[1][2] Since the Weather Underground was engaged in illegal bombings and its leaders were fugitives, it required help from aboveground supporters to distribute the book; participants in this work included Van Lydegraf and Jennifer Dohrn.

[8] Ayers is referring to the 1970 Greenwich Village townhouse explosion which killed 3 members of Weatherman, Diana Oughton, Theodore Gold, and Terry Robbins.

[10] They claim a long history of fighting for rights of all people and opposes white supremacy in all its forms, believing that it persists through practices such as racial profiling.

The book Prairie Fire was explicitly feminist, based on an understanding that success of imperialism relied on the oppression of women.

[13] In 1979, the victory of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the FMLN-led "people's war" in El Salvador put the ideals of a just society at the center of attention.

[14][15] Since 1984 Prairie Fire has been active in the annual International Women's Day celebration that is held on March 8 in Chicago.

In 1996, Prairie Fire initiated the Not On The Guest List Coalition which organized a demonstration at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.