Fire by Night Organizing Committee

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The Fire By Night Organizing Committee was a short-lived revolutionary leftist organization in the United States. Fire by Night was formed by about half of the members of the New York City branch and all the members of the San Francisco branch of the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation after its dissolution in 1998. In Love & Rage's aftermath, Fire by Night grouped together some members of Love & Rage who were moving away from anarchism and becoming increasingly influenced by Marxism, along with some who still considered themselves anarchists but were open to working in the same organization with non-anarchists.

At its formation, Fire by Night was conceived as likely to be a transitional organization. Fire by Night was committed to doing three things: (1) organizing together in a concentrated and strategic way, (2) writing a thorough summation of lessons from the experience of Love & Rage, and (3) carrying out a year-long process of political study which would result in writing a political statement that would clarify the organization's ideological orientation and their view on revolutionary strategy in the United States.

The San Francisco branch of Fire By Night was active in organizing public housing residents and the New York City branch was involved in the fight to defend (and restore) open admissions at the City University of New York. The New York City branch abruptly dissolved itself in January 2000. Subsequently the San Francisco branch, which had moved away from anarchism and toward Marxism, decided to join the Freedom Road Socialist Organization / Organización Socialista del Camino para la Libertad (FRSO/OSCL). At that point Fire by Night ceased to exist.

Before it dissolved, The Fire by Night Organizing Committee wrote the most extensive summation of lessons from Love & Rage, After Winter Must Come Spring: Analysis of the Love & Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation. After Fire by Night dissolved, this summation of Love & Rage was published as a pamphlet by Freedom Road Socialist Organization / Organización Socialista del Camino para la Libertad (FRSO/OSCL). The pamphlet also includes a new introduction and the Fire by Night Organizing Committee's Point of Unity, but doesn't include the afterword that originally appeared with the document.