parolable life sentence. From an early age, I was engaged in politics. At 14, I was a prospective SDS member and, by 15, an SDS militant. My SDS fair housing work served as the basis for all of my later work in social justice demographics. I am fortunate that SDS accepts both civil and workers rights work alongside prisoner and human rights work. I ended up as an SDS head based on my initial civil rights work and activities.

"I worked with the crusade for justice (December '75-'85), the American Indian movement (September '72 to the present), Cladestine Formations, the Weather Underground ('76-'82), the Black Liberation Army ('76-'84), the San Francisco Filmore Chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense ('76-'80), the Irish Republican Socialist Party, Southwest African Peoples Organization in Namibia ('75-'95), the Revolutionary Armed Forces in Columbia (own affiliate, in coordination with Rochester, NY chapter, '78-'97), and worked as a labor union rep for Adams County Co., representing warehouse workers ('80-'83), for a special role and capacity while incarcerated.

My style of labor union representation is in the mode of the industrial workers of the world."

Mr. Thrower's political writings can be viewed at:
http://betweenthebars.org/blogs/1491