April 26, 1977: 47 years ago, April 26 1977, a gunfight at the People's Food System's San [...]

47 years ago, April 26 1977, a gunfight at the People’s Food System’s San Francisco Cooperating Warehouse left one dead & one (San Quentin 6 member Willie Tate) critically wounded. The shootout is regarded as having spelled the end for the People’s Food System’s co-op network

The People’s Food System, an attempt by radicals to replace commercial food distribution with cheaper, healthier, democratically-managed alternatives, grew out of the “Food Conspiracies” of the late ’60s. By the late ’70s they managed a large, successful network of food co-ops

The shootout was precipitated by the takeover of one of PFS’s co-ops, Veritable Vegetable, by a strange revolutionary group called Tribal Thumb. Tribal Thumb, led by an ex-con named Earl Satcher, was believed by many in the movement to be linked to the FBI

Tribal Thumb, who taught a strange mix of urban guerrilla warfare, mysticism, and sexual liberation politics (inspired by German psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich), had already infiltrated the prisoners’ movement, going so far as to murder United Prisoners Union leader Popeye Jackson

Many in PFS believed Tribal Thumb intended to take over the system, and a meeting was called to discuss the problem. Satcher arrived with his followers and two doberman pinschers, called out, “What’s happening?” and opened fire with a pistol

In the ensuing gunfight, Satcher was killed and PFS’s Willie Tate was critically wounded. Tate, a close friend of slain Black Panther George Jackson, is one of the San Quentin 6 (inmates who were accused and tried for allegedly planning the escape attempt that left Jackson dead)

After the shootout, a handful of People’s Food System members (but no Tribal Thumb members) were tried for murder. While PFS turned to fundraising for the costly trials, the police, DA, and Health Dept cracked down on them. The system folded soon after