4strugglemag

Issue 3—Winter 2005

Election Reaction, Black History, Jericho, Police State

Welcome to 4strugglemag III. This issue focuses on four topic areas. First we discuss the recent U.S. elections, some of its meaning and tasks ahead. Included is an article on the Puerto Rican election for Governor mess, by former POW Luis Rosa. Second we have a section on Black History Month, which includes a major report on the issue of “Reparations” by Dr. Mutulu Shakur. Third there is a section on the Jericho Freedom Movement, which includes a report on Jericho’s Human Rights Day (Dec. 10) events in New York City. Fourth, we continue to analyze the growing police and war state America is turning into.

We welcome further discussion and analysis of these issues, especially online. Understanding is important, but taking action in support of your beliefs is key. 4strugglemag supports and encourages participation in anti-war and anti-repression resistance. We urge people to show the government, the country and the world that millions of American’s oppose Bush’s war and police state. We especially urge everyone to support and participate in the March 19-20, worldwide anti-war actions. We are posting a page of contacts and information on these upcoming events.

The next issue will be out in late Spring. One major topic will be the Palestinian people’s struggle. In the meantime we’ll keep struggling—hope you do too.

Dynamic Peace and Justice

Jaan Karl Laaman, editor (W41514)
P.O. Box 100
South Walpole MA
02071 USA

We are happy to introduce a new feature on our website: a discussion board

Read and post comments on 4strugglemag articles, news items, and the latest callouts and event announcements by/for political prisoners.

All available at:
www.4strugglemag.org/board

Table of Contents

Reactions to the 2004 U.S. Elections:

Post-Election Thoughts and Opportunities by Jaan Laaman
The Need For an Independent Antiwar Movement by David Gilbert
Excerpts from “Racist Fundamentalists Take White House, Again” from Workers Vanguard
Excerpts from “NO NO NO! The Will of the People Was NOT Expressed In This Election” from Revolutionary Worker
A Letter by Ronald del Raine
Excerpts from “Bush Win sets Stage for Wide Fightback” from Workers World
Colonial Politics…Made By the U.S.A. by Luis Rosa Perez

Black History:

Thoughts on Dr. M.L. King Jr., Self-Awareness, and What Needs to Be Done by Herman Bell
Reparations: An Alternative Legal Preview to the Charge of Genocide by Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Michael Covington, and Ali Gibran
Breaking Amerikkka’s Chains by Kamau Tebogs Zulu Damali
ONAMOVE by Janet Africa
Black August by Marilyn Buck

Jericho:

The History of The Jericho Amnesty Movement’s Struggle for the Recognition and Release of ALL Freedom Fighters by Hira Al-Amin
The Boston Chapter of the Jericho Movement by Robin Merrill

Police State:

War on Terrorism Relies on Terrorizing the People by Kazi Toure
Abu Ghraib, the Prequel by Ed Mead
If Death Is The Realm Of Freedom by Herman Wallace
Update On Jaan Laaman Being Thrown Into Segregation Last Summer and Fall by Jaan Laaman
Do Not Say You Love Me by Ali Khalid Abdullah
Security Threat Groups by Tonio X

Mohawk Warrior “Lasagna” Ron Cross Passed Away 5 Years Ago by Kahentinetha Horn
Political Prisoners in the United States by Jaan Laaman
Callout: March 19/20 2005 – Global Day of Action
In Canada: Mobilize for March 19-21, 2005

Cover painting of Assata Shakur by Sundiata Acoli

Reactions to the 2004 U.S. Elections

Post-Election Thoughts and Opportunities

By anti-imperialist political prisoner Jaan Laaman

Well George Bush “tricked” his way into leadership of the USA war and police state for another four years. Tens of millions in this country, along with billions around the world find this reality very disappointing, even distressing. This article is not going to examine the details of uncounted, misplaced and disregarded votes, especially in Ohio, but the evidence of all this continues to be revealed. Even the corporate press has been releasing small accounts of this fraud, but none of it will stop George Bush from being reappointed as President in January. Readers should look into the many reports of vote count fraud that continue to be reported in Ohio, Florida and elsewhere.

Before the election there was some honest debate in the Left on whether and how vigorously to support Kerry and the Democrats. John Kerry was a weak candidate and his bellicose pro-war stance was probably a main factor that cost him large numbers of votes. For peace activists, progressives and revolutionaries, those who voted for Kerry and those who abstained, it is now time for all of us to unite and deal with the reality of Bush and his war and police state. Right after the election there was talk of going to Canada, getting really drunk or just ducking down. Most of us can’t go to Canada. You can only stay high so long and ducking down is not the thing to do now. Bush and his war policies remain, but they are probably more questioned, exposed and rejected than ever by more than half the people in the U.S. Now is the time for all good people—anti-war, anti-repression, revolutionary voices to loudly and visibly reject Bush and his policies of war. We should be very clear that there is an alternative: OUT NOW! We should demand the complete and immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq.

If you are concerned about or support U.S. troops, bringing them home NOW is the best thing to do. If you are upset about the billions of dollars being poured into the war, end it NOW. If you are sickened, saddened or outraged by the daily killing of Iraqi men, women and children by the U.S. occupation army, then demand that it stops NOW! The USA army is not bringing democracy, freedom or peace to Iraq. It is bringing death, destruction and more instability. Once the foreign occupation troops leave, the Iraqi people will establish their own government. Who and what it will be and how much strife will be involved is not clear. It is very clear though that the U.S. installed puppet regime, with or without “elections,” will not last a week once U.S. troops leave. The Iraqi people have the right and need to set up their own system, whatever it is. We should stop killing them and losing U.S. soldiers in a futile effort to impose Bush and his oil baron cronies dictates on who runs Iraq.

Domestically we also need to unite and step forward to resist and roll back the ever increasing police state that exists in the U.S. Bush “won” his re-election, but he has less public support for his
war policies than ever. Now is not the time for good peace and justice loving activists and groups to slow down, feel overwhelmed and defeated.

Now when more people than ever, in this country and around the world, are opposing or questioning Bush and his war, we can and must bring our alternative of peace, hope and justice out publicly in every way possible. Two upcoming ways to do this is to demonstrate against Bush at his inaugural in Washington in January.

Just as importantly and with more time to organize, we here in the U.S. should have a huge outpouring on March 19-20, which is the unified date for worldwide anti-war actions. Large East and West Coast rallies are planned and everyone should make an effort to attend or do something locally. Check elsewhere in this issue for a page of contacts and more information on these upcoming events. As the well worn slogan, “Freedom is a Constant Struggle” proclaims, and with Bush still in the White House, the opportunity and need for renewed struggle is calling out to us now.

Jaan Laaman (W41514)
P.O. Box 100
South Walpole MA 02071 USA

After Election, Need for Independent Antiwar Movement

By anti-imperialist political prisoner David Gilbert

What a grim time it is politically when the reality of 100,000 Iraqi civilians slaughtered in an illegal war isn't even a minor issue in U.S. politics and media. The presidential campaign was the gross insult on top of the grievous injury of the invasion of Iraq. While it's not surprising that Bush won, the size of his popular vote is upsetting. (I don't know how to evaluate possible issues of computer rigging or how well the actual tabulations correlated with exit polls.) We know that the Dems. didn't offer a real alternative, the role of $1.2 billion in campaign financing, the way things are defined by the corporate media, the playing on fears of terrorism. Still, it is disturbing that so many people voted for a party that is so blatantly mean-spirited, and galling that "moral values" gave the Republicans the edge. My main first blush reaction to the results is to repeat what I was saying before the election: the crying need is for a strong, independent anti-war movement. It was a shame that, after the good protests in August, the antiwar movement apparently collapsed into waiting for the election results, ”especially given that Kerry's platform was to wage the war more effectively.

One example of how degraded political discourse is in the U.S. is that 75% of those who voted for Bush believe that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11/01. But how could they, given that the information was out in the open? And why did so many working class people vote for a regime so obviously and slavishly devoted to the super-rich? The basis for understanding this goes back to our core political analysis on the depth of white and male supremacy. We actually have a culture that readily accepts that Bush, who lied to get us into a war that has already resulted in 30 times the 9/11/01 number of civilians killed, is the "moral" candidate because he wants to outlaw gay marriage and abortion. Many voters are willing to accept the way the media frames the issues and vote for the party of the super-rich because of a history, culture and politics that bind them to the benefits of empire at the same time that any fruits from class struggle seem so unattainable as to be completely unreal. It seems that especially when people feel under attack, and when revolutionary alternatives are remote, people will rally around the emperor.

In many ways, Bush is following on a world stage the sinister formula that has worked so well for Ariel Sharon in Israel. Every time there was a danger that "peace would break out" in the Middle East, Sharon initiated a provocation that in turn set off a terrorist retaliation, which then became the basis to rally Israelis behind this "tough on terrorism" leader. You would think that voters, ”even if uncaring about the cruel injustices” would see that Sharon's approach, while terrific for him, put the average Israeli much more at risk. Similarly, Bush's war of aggression, with its inherent abuses, has been the greatest
recruiter yet for forces of all stripes who want to attack the U.S., including terrorists who target civilians. That such blatantly counter-productive policies could be widely endorsed is a heavy testament to the weight of the history of identifying with empire in shaping people's world view.

The situation is far from hopeless, but we have to face the reality rather than wish it away. As we learned in the 1960s, there are historical conditions that make people more likely to raise their class interests above their loyalty to empire. The keys entail a combination of the costs of imperialist war with the clear visibility of more humane (ultimately revolutionary) alternatives. (The set of issues is something I tried to look at in some more detail in my "Looking at the White Working Class Historically.) So that brings us back to where we were before the election: the urgent need for an independent antiwar movement, and one that clearly challenges white and male supremacy, one that offers a loud critique of the immoral and destructive current directions and that shows that a better world is possible. It is certainly not an easy task. But we know that history takes many unpredictable twists and turns. If we sink into despair, we won't be able to respond to new opportunities; we have to do our utmost now to make humane alternatives palpable.

David Gilbert (83A6158)
P.O. Box 2001
Clinton Correctional Facility
Dannemora NY 12929 USA

Excerpts from “Racist Fundamentalists Take White House, Again”

From Workers Vanguard No. 836, 12 November 2004
http://www.icl-fi.org/ENGLISH/2004/Elections-836.html

“I earned capital in the campaign—political capital—and now I intend to spend it” was the chilling message from George W. Bush following his election victory on November 2. The relatively high turnout for the elections was supposed to be good for the Democrats, but the “family values,” “born-again” religious types also mobilized heavily for the oddly demented Bush administration, helped along by the continued attempts to disenfranchise black voters and no-paper-trail computers. Whipping up “war on terror” fear and religious and sexual hysteria was key, as referendums to ban gay marriage in eleven states, which all passed, helped to bring out the forces of deep reaction. The Republican consolidation of the White House and both houses of Congress is bad news for working people, blacks, women, gays and immigrants—all in the gun sights of the social reactionaries in power. One of the propositions that passed in Arizona denies government benefits to non-citizens. The Bush cabal now feels it has a mandate to intensify its war on working people at home and abroad.

And the first targets are the peoples of Iraq… [In the invasion of Falluja] one of the first targets taken by the American occupiers was Falluja’s main hospital, a calculated move to mute any news about civilian casualties… The New York Times (8 November) noted: “The hospital was selected as an early target because the American military believed that it was the source of rumors about heavy casualties.” A recent report from Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore concluded that between March 2003 and September 2004, some 100,000 civilians had died in Iraq.

The very same ruling class that is raping the peoples of Iraq is also looting, fleecing and attacking the rights of workers and the oppressed at home. Working people in the U.S. must take a side against U.S. imperialism’s occupation of Iraq and demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. forces from the country…

While Bush’s victory is bad news, a Kerry victory would not have been good news. Kerry promised to continue the Iraq occupation, to increase the American military by 40,000 new recruits, and to get “tougher” with North Korea. The Democrats, no less than the Republicans, are a ruling-class party dedicated to upholding the interests of the American capitalists, interests directly counterposed to those of the working class. U.S. elections, a limited form of bourgeois democracy in any case, serve as a deception whereby the bourgeoisie cloaks its class dictatorship with a veneer of popular approval. As Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin put it in The State and Revolution: “To decide once every few years which member of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament—this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism….”

Exerpts from “NO NO NO! The Will of the People Was NOT Expressed In This Election”

From Revolutionary Worker #1258, November 14, 2004,
posted at http://rwor.org/a/1258/elections-editorial.htm

Anguish ... bitter disgust ... even despair. We try to find the words and we can’t.

And yes, it is as bad as you think. Almost certainly, it is worse.

On November 3rd, George Bush called up the newly elected Republican senators who believe in such things as the death penalty for abortion providers and banning gays from teaching and said: “It’s time to get the job done.” Capitalism personified, Bush told the press “Let me put it to you this way: I earned political capital in the campaign and now I intend to spend it”. He is full of himself—on a mission to take this whole nightmare to an even more intense, more repressive level.

If ever there was a leader who should be thoroughly rejected, if ever there was a time for a country to become politically ungovernable, if ever there was an empire that should be stopped dead in its tracks and prevented from shaping the future of the planet—that leader, that country, that empire is right before us. If ever there was a time when millions need to act on their nagging, deep-gut feeling that something is terribly and radically wrong—that time is NOW.

Bush crows that he is backed by the will of the people. Bull! What will of the people—when there was an entire campaign of disenfranchisement and intimidation directed against Black people and immigrants from Ohio to Arizona, from Florida to Mississippi?! What will of the people—when we may never be able to say what the easily-rigged electronic voting machines really recorded? What will of the people—when people were never given the chance to even hear (let alone vote on) a clear strong voice against the war, against the repression, and against the Dark Ages mind-set taking over this country? And where were the voices of people from Gaza to Falluja, Kathmandu to Korea who are the most victimized by this Bush madness? Where were the voices of the people of the majority of the planet who bitterly oppose the war on Iraq? The fact is that the will of the people was NOT expressed in this election!

True, Bush did get tens of millions of people to support him with eyes wide shut… But Kerry never really went after Bush, and the whole way that things got confined to the terms of “who would be the better commander-in-chief” was loaded against the people from the gitgo. And now Kerry talks to us about “letting the healing begin?” We don’t think so…

[N]ow what? Do we just accept this as the will of the people and try to find our place somewhere within these new norms?

NO! This has proven disastrous and we have to change course NOW. We have to build a fierce resistance based on what is truly just.

Two Different Moralities

Oh, but they tell us, Bush won because of his “superior morality.”

Well, what kind of morality plays on fear and the desire for a false and illusory safety to carry out relentless bombing and killing in Iraq, where it is now estimated that over 100,000 people have died as a result of the war?

What kind morality is expressed in the brazenly snapped photos of prisoners dead and wrapped in plastic, or stripped naked and tortured, all sanctioned and systematized by the chain of command and the legal opinions written by Bush’s top counsels?

Who can find moral salvation in whipping up fear and hatred of gay people, in preaching the “loving submission” of women to their husbands and in resurrecting the era of back-alley abortions? What kind of morality accepts and excuses casting all immigrants under sinister, police-state suspicion, and equates dissent and critical thinking with “treason?” What kind of morality puts over 2 million people in jail, the majority of whom are Black, Latino and other people of color? This is a fascist morality, one based on a fundamentalist and extremely vicious version of Christianity. In the face of a rapidly changing world, this Christian Fascism offers people order, certainty and vengeance…

And no, we cannot either hope this will go away or seek “common ground” with this poison—we must “stage an intervention” with these people and directly take on this hurtful and lunatic mindset they have gotten caught up in and are trying to force on all of society. And if we do sharply take on this madness, we can “peel off” some of these people from the Bush bunch. Many of them have sons and daughters killing and dying in Iraq; many of them are victims of the “lean and mean” capitalism represented by Bush (and Kerry for that matter); many, especially women, are still trapped in social relations that scar their spirit and their lives; and whatever solace they find in this Christian fascism cannot ultimately transcend all that. This program of Bush’s is not ending—he is immediately going to try to escalate the war in Iraq in a terribly bloody way, and plan for further aggression. He is going to try to pass a heavier version of the Patriot Act. He is going to further cut the programs people desperately depend on and drive them to the “charity” of the churches.

We cannot afford to either ignore, run away from, or to lose hope in the face of this ignorant fanaticism and the hurtling momentum behind it. We can and must remember the lessons of 911—when Bush started out with the vast majority of the country united around his “War on Terror”, and when people were able to reverse that polarization by exposing the true nature of it and mounting forceful resistance in the streets. Yes, there is no denying, that Bush has just won the last round—and that this will have devastating consequences. But it is an even greater truth that the basis exists to puncture this atmosphere and actually reverse this dynamic and get a different dynamic going—resistance based on the real interests of the people, resistance based on aiming not just to dissent from or oppose this agenda, but to actually STOP IT.

And yes, we do need morality—but a different morality. Our morality cannot be a rationale for oppression and plunder, but must be an ethic based on the understanding that the lives of people born around the world are no less precious than our own. On the belief that the needs and interests of people should determine the economic and political order, not be subjugated to a drive for ever greater concentrations of wealth and power. On our refusal to stuff women and gays back into the brutal box of traditional biblical notions. On our profound rejection of racism and all its “modern, enlightened” coded language and policies. On a powerful vision of human potential and the idea that all people should be brought into thinking critically and scientifically and enabled to take part in determining the goals and policies of our societies on an ever-deepening and expanding basis. On our resistance to inhumanity and our willingness to put it all on the line to stop it. This morality reflects the interests of 90% of the people—not only around the world but yes, here in the U.S.—and is something that a movement of resistance should hammer out together and propagate…

And as for the elections? Okay, we took a hit, a bad hit. But it ain’t time to leave the country or to put your head down and figure out how to live under fascism. For the past few years the people in this country have been taking our place as a part of a global humanity, filling the streets and letting the world know about the opposition to the whole Bush agenda of war,
repression and enforced ignorance right here in its homeland. It was only two months ago that half a million converged to protest the Republican National Convention. That half a million folks—and the millions more who put their hopes in Kerry only to find them crushed yet again—have to act and act NOW.

Right now Bush & Co. are getting ready to carry out a horrific massacre in Falluja. They are preparing a disgusting coronation of their blood-soaked arrogant champion. They are moving quickly to bring down the hammer and beyond that to set the terms for the next generation. Is the Bush crew gonna face resistance to this? Will people all over the world see Americans marching in the streets, refusing to be bottled up—or will they be left with an image of a sheep-like populace rolling over for Bush, reinforcing the image of America as a monolith evil? Will people walk the streets of America, not even daring to think about the future and fearing for the present, or will they take heart when they see windows full of “NO” posters, whole towns declaring themselves “fascist-free zones”, and a rebirth of the traditions of the Sanctuary movement of the 1980’s and the Underground Railroad of slavery times? Will we have each other’s backs—the librarians, the professors, the artists, the everyday folks who dare to step out and say NO? Will we discuss and debate even as—and as part of—solidifying our own unity, while we boldly step to and try to win over people still under the sway of the Bushian mentality of fear and ignorance?…

Hey everybody, we need to talk with each other. We need to work together. We need to struggle for our lives and for the future of this planet. Get with us. Check out the revolution. Resist.

A Letter

By Ronald Del Raine

From the Anderson Valley Advertiser, 11/04

Dear Mr. Severn,

Gloom and doom. The mood pervades even my concrete cage here in the bowels of the Gulag. Yes, even some convicts can understand the calamity of four more years of Bush. What will two or three more Scalia and Thomas types mean for the prisoners? In a Texas case, when they handcuffed an inmate, knocked his teeth loose, etc. while beating him on the way to the “hole,” it means they can’t file any litigation contesting such treatment. In an eight to one decision concerting the use of tattoos (an A.B. tattoo) in imposing the death penalty the good Thomas cast the lone dissenting vote. But the condition of the incarcerated is only one area of concern, we’ll still be fed, even if it means more beans and rice.

Some of the “free” world folks may not have it as good as we do if they are brain-bleached into fighting with the never ending latest colonialist expedition and then have some of their bodily appendages blown off. Could it be that as fast as they kill terrs, they thereby create more of them?

Shall we consider the poor duped taxpayers who have already contributed 200 billion for the Iraq war while the CEO’s salaries are about 1,000 times that of the worker?

Exit polls indicated that “moral values” played a significant role in the electorate’s decisions. Strange! The 50,000 to 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians seems not to have affected their morals.

Therefore Bushites, you shall get what you voted for. However, sad to relate, what you voted for will also happen to the rest of us!

Excerpts from “Bush win sets stage for wide fightback”

From the Nov. 11, 2004, issue of Workers World newspaper - http://www.workers.org

The electoral victory of George W. Bush… must serve as a wake-up call for the working class, the oppressed and all progressive and revolutionary forces to mobilize for struggle in the days ahead.

Tens of thousands of activists mobilized to defeat Bush at the polls, not because they were necessarily enamored of Sen. John Kerry, but because they wanted to put a stop to the Bush reaction. In the end their efforts were insufficient to overcome the vast campaign of reactionary politics and ideology promoted, not just by the Bush campaign, but by the capitalist media for months on end.

The media aided the Bush campaign in its effort to mobilize the fundamentalist right by dwelling on the opposition to same-sex marriage, and by giving equal time to so-called "right to life" advocates. Bush was thus greatly assisted in his effort to confuse and divide sections of the masses by anti-gay, anti-woman agitation. The networks and the print media conveniently legitimized and sanitized this as a debate over "social issues," instead of calling it the bigotry and sexism that it really is.

The vote showed the power of a highly funded, reactionary incumbent administration to organize armies of electioneers, and to dredge up and set in motion all the backward forces in society to turn out on election day. There was a record turnout of voters in this election… and they were turned out not only by the Kerry forces but also by the Bush machine.

Kerry himself did little to inspire the masses. He offered them little or next to nothing. His great electoral strength, as all the polls affirm, was the fear and hatred of Bush… His two concrete strong points were a woman's right to choose and the permission to bring in cheap prescription drugs from Canada. All the rest of his program was vague…

[H]e tried to outdo Bush on the phony "war against terrorism." By dwelling upon it excessively, instead of exposing it as a pretext for aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, he helped Bush. By vowing to "win the war in Iraq" and to "stay the course" after he said it was the wrong war, Kerry not only confused the masses and demoralized the anti-war forces but he also reinforced the militarist mood promoted by and exploited by Bush.

Bush won the election by triumphing in areas in the South where racism, political reaction and the legacy of slavery are strongest and the unions and the working class are weakest and most poorly
represented. He won the states in the Southwest and Great Plains area dominated by mine owners, millionaire land owners, agribusiness, cattle barons and oil magnates. But in the large and middle-sized cities, in urban areas where tens of millions of workers and the oppressed people are concentrated--in the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast--Bush's reactionary agenda was rejected across the board, mostly by significant margins…

It is said that Bush now has a "mandate." But it is clear from this election that he has no mandate whatsoever from the workers, from the unions, from Black people--who voted against him 9 or 10 to 1, depending on which polls one uses. He has no mandate from Latinos, who voted against him by 60 percent. In fact, he has no mandate from 54 million people, plus the millions of immigrant workers who cannot even vote at all…

The forces that resisted Bush electorally have their greatest strength among the workers, and particularly among the organized workers in the urban centers… The Bush victory is nothing like the Reagan victory of 1980. At that time, Reagan won the industrial states away from the Democrats and took the working class all the way to the right…

Bush was unable to turn the workers around in this election, even though some sections may have fallen prey to his "social issues" here and there. This election has something in common with the Nixon victory in 1968 in that, after he won, Nixon had to continue the Vietnam War. Declaring he was going to bring "peace with honor," he proceeded to bomb the cities of North Vietnam. What followed was a firestorm of anti-war struggle which eventually led to the end of the draft and the so-called "Vietnamization" of the war, a prelude to U.S. withdrawal.

Bush has won his election but he is now embarking on a bloody course to subdue the resistance in Iraq. But unlike during the Nixon era--when the labor movement and the working class was removed from the anti-war struggle and largely apathetic--Bush is moving toward an escalation at a time when wages are declining, jobs are being lost, budgets and social services are being cut in the states because federal tax cuts to the rich have left no money for any form of assistance, and the workers are showing a renewed anti-war sentiment.

In truth, Kerry would have had to confront the same crisis in Iraq and enforce the same economic hardships on the workers that Bush will try to do. It is capitalist imperialism and the big corporations running it that determine the course in war and peace, that impose exploitation and plunder. Now that the elections are past, it is high time to pay attention to moving forward by mobilization and struggle. It is time to expand the conception of the Million Worker March, of workers marching and speaking in their own name, as the MWM did so gloriously even before the election.

This is the way to steal back Bush's political victory from him and his reactionary administration. They have won the election, but they are far from winning the struggles that are sure to follow.

Colonial politics… Made by the U.S.A.

By former political prisoner of war Luis Rosa Perez

“The electoral process is always a process of collaboration. The elections constitute par excellence the means for the political domination of Puerto Rico by the imperialist yanqui. By accepting the concurrence of the electoral process, Puerto Ricans accept the domination of the United States over their nation.” These words from the Secretary General of the Puerto Rican Socialist League, Juan Antonio Corretjer, can best describe the state of violence, deception, confusion and cynicism in the oldest colony (U.S.) in the world, Puerto Rico.

On November 2, 2004, an estimated 2 million voters took to the urns to decide who will administer the colony of Puerto Rico on behest of the government of the United States. The Caribbean Spanish-speaking nation of Puerto Rico, one of the longest-held colonies (U.S.) in the world, had been introduced to the “made in the USA” electoral system since the 1940s. Before then, Puerto Ricans were subjected to U.S. military or civilian appointed governorships. Since the 1940s until the present, islanders have been allowed to elect their governor, representative or resident commissioner to the U.S. Congress (without a vote), legislatures and senate, as well as municipal offices throughout the island.

But, electoral politic in the colony has never been without controversy and scandal and the 2004 election, perhaps one of the dirtiest campaigns in the 60 year history, has left the nation of Puerto Rico in a volatile, cynical and uncertain state. Who is the elected governor, is the question asked, weeks after the conclusion of the elections. All polls leading to the elections predicted Pedro Rosselló González (governor 1992-2000) of the New Progressive Party (PNP) would defeat Anibal Acevedo Vilá of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD). Despite the fact that 38 colleagues and cabinet appointees of Rosselló’s past regimes have been prosecuted and convicted of corruption, the polls suggested that the most important issues to the voting populace were economic development and not corruption. The third party in the running, Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and its candidate Ruben Berrios Martinez, would score their usual three to five percent. By days end, the predictions seemed prophetic: Announcing victories in 52 of the 78 municipalities (mayoral seats) and majority control of the Senate, the PNP began to celebrate and prepared to proclaim the capture of the “big” prize, the governor’s seat. As fate would have it, the unexpected happened. The PIP failed to obtain the needed three percent of the total vote to save their electoral franchise, having many of its constituents opt for voting for Acevedo Vilá, who subsequently won with a margin of 4000 votes (less than the required 0.5 percent needed to ward off a recount).

The island nation of 3.4 million inhabitants found itself in the midst of uncertainty, chaos and legal tug-of-war. At one month since the closing of the last ballot box, Puerto Rico remains without an elected governor. With a recount in process, the PNP maneuvered the elections into the federal courts. A delay in the vote count created a volatile and cynical atmosphere, whipping supporters into a frenzy. Reminiscent of the presidential race decided in Florida with the annulment of Al Gore votes, henchmen of the PNP requested of their friend and fellow party member, federal district Judge Daniel Dominguez to help cast aside some 60,000 ballots they (PNP) claimed were incorrectly filled out in favor of Acevedo Vilá.

A decision to nullify the votes would automatically give the PNP candidate, Rosselló González, the governorship. The PPD responded. Claiming the federal court had no jurisdiction in the affairs of the state and the electoral process, the PPD and followers proceeded to present the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico their argument for the adjudication of the votes in question.

Pedro Rosselló González

The Supreme Court ruled that the ballots are legal and ordered the recount to resume. Furious at the lack of respect for the federal/imperial court, Judge Dominguez threatened with contempt and reprimanded the Supreme Court judges, ordering the court to step down and relinquish all jurisdiction to the federal courts. Overstepping the U.S., as well as Puerto Rican constitutions where the Supreme Court of the state can only be overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Dominguez ruled that the ballots in question be isolated and not counted.

Throughout the whole process the PIP sided with the PNP in arguing that the ballots in question, those with the three markings (X’s), one under the party insignia and the other two for candidates for governor and resident commissioner were invalid. When called before the federal judge, the PIP’s elections commissioner refused participation in the hearing, stating he and his party did not recognize the jurisdiction of the colonial court in Puerto Rico. Responding to the arrogance and interventionist posture of Judge Dominguez and demanding their votes be counted, some 25,000 protestors rallied in front of the Federal Building on November 29th and called for an end of the federal court in the island. The rally dubbed, “The March for Dignity,” was organized by PPD members and associates and supported by scores of “independentistas” who had borrowed their vote to Acevedo Vilá.

While many Puerto Ricans fester with the daily developments of the recount, others have already begun the process of analysis. The island’s colonial reality has been stripped of its clothing. The nature of the colonial beast exposed with the arrogant and abusive intervention of the federal courts.

1899 cartoon. Uncle Sam balances his new possessions, which are depicted as savage children. The figures are identified as Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Philippines, and "Ladrones" (the Mariana Islands)

The lack of a process of self-criticism of the PIP in particular and the independence movement in general and their failure to adopt a clear strategy of recognizing the enemy and not playing on its court and with its rules, proved fatal. That sector of the movement, including many recognized leaders, who openly called on “independentistas” to lend their vote to Anibal, opting for the lesser of two evils to justify the unholy alliance with a colonial party to defeat another colonial party, failed to stand for the very principles they aspire or should aspire to, that “the independence of the nation is not negotiable.”

Once again the prophetic words of Juan Antonio Corretjer, that “colonial elections only serve to sustain and strengthen colonialism,” is united with yet another phrase from another historical leader, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, “The defeat of one Puerto Rican
over another Puerto Rican is the
destruction of the nation.”

Black History

Painting of Bob Marley by Sundiata Acoli

Thoughts on Dr. M.L. King Jr., Self-Awareness, and What Needs to Be Done

By New York 3 political prisoner Herman Bell

In examining the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (referred hereafter as Martin or Dr. King) some would say in their assessment that he walked on water and parted the seas. Without question Dr. King was a good man. Even people not of his race give him high praise. Some people think of him as they would a prophet. Many people have had their say about Dr. King. Now and again I have found cause to defend his name against what I felt were misinformed remarks on his “non-violence” stand. As I reflect on Dr. King’s legacy, and on what he meant to so many people, I am reminded that in our praise of someone we can unintentionally overstate and thereby rob the person of his dignity. I bear that in mind as I write this. In this piece I wish to discuss Dr. King’s leadership, the question “Who am I?” (as posed by Black people to themselves during and before the 50s and 60s) that the movement to which he belonged attempted to answer, and conclude with a few remarks on “What needs to be done now.”

The word leader denotes a person who has commanding authority or influence and as a public speaker, few speakers of his century could rival the eloquence of Dr. King. His oratory anointed him with the moral authority and influence that he wielded. But his most enduring qualities were that he never betrayed his people, he never wavered in his convictions, and in his fight for social justice he unveiled a compelling stoutheartedness. His intelligence, poise and quiet dignity were emblematic of his standing on national and global stage, which inspired trust and confidence in his leadership. He and Malcolm X, above all others of their time, personified the spark of black manhood that had been bludgeoned and terrorized into a glimmer through centuries of unremitting suppression and brutality that now stood primed to reignite. They spoke plain truth to power and the gravity with which they spoke served notice to Uncle Sam that he could no longer ignore the legitimate claims of u.s. black citizens.

Given the proceeding centuries of unparalleled European rapaciousness and brutality, during which time afrikans were abducted and brought to the New World as european slaves. This diabolical scheme triumphed in its “creation” of a new people: the Negro, and as a principle beneficiary scheme America has refused to take responsibility for her misdeeds. After slavery these spawns of despicable greed and unjust use of other persons for one’s own profit or advantage found themselves devoid of self-identity, stumbling about in the cities and countryside of America in the manner of incomplete human experiment that wandered out of a madman’s laboratory, untutored, unprepared, and barely able to fend for themselves in a hostile world. Their progeny were Dr. King’s charges in the 50s and 60s.

Since their enslavement, and in every generation thereafter, scores of heroic blackmen and women have borne untold hardships and sacrifices to advance the black freedom struggle. Despite his disadvantages the Negro did the best he could with what he had. He worked when he could, lived frugally, and otherwise endured. He bought land in some places and was forced off that land in others, especially when he grew prosperous. Klan terror and general white mob violence circumscribed his life to a considerable extent. The bonds of slavery are not easily struck. Though abolition cast aside the physical chains of slavery, these mental chains remain long after, especially since the proprietor of American slaves sought to own not only the slave’s labor and body but his mind and soul as well.

Despite Negro disadvantages and unpreparedness, their moxie, innate intelligence and natural ability set them on a path that sharply veered from the one laid out by their white overlords. That demanded suffrage, an end to discrimination in public places, and the Constitution of the land enforced. Rights that are morally and legally theirs. Dr. King came to national prominence by articulating these concerns to the nation. He stated that Negroes work, pay taxes, obey the law, serve in the military, and raise families no different from any other american. Yet they are treated different, and their rights are neither respected nor protected by lawful authority. In his book Crisis in Black and White (1964), Charles E. Silberman observed that “…mass movements (or at any rate, mass movements among disadvantaged people) are built not on skill in selling ‘apples and peaches and potatoes’ to a passive, inert audience, but on the ability to articulate a people’s real, if unconscious grievances, and to propose a course of action that conquers their apathy and converts them from an inert mass to an active movement.” Martin’s oratory and endearing qualities empowered him to move the masses, and because of this history will look kindly upon his name.

In responding to the question: “Who am I?” as posed by Black people to themselves during the 50s, 60s, and even during earlier times, a brief look at chattel slavery, the years subsequent to emancipation and reconstruction, as well as at more contemporary times can be helpful. Chained neck and hand to the floor, stacked sardine-like in the holds of slave ships bound for the new world, Afrikans knew who they were. Knowledge of their history, customs, and traditions were indelibly imprinted on their souls. However once in the new world this knowledge soon faded from the collective memory of succeeding generations. Under the old form of slavery no effort was made to strip a slave of his humanity; the slave was regarded as an unfortunate victim of circumstances. Under modern slavery a u.s. slave owner regarded his slaves as chattel to be bought and sold no different from the way he bought and sold his hogs, chickens and cattle. His concept of ownership entailed owning the slave’s mind, his soul, as well as his body and labor, forever. And forever is for always.

The modern slave system created a new people. It created a relatively passive inert mass. This in no way is meant to trivialize or to dismiss the significance of u.s. slave rebellions, runaways, or the “bad slave” that massa had to contend with. The Afrikan stood bowed before strangers whose power and authority over him was absolute; they were the givers and withholders of all things pertaining to him. He knew nothing of life beyond the plantation and he was kept illiterate.

Emancipation and Reconstruction found him in no better shape because white authority continued to control his life. He wandered through his days as though in a dream state. Time moved on but race relations remained the same. Yet despite this stubborn apartheid-like entrenchment the Negro world changed. Negro literacy increased; they fought in a world war overseas (WWI) and expected better treatment upon homecoming and discovering that nothing had changed were bitterly disappointed. Newspapers reported almost daily stories of a Negro soldier’s lynching by a white mob while still in uniform. Time marched inexorably onward as white mob violence and lynching of negro citizens reached new heights. Nevertheless, the world was changing. A rising tide of global social consciousness swept away the old paradigm of submission, subordination, and white supremacy. People of color were demanding their rights, which included self-determination and national independence from colonial domination.

An irresistible restlessness engendered by events taking shape beyond u.s. borders encouraged u.s. Negroes to focus a more critical eye on their own circumstances. The passive inert black mass stirred restlessly and began to see itself through the lens of this new social consciousness.

The quest for black self-identity and self-determination in the u.s. is a long, arduous, heart-wrenching saga; it has encountered a wide range of conflicting influences along the way, and they continue to harry blacks today. The white controlled media has never extended a hand of friendship to blacks. The menial roles reserved for blacks in the film industry did nothing for black self-esteem. One film, Birth of a Nation, caused race riots and black lynchings practically wherever it was shown. Books, magazines, and newspapers reinforced racial stereotypes and negative images of blacks. Post Reconstruction blacks were thought of as incapable of making decisions for themselves and had to be looked after by others. Sociologists call this fixed state of mind “paternalism,” which denotes: “A system under which an authority undertakes to supply needs or regulate conduct of those under its control in matters affecting them as individuals as well as their relations to authority and to each other.” A system, as one can well imagine, that authorizes whites to be in exclusive control and authority over black people.

Emasculation of black males, through the use of threats, intimidation, mob law, brute force and terror were crucial to the maintenance of this brutal system. It cast a spell of invisibility over blacks in american society and when noticed they were commented on as being healthy, happy, and in continual need of a guiding influence. How, one might ask, did blacks (or at least some blacks) cast off their blinders and climb out of this dead state of enforced ignorance and repressed self-awareness to one demanding their Constitutional rights? A number of factors contribute to this dynamic: grinding poverty and deplorable living conditions; blacks who could escaped the southern racial caste system by migrating to the north; three hundred thousand blacks served in WWI and they held expectations that social conditions would change upon their return. A confluence of inspiration flowed into mainstream black life shaping its social identity and self-awareness.

Inspiration came from leading black journals of opinion in america such as: The New Age, Crisis Magazine (1910), The Negro World, Opportunity (1911), Amsterdam News (1909). From black organizations: NAACP (1910), which was created to prevent racially motivated violence and job discrimination, to promote equality in the legal system. It had over 400 branches by 1921. The Urban League (1911) was founded to help newcomers adjust to urban life, to improve industrial conditions of Negroes in NY. It worked to end discrimination in labor unions, federal programs, and armed forces. UNIA (1914) organized to promote destruction of colonialism and the political unification of Afrikan people everywhere. It had profound political and cultural influence on the black diaspora and in Afrika. It wrote the “Declaration of the Right of the Negro People of the World.” From educated blacks: Ida B. Wells (1826-1931), teacher, journalist, staunch anti-lynching campaigner. From leaders of black self-help organizations: Martin Delaney, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, MLK and the like all contributed to fashioning a new awareness of black rights and self-identity, awareness of new possibilities and of the old dangers that accompanied them. Desiring a better life for themselves and a brighter future for their children, blacks challenged Jim Crow laws in u.s. southern states and bravely confronted the paternalistic social parameters that impeded improvement in their quality of life. Once out the black genie was not to be put back in the bottle of stifled growth, intimidation, and total dependency. Hence the “sit-ins,” “Freedom Rides,” “marches,” “boycotts,” and urban rebellions of the 50s and 60s; and the outgrowth of the black consciousness movement in the 60s and 70s, whose theme was “Black is Beautiful.”

What Needs to Be Done Now?

Some post-Civil War leaders believed the american dream would eventually include black americans, less optimistic blacks did not, especially the poor. They felt that america was too racist and bigoted to do right by blacks.

Although significant social and economic changes have occurred in america since blacks were freed from slavery, blacks are still treated as second class citizens today. And while it is thought that Abe Lincoln is owed a certain amount of gratitude from blacks for their emancipation, the record suggests that his emancipation degree was motivated more by a perceived opening to weaken the confederacy by depriving it of its labor force than by his disdain of slavery. In fact, the British command inspired a similar ploy during the american revolution aimed at depriving the Rebel army’s southern colonies of its labor force. It offered freedom to all slaves that crossed to British lines in support of the Crown’s war effort. As might be expected many slaves crossed over while others declined and allied with the Rebels as fighters and supporters with hope that at the war’s end they would be freed and that slavery would be abolished. We know that the american revolution did not end slavery, and that the British did not honor its word to the slaves that crossed to its lines.

Considering all the above throughout the intervening centuries, that the burning desire of afrikan-americans to gain their independence and total freedom to choose their own destiny remains unachieved today is remarkable. While some people would argue that blacks enjoy unprecedented political and economic freedom today more than ever before, a cogent response to that argument would suggest that much of this vaunted political and economic freedom is an illusion. American political power is vested in either the democratic or republican party and blacks typically vote the democratic party, which has come to accept the black vote as its due and it gives nothing back in return. Blacks feel that they would fare no better with the republicans. So why switch horses in the middle of the stream after all this time? Meanwhile, as blacks wade through this morass in search of solid ground, real political power continues to elude them.

Their economic front is in no better shape. Since the 60s, the size of the black middle class has grown and the number of wealthy blacks has modestly increased, but the overall economic standing of most black americans remains significantly unchanged. Therefore, can a majority of black americans say “they are better off today than they were thirty or forty years ago?” Back then, at least, they knew where they stood, and what they were up against, and the direction in which they were going. Not so today. The murky waters of integration and equal opportunity continually rake them across the treacherous shoals of unfulfilled promises and dreams deferred. In pointing to “what needs to be done now,” it is true that blacks enjoy more political and economic freedom today (as illusory as they might be), yet to the extent possible can they rightly claim to have organized political power for themselves on the local or state level on their own initiative? The answer is a resounding no—not to the degree they should have! In no way is this to suggest that the prevailing electoral process can or will resolve the complexities of the black historical past; only blacks can find resolution and closure in that regard.

The economic front deserves no less scrutiny. Some economists say blacks spend more than five hundred billion dollars in the u.s. economy annually. One could rightfully argue that blacks control little to none of the wealth they produce because, among other reasons, the black “skill base” is woefully inadequate. People with skills attract wealth, equity, and general prosperity to a people and their communities. Academic and vocational education, saving and investing wisely are a prerequisite to this paradigm and it starts with responsible parenting and a proper upbringing that imbues young minds with an abiding respect for knowledge, social responsibility, education, and independent thought. The rest will take care of itself.

Manage your finances with good judgment. Avoid businesses that disrespect workers and their rights, that engage in racial discrimination and unfair hiring practices,that operate counter to your political and economic interests.

The need for building community survival programs can never be overemphasized, nor can self-help community gardens in abandoned spaces. Grow potatoes as veggies in stacked rubber tires, in pots, sawed-off 50-gallon drums on rooftops and elsewhere. Organize community food co-ops to collectively buy wholesale and divvy it up among the participants. Projects like these bring people together. They get to know one another; they get to talk and plan and network with other community groups and organizations. Networking is essential because much can get done, be learned and shared working with others. But the will has to be there to fuel this collective energy.

Organize community centers which can be an excellent resource base that facilitates organizing the social, political, and economic life of the community. They can serve as a nexus of the community from which all manner of community service programs can grow – vocational, cultural, economic and the like. And when these dire survival programs are non-existent, organize them yourself, what are you waiting for?

Get involved; seek volunteers; network with people who have knowledge and experience in this regard; take up the challenge, make mistakes, fall on your face, get up and start again until you get it right. This is a successful recipe for organizing and working with people. Take small first steps and big ones later. Get your legs and wind under control before you endeavor to run. Identify the practical, the “do-able” and make it happen. Over time the returns will far outweigh the investment. Exercise patience because projects like these generally take root. When they bear fruit nothing could be more satisfying to the human spirit. Leadership is about helping people to help themselves. Without the leadership and examples shown by those who came before us, where would we get our inspiration? More important what will be what will those who come after us? They will know whether we acquitted ourselves well or not.

Herman Bell (79C0262)
Eastern Correctional Facility Box 338
Napanoch, NY 12120 USA

Reparations: An Alternative Legal Preview to the Charge of Genocide

Submitted by Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Michael Covington, Ali Gibran, on behalf of the Georgia State Black Studies Department (Dr. Akinyele 0. Umoja)

As a result of America's crime[s] against humanity, regardless of the direct or indirect victimization, we as a people suffer and will continue to do so until there is psychological, economical, educational, and monetary atonement. It is imperative that as a nation we reap the benefits of the blood, sweat, and tears that our ancestors poured into this land. The perpetrators of these crimes have yet to embrace our claim for reparations or even acknowledge it as a crime in and of itself. Therefore, if we are to be students of history (which we are), it will take a strategic conspiracy, secretly and overtly, to apply espionage and sacrifice in bringing the defendants of these crimes into negotiation.

We are conscious that legal, political, and moral persuasion, collectively, represents the utopia of opportunities to rectify these crime[s]. However, within our strategic approach towards reparations, we must filter out the opportunist, neo-colonist, apologist, and the immediate gratification seeker. The appropriation of reparations must have a long term objective and not be viewed as a quick payday, only to have the long sought after compensation returned to the hands of the perpetrators, leaving our people worse off than before and without merit for future claims.

The inclusion of the multitude of talent, intellectually, diplomatically, economically, of the African Diaspora, on a national and international theater, is essential to the comprehensive context of our victory.

Most importantly, the only true super power, which is the mass of a people on one accord, must be firmly entrenched in the justness for reparations, the benefits of reparations, the hope for reparations, and the ultimate demand for reparations. Then and only then will these crime[s] against humanity be rectified.

Introduction

It is important that the reparation formation have full understanding of the significance of the three Seminole Wars. These wars are hidden in the history of the African’s struggle for freedom in North America. In this context, the Anti Slavery Struggle.

The conflict/war between the American Government and the Seminole Nation set the stage for the first International Treaty between the U.S. and a foreign nation. A true legal and political study of these wars would reveal this government’s historical role in the violation of international law from its inception. Even more so, its use of international law to force other nation[s] to diminish our standard as human beings to property is in legal standing. The predicate acts of a conspiracy that makes the government clearly a defendant in any pursuit of judicial remedy for compensation for our suffering.

The United States Government must become a defendant because of the courageous struggle of our ancestors, who fought waves of wars against this conspiracy that we now recognize. The forty five years of those sacrifices are viewed not as rebellion and revolt, but wars of the classical character of wars of the 19th century. The Seminole Wars were fought and initiated by this government on behalf of slave holders and businessmen of the south for the economic commerce to enhance the wealth of this government. So it logically follows why our struggle for reparations on a legal front demands inclusion of the United States Government as a defendant.

The Gabriel Prosser Revolt, the Nat Turner Revolt, the John Brown Revolt are distinguished from the three Seminole Wars, though, they parallel the same time line. However, these revolts are deemed internal conflicts subject to domestic law and remedies and the Seminole Wars are considered by their nature international conflicts, requiring the application of international law to its resolution. This also factors in a basis to hold this government as a conspirator which amassed economic superiority over the world at the cost of our suffering, which was a grave violation of human rights history.

Because the issues surrounding reparations affects the entire New African nation, including prisoners, we at U.S. Penitentiary Atlanta offer the following:

(1)

The push for reparation must be a deliberate action in which all the various experiences of N’COBRA, the Minister Louis Farrakhan, Conrad Worrell, et. al., must be structured so that the whole represents a holistic view. In particular, we must focus on all viable regional strategies. Also, it is equally important that we stress active engagement through top-down organizational schemes where power is centralized. Such an approach would allow us to make better use of our extended networks, ultimately granting us the capacity to fight on different fronts simultaneously. We must adopt a strategy where operation is on a level where we can compete for our rights in court, while influencing Congress from a philosophical standpoint of slavery being a crime against humanity that bears their remedial consideration. Additionally, centralized power could better assist in the organizing of ideas needed to educate the masses because it is vital that there be only one ideology. Due to the many dimensions and identities of various groups vying for reparations, the masses have been subjected to discordant viewpoints, further enhancing the divide and conquer potential of a disorderly house where the masses rank and choose, which in turn, destroys the natural and normal channels of cooperative unity.

(2)

The crime[s] against humanity that resulted in the capture, enslavement and brutality of the African people has no other parallel. Our struggle is global. These crimes have shaped the worldview of modern civilization and even governs the experiences and expectations of all citizens worldwide today. Unaware of this historical reality, African people have been unable to recognize the unique character of their contributions (albeit forced) to the global economy. As long as we are ignorant of the central role our enslavement has played in the awesome wizardry of present day technology, we will continue to be easily manipulated. We have been systematically “Bamboozled” so that we cannot accept our self-alienation from the rest of the human family as the rule of law. Another significant cost of our social and political debilitation is that we, as a people, have yet to realize the prohibited price tag of thinking logically. Slavery, with its related violence and brutality, is a crime against humanity whose very nature insists that the matter be decided in international court (i.e. the World Court). If, as a matter of principle, the United States Congress, the court system, or corporate america, either individually or collectively, address and remedy our injustices, then this would be accepted as a first step towards adjusting their national debt to us. If not, we should demand redress in the global and international arena.

Slavery Series #1, by Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy

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The crimes against humanity inflicted upon African people changed the course of human existence. Therefore, the resolution of this crime will have global implications. It has always been fashionable for the government to delude us with the belief that slavery ended in 1865. In contrast, we deny this institutionalized fallacy. In this country, slavery is virtually synonymous with inner city living. The same symptoms that made plantation life such a horror are still intact in the urban environment; therefore, slavery continues today. And it will continue to enjoy a perpetual shelf life as long as oppression and inequality are the ingrained expression of this country’s natural character. As long as nothing is done to reverse the misery and suffering of people of color, or to correct the vision of the greedy, shortsighted leaders who initiate the politics that circumvent our economical, educational, political, social, and human rights, then slavery will continue as an elaborate system to break the universal spirit of people of color. In brief, how can slavery have received a proper burial when the people supposedly emancipated by its death still have every facet of their existence dominated and controlled by an ideological, spiritual, and educational body that demeans them? How can any people not be deemed slaves when they have been taught to offer unquestioning obedience and subservience to a government that has emotionally crippled them? Historically, any people who have been trained to be dependent are slaves. In this country, urban slavery is the organized racketeering of the state.

(4)

Where there exists any crime, especially a crime against humanity, in a period where no domestic law existed, to remedy such crime, international law must be used. We contend that the formalized internment of the Japanese during World War II, though inhumane, does not rise to the standard of gross inhumanity inflicted upon African people during the horrific centuries of slavery. So, the formalized redress of Komosotus is not applicable. In fact, we believe that the legal objectives of the Japanese remedy would denigrate the human suffering of the African Holocaust. To focus our energy on “Komosotus-type” remedies would only divert our attention from the international aspects of our claims, thus allowing our enemies to preempt our duty to present our case before an international court. We must understand the full dimension of our claim for reparations. It will be that much easier for the U.S. Courts to label the terms and conditions of our remedy. As the injured party, African people must decide how they want their demands for reparations to be perceived instead of trying to evaluate our plight, which has no parallel, to that of another people. It is not equal terms with Komosotus that we are seeking, but superior ones. The reparations that we seek are for genocide, not internment.

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Post official slavery didn't end in 1865. In fact, the conditions of slavery and the continued acts of genocide, as interpreted and developed in international law still exist today. To be successful we must cease and desist from contentment with piece-meal solutions. We must search for absolutes. However, in order to reach this level of accomplishment, we must recognize what laws infringe upon our autonomy. If people of color are to understand the nature of their current condition in this country, then we must realize that long before we even know what was occurring, the government was initiating domestic law and policy that violated international law. This is nothing new. The practice dates back to the New York Treaty of 1785-1789, which was a law (signed by George Washington) to circumvent the international law against the transportation of slaves. By mutual agreement with Congress and the Supreme Court, this law was the legal cement that helped prevent us from gaining our autonomy and human dignity buy superceding our classification as “humans,” instead declaring that we were property. This law doomed our future well being because to one degree or another property was mere cargo which could be sold, transferred or bought at the owner’s discretion. This act was the first legal endorsement against our ethnic identity. Yet, others were to follow, most definitely the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. Sadly, people of color have made an industry of not being able to recognize the “our side” and the “enemy side” of the laws in this country, and for that reason we applaud the external authority of the Constitution and lesser laws that impose restraints upon us. In brief, we envisioned enjoying security and racial fulfillment, via the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. But rather than being ethnocentric (centered around our ethnic being) these laws were egocentric (an attempt to relieve white guilt). In any event, these amendments conjured up a picture of us that had nothing to do with our self image as newly freed men. We wanted rights. We got privileges.

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For reasons that need to be fully developed, we have discovered through a variety of studies that there is sufficient evidence to establish that slavery, via genetics, is the hereditary basis for the physical and social conditions of our people. Due to the knowledge of genetics it can no longer be held that descendants of slaves were not directly harmed by the ravages of slavery. In the same way that our collective gene pool contained a gene that made us less susceptible to malaria during slavery, our ancestors soaked up all the knowledge of how to be a slave and as a conditioning mechanism to ensure our survival, the information was encoded in the structure of our ancestors DNA, performing its function of fitting us for survival in an environment where it would have been impossible to exist without the proper coping devices. So the death of our ancestors does not vindicate the slave masters because the gene of slavery still exists within us and our thoughts, ideas and attitudes clearly demonstrate this. Because our desires and fears are so closely related to the mindset of our ancestors, we still promote an image that is not compatible with our pre-slavery heritage. Having learned how to internalize slavery has only tended to make us more adept at playing the games of slaves and slave masters. We have become neurotic in that all our socially motivated behavior is premised upon our powerlessness. Our social and political inadequacies compel us to beg. We engage in this self-condemning behavior because our sense of purpose has been diluted by the environmental DNA we inherited from our ancestors.

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It is imperative that we take an in-depth look at the economic gap between “US” and “THEM.” In this way, we will get a grand view of the intimate relationship that weds corporate america to the big government. If we are to take responsibility for our future, we must grasp the fundamental fact that our bondage represented the ultimate quick-fix solution to this country’s laws of economics, and every time we act without reference to America’s national addiction to slave labor, we doom our own experiment with seeking justice. The government has aggressively promoted and supported corporate thievery, encouraging it by lax laws and regulations that allow big businesses to generate enormous profits at the expense of the people and the environment. So, to ignore that the government and corporate media are a team would be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. We can better prepare ourselves to confront both our traditional enemies, the government, and our non-traditional enemies, big businesses, by understanding that the long odds we face in gaining economic parity has political consequences, that the system was designed to induce our failure and hence our dependency. What we must realize is that by being unaware, we acquire boundaries which not only limit us economically, but which also circumscribe what we can become as a people. Because from the issues that we’ve faced in this country, the public institutions most willing to crush our efforts have been the government and corporate america. Why? Because time and time again, no matter how far back in the history of our affairs in this country, you will find that the devilish partnership of corporate america and the government have intentionally stifled us. When it comes to us, the very nature of their complicity forced them to unite against us.

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This commercial pact between government and big businesses can actually be traced back to the beginning of the slave trade, and it was not merely the merchants involved in the Royal Africa Company whose charter states:

We hereby for us, our heirs and successors grant unto the same Royal Africa Company of England… That it shall and may be lawful to… set to the sea such as many ships as shall be thought fitting… for the buying, selling, bartering, and exchanging of, for or with any gold, silver, negroes, slaves… witness the King at Westminster the seven and twentieth day of September 1672.

Now, what must be remembered is that many of the so mentioned heirs ended up in America. In 1651, Samuel Vassall, a major shareholder in the Guinea Company, was one of the main founders of Massachusetts. He also combined with Lord Berkeley to develop Virginia. In fact, when a group of businessmen called the Royal Adventurers were granted a license on the slave trade for a thousand years, the list of investors included four members of the Royal family, two Dukes, a Marquis, five Earls, and seven Knights. For them the traffic in blacks was a treasure hunt. Most of the persons involved in the various slave trading companies came to own land in America, thus, now having two major investments to protect, so that by the 1700s, slavery was a nationalized industry. When the treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713, it gave the British government the greatest commercial prize of all times: the contract to import slaves to the Spanish West Indies. However, the British government sold the contract to the South Sea Company. What this demonstrates is that international law has never mattered when it came to people of color. Governments bought and sold the contract to import slaves as convenience dictated, never opposed by international law. The same is true today. The government and corporate america are twin evils, albeit, the most powerful forces in our path for self-determination, and we seek new innovative strategies by which to confront them. International law, as shown by the United Nations, is impotent in the face of a super power, so how can we depend on international law when it cannot defend its own principles. We must struggle in the trenches, in the streets, and then on to the high heavens if we are to succeed, all the while remembering that we are alone.

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The Treaty of New York is thus an example of how, as Joseph Singer has argued, “[t]he history of the United States law, from the beginning of the nation to the present, is premised on the use of sovereign power to allocate property rights in ways that discriminated—and continue to discriminate—against the original inhabitants of the land.” However, this first treaty did more than impose the white settlers’ system of land ownership on the Creeks, it also imposed on the Creek settlers racial hierarchy and laws that defined people as property. The Treaty provided that the Creeks were to “deliver, as soon as practicable… all citizens of the United States, white inhabitants or negroes, who are now prisoners in any part of said nation.” The United States interpreted this to mean that the Creeks not only had to return fugitive slaves, but were supposed to capture Black Seminoles, many of whom had been free for generations, and turn them over to the United States to be enslaved. This Treaty illustrates a pattern which has continued to the present day, i.e., the use of international law by the United States to enforce its particular system of property rights, a system inextricably related to the maintenance of racial hierarchy. This symposium focuses on the intersection of critical race theory, which endeavors to analyze the influence of race and racism in the legal system, and international law. Although these bodies of law and theory are usually regarded as separate disciplines, when we look at race and racism in American law and the relationship of our government and domestic legal system to international law—how we shape and promote, as well as disregard, the global rule of law—we see that these two areas not only intersect, but have been inextricably related throughout U.S. history. The United States government was formed to protect and promote the interests of a relatively small group of people. This was accomplished in part by the creation of a system of laws particularly favorable to property interests, and by defining “property” under the law to include human beings. The emergence of “race” and racism in the United States must be understood in the context of an economic system heavily dependent on slave labor. One cannot understand the United States Constitution without knowing that it owes its existence to the elaborate protections of slavery built into it. Similarly, to understand the United States’ complex and contradictory relationship to international law, it is important to know that many of the first encounters with international law, including the first treaties, wars and violations of other nations’ sovereignty, were rooted in a determination to protect the institution of slavery and the economic interests of slaveholders.

The Seminole Nation is an Indian tribe formed after the European conquest
of American and composed of both Native Americans and African peoples. Some members of the Seminole Nation are descended from escaped African slaves who resided among several Native American groups living in what is now Florida. These Native American groups, along with the Africans living among them, became known as the Seminoles.

Pressured by powerful slaveholding interests, the United States government attempted, with considerable success, to build protections for slavery into international law. Beginning with the new nation’s first treaty, U.S. agents tried to negotiate international agreements requiring other sovereign nations—the Creeks and Seminoles, as well as Britain, Spain and later Mexico—to capture black Seminoles and turn them over to U.S. agents who would enslave or re-enslave them. In treaties with these nations, the U.S. included indemnification for lost property, and then tried to enforce a definition of “property” which included both people who had escaped from slavery, and those who, by virtue of their African heritage, were presumed under U.S. law to be slaves. Under this interpretation of the law, if another nation gave sanctuary to people fleeing slavery, it owed the United Stares money, as if its citizens had stolen horses or ships. The United States engaged in three wars against the Seminoles (1st—1818-1823; 2nd—1835-1842; 3rd—1855-1858). Each was, as commanding General Jesup said of the second Seminole War, “a negro war,” not because the Indians happened to have Black allies who fought with them, but because the U.S. government was fighting people of African descent to preserve the institution of slavery. Tens of millions of federal dollars and thousands of lives were lost trying to keep Florida from becoming a safe haven for fugitive slaves and, in the process, allowing military forces to engage in profitable ventures of slave-catching and piracy.

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The National Bar Association Magazine summarized the case:

According to the complaint [in Davis v. the United States], the plaintiffs… are Estelusti Seminoles, descendants of Black fugitives who fled plantations in the south and in the Caribbean to join secessionists from the Creek, Micco-suckee, and other Native American [nations]. Together these African American and Native American people settled in Florida in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and formed the Seminole Nation… [I]n the 1820s and 30s, after bitter warfare against the U.S. government, the Seminoles, including the Estelusti, were deprived of their lands and sent to what is now Oklahoma. In 1990, the United States government provided some $56 million in compensation for this land taking.

International law, formerly known as the Law of Nations, is a component of this nation’s domestic law, enforceable in federal courts. Independent of the Acts of Congress, Justice Marshall said, an Act of Congress ought never to be construed to violate the Law of Nations. If any other possible construction remains, international law is part of “our” law and must be ascertained and administered by the Court of Justice of the appropriate jurisdiction as often as the question of rights are relevant.


(11)

If forced to prove the survivors direct causation, we, in a scientific presentation, can show through genetic testing that lack of certain enzymes can be found in children who have abusive parents, they will have an emotional reaction, which demonstrates a lack to control anger. Clearly, there are other prevailing medical phenomena that point to hereditary traits, ills associated with emotion and physical contradictions. The search for DNA markers for disease would be realistic to prove direct causation. We should understand the potential political philosophy of DNA genetics. When pushed to prove a crime against humanity, of such proportion, we must at least review science theory on both sides, such as James Watson, Dr. Francis Wesling, Jewel Pookrum, and Naim Akbar. The Japanese American precedent for reparations, legislation in cases such as Komosotus, which has the potential of becoming standard in civil law, which is a proposition we must reject as not applicable as outlined in the Natsu Taylor Suito essay on race and property in international RICO Act (Racketeering, Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act), 18 USC 1961. Slave owners and others who profited from chattel slavery and its racist Jim Crow offspring constitute a continuing criminal enterprise. The kingpins of slavery used profits derived from their crimes against humanity to invest in “legitimate” businesses, not unlike the mafia. Acts considered racketeering under RICO are many and include kidnapping, theft and obstruction of justice. Under RICO, an economic or other identifiable goal is required. Slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, convict leasing, etc. all conceivably fall under the rubric of racketeering acts. There are many wealthy American corporations whose economic roots are embedded in the blood and suffering of slaves. There is much American wealth steeped in the ideology and practice of white supremacy. Any group of individuals associated or who acquire, conduct or participate in an enterprise, through a pattern of racketeering activity, are subject to criminal and/or civil prosecution under RICO. A finding of guilt subjects them to enormous forfeitures and civil remedies, including monetary awards of triple the amount of damages claimed. Power and wealth derived from slavery and its legacy form the basis for criminal and civil liability under RICO. It is time for the estates of the original American racketeers to be held accountable for their crimes against humanity and for their descendants to pay up.

When the United States government manipulates its laws and treaties in order to further an horrendous, illegal activity such as slavery, for the purpose of benefiting economically and financially from said illegality, they become co-conspirators.

CONCLUSION

The incidents of September 11, 2001, place international issues at our doorstep. As more African Americans, as well as, so called White America, come to acknowledge the impact of international policies on their lives, morally, as well as principally, the legal and political strategist of the reparation movement must familiarizes themselves with the past and present international norms of human rights, intellectual property rights and law to gather the historical, social and legal impact so that we may be better able to prove in the World Court that the United States government initiated conspiracies to manipulate international law from its inception. Their primary objectives to continue the dehumanization of our ancestors for the purpose of commerce and racial superiority, are a violation of past and present law.

We look forward to the struggle intensifying. We understand that we can learn a lot from the Jewish struggle for land, just as we can learn from the horrors of the genocide of the indigenous native people in America. We will continue to pursue our responsibility for healing within our own nation by self-criticism, preventing horizontal aggression, self-hate, and self-destruction. We must be able to reach a higher spiritual plane.

STIFF RESISTANCE
Atlanta, Georgia July, 2003

Dr. Mutulu Shakur (83205-012)
P.O. Box 474701
Des Moines, Iowa
USA 50947-0001

Breaking Amerikkka’s Chains

By Kamau Tebogs Zulu Damali

I have been one of Amerikkka's prisoners for over 400 years,
The blood and tears of my people are her lakes and rivers
She claims to be the apotheosis of liberation,
When, fact is, she enslaved two-thirds of the Black nation,
Plundered the Red man of his land,
And placed him on a reservation.

I can still smell the fresh blood of Afrikans and Natives,
Who died in Amerikkka's hands, from years past,
Because they wanted to be free.
And I can still hear the crescendo speeches from the brothers and sisters,
Of the 50s and 60s, who vociferated;
"I am man, I am woman"
as they marched in the streets.

Blood shot eyes from cold emotions and sleepless nights;
I can't recall the last time I cried.
I can't recall the last time I laughed.
Angry frowns on the faces of prisoners define long life struggles.
Ancient memories as a youngsta.
Warm hugs and kisses from the embrace and lips of my mother.

Screams from new born babies spell revolution
Conscious Black men, driven by hope and rage, in search of a solution,
Generations of young Black males with high esteem,
And dreams of going to Harvard or Yale,
But instead they end up in one of Amerikkka's prison cells.

Look at me, my face is the face Amerikkka doesn't want the world to see,
Listen to me, my voice is the voice Amerikkka doesn't want the world to hear.

Who Am I?
I'm that brother, that Alkebulanian man,
Whose mission is to break Amerikkka's chains.

Brother Kamau Tebogs Zulu Damali (Raynell D. Morgan) (279380)
Wisconsin Secure Program Facility
Fox Trot 408 P.O. Box 9900
Boscobel WI 53805 USA

ONAMOVE

By MOVE 9 political prisoner Janet Africa

The purpose of MOVE is to instill direction, enforce commitment and revolt against the inactivity of this system. The government, all governments that have taken the governing power inherent in all people and placed it in the hands of the exploitative few. We are deeply serious, loyal and totally committed, the vanguard of revolutionaries, sworn to right the wrongs of oppression, and fight the injustice of external government.

This system of government has twisted people’s minds, conditioned people’s thoughts and behaviour patterns through systematic training, in order to keep people enslaved to the system for exploitative purposes. External governments have been merchandising people’s power of purpose, policing the way of people’s freedom, exploiting the governing power of life ever since the exploitative embezzlement of politics was invented. The way of this system was wrong at its inception, it is wrong today and will be wrong tomorrow unless people commit their selves to make things right. We are freedom fighters, committed to fight the oppressor who is waging an all out war against any resistance by the oppressed.

This government has locked MOVE in prison for 26 years knowing we are innocent, they took our sister Merle’s life here at Cambridge Springs Prison after she had done 20 years in prison, they bombed and murdered our family and they are still trying to annihilate the MOVE organization because we will not stop fighting this system. What this system is doing to MOVE ain’t no different than what they have done to freedom fighters throughout history. This ain’t just a MOVE issue this is an issue of the oppressed against the oppressor.

Everybody in this fight, in support of this fight should learn to never let the oppressor, the enemy, convince them that resistors, freedom fighters, the oppressed are criminal and belong in prison. Whenever people fight against the oppressor, the oppressor has historically used the same tactics; beaten them into submission and if that didn’t work, exterminate those courageous enough to fight and those who escape being murdered are labelled criminal and put in jail until they are too old to fight anymore, or jailed for the rest of their lives. This is where people who don’t know any better get confused. They think the charges that are put on freedom fighters are valid and that the government is justified for locking us up but in our case, 9 MOVE members were locked up and convicted for the death of one cop who was shot by one bullet and sentenced us 30 to 100 years each, 900 years all total for a crime we didn’t’ commit. MOVE was in our basement 8/8 1978, when the cops came to our home trying to kill us, and in their frenzy, they shot and killed their own cop.

The first reports that came out was that cop Ramp was shot in the back of the head and the bullet traveled downward making it physically impossible for move to have done it because being in the basement placed MOVE literally at the cop’s feet. Despite all their lies and inconsistencies throughout our year long trial, we were sent to prison and have been here for 26 years. In 1985 when this government viciously attacked our family, set fire and dropped a bomb made out of C-4 that was given to the Phila police dept. by the feds. they murdered innocent move people, children, as they were trying to escape the burning inferno, the cops shot them back into a burning hell. 11 of our family members were murdered but not one of the officials who gave the order, not the cops that dropped the bomb, not the cops that shot our family back into the house, was held accountable for our families deaths, not one of them spend 1 day in prison for what they did.

Where is the justice, the balance in this situation? There is none, this government can rape, murder, terrorize, plunder their way around the glove, but as long as they can justify it with that fraudulent institution called legality, they get away with murder. They used that legality to put us in prison when we are innocent and used the same legality to kill our family. People got to realize and understand, just because it’s legal don’t make it right. Slavery was legal but it wasn’t right; exterminating jews in gas ovens was legal but it wasn’t right; throwing Christians to lions was legal but it wasn’t right. People will say we broke the law so we belong in jail but they can’t see that the system that made laws is wrong.

This does bring about conflict and disagreement with people, a calculated technique by the government to cause separation within the people. The South Africans didn’t listen to the oppressive government of South Africa when they labelled the freedom fighters in that country as criminals, the Black slaves in this country didn’t believe the slave master when they said Nat

Turner was criminal; Americans didn’t listen to the British government when they said the American revolutionaries were criminals for going against the King of England.

It’s no way the people should be taking the word of the oppressor over somebody who is being oppressed just like them. It’s like a Jewish person taking Hitler’s word over another Jewish person during the holocaust. Like a Christian trusting the Romans over another Christian while being thrown to the lions by Romans,; or like trying to convince oppressed people that Leonard Peltier belongs in prison, that he is a criminal, a murderer, when the people saying this are directly involved in stealing his whole country and slaughtered his people into virtual extinction, this very day they got his people, the Indians, the natural inhabitants of this land enslaved on reservations. The oppressor will do anything to hold on to their position of oppression.

This is why MOVE is in prison, for confronting and exposing the lies, corruption, and filth of this system, not because we are criminal or guilty.

To quote our founder, JOHN AFRICA:

“…When an innocent person is sent to prison like guilty, the principle of innocence is under attack and the innocence of all innocent is assaulted. An innocent example is a free example, those who are silent about the condition of the innocent is silent about the position of freedom. When innocence is jailed it ain’t just John Brown that is jailed, freedom is jailed because freedom does not stop with John Brown, no more than innocence stops with John Brown’s Mother…”

LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA!

Janet Hollaway Africa (006308)
451 Fullerton Avenue
Cambridge Springs, PA
16403-1238 USA

Black August

By anti-imperialist political prisoner Marilyn Buck

Would you hang on a cliff's edge
sword-sharp, slashing fingers
while jackboot screws stomp heels
on peeled-flesh bones
and laugh
"let go! die, damn you, die!”
could you hang on
20 years, 30 years?

20 years, 30 years and more
brave Black brothers buried
in US koncentration kamps
they hang on
Black light shining in torture chambers
Ruchell, Yogi, Sundiata, Sekou,
Warren, Chip, Seth, Herman, Jalil,
and more and more
they resist: Black August

Nat Turner insurrection chief executed: Black August
Jonathan, George dead in battle's light: Black August
Fred Hampton, Black Panthers, African Brotherhood murdered: Black August
Kuwasi Balagoon, Nuh Abdul Quyyam captured warriors dead: Black August
Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ella Baker, Ida B. Wells
Queen Mother Moore - their last breaths drawn fighting death: Black August
Black August: watchword
for Black liberation for human liberation
sword to sever the shackles

light to lead children of every nation to safety
Black August remembrance
resist the amerikkan nightmare
for life

Marilyn Buck (00482-285)
Unit B 5701
8th St. Camp Parks
Dublin, CA
94568 USA

Jericho

For Freedom

A daughter, a sister, a mother
- A grandmother

A freedom fighter in every way
-All the way

If we honor her by being like her

We will be living the life of a true Warrior for Peace

With Justice

Safiya Asya Bukhari Alston
(Bernice Jones) April 2, 1950- August 24, 2003

Painting of Safiya Bukhari and poem by Tom Manning

1998 was a banner year for organizing around political prisoners and prisoners of war (PP/POWs). When a call went out from Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, a New York 3 political prisoner and former Black Panther, ex-PP/POWs Safiya Bukhari and Herman Ferguson answered. Thousands of people attended the ensuing Jericho ’98 march on Washington on March 27, 1998 to demand amnesty for political prisoners. Simultaneous rallies in Oakland and Los Angeles, California also drew hundreds of supporters. They connected the situation of political prisoners to the growth of the prison-industrial complex and the incarceration of increasing numbers of people of color and the poor.

The following articles highlight some of the important work that Jericho has done and continues to do.

The History of The Jericho Amnesty Movement’s Struggle for the Recognition & Release of ALL Freedom Fighters

By Hira Al-Amin

The existence of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War within the borders of the U.S. is just as real as the struggles for independence and justice that moved these individuals into action in the first place -- movements & actions to organize and educate the poor to demand decent education, housing, clothing, food, healthcare, clean water and air, basic necessities for all human beings. The U.S. has displayed its ruthless campaign to stigmatize and neutralize any form of political opposition carried out by political activists here in the U.S., just as we are observing in Iraq, for example. They have used the means of assassination, incarceration, and systematic torture within the boundaries of the U.S., just as we witness occurring on the lands of Afghanistan and Palestine today. The blatant abuse, medical neglect, human rights violations, and all out occupation of horror are justified under the banner of “We must rid the world of terror and establish democracy”. In the meantime, back in the land of "liberty" there are scores of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War, many of which have been locked down for over 30 years.

Activism, Prison and Death!

The mission of The Jericho Movement is to prove the existence of PP/ POWS within the U.S. by exposing the reality of brutal, ruthless, systematic political repression, of which they, PP/POWS are a living example. Have you ever heard of Nelson Mandela? When we hear, there are no political prisoners in this county, I say, how many time was Martin Luther King jailed? Do you think Malcolm would still be out on the street if he hadn’t been assassinated? Why do you think Jamil Al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown) has been targeted and wrongfully held in prison under trumped up charges since 1995. How could such bogus charges be used to imprison someone who is innocent? How about Hugo Pinell of the The San Quentin Six who has spent more than 40 years in prison? What about The Angola 3 who have been held in solitary confinement for almost 33 years now? One of our most outspoken heroes who is still on death row, journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, has not touched another human being in over 20 years! He had been writing about the prison guard abuse for years before all this torture at Abu Ghraib came out in public view. Does the name Charles Grainer ring a bell? Years after the scandals that broke out at the SCI- Green Prison, where Mumia is being held captive, after a score of guards were charged with racist, abusive behavior directed towards the prisoners there. We finally see in the media how these same guards, were specifically chosen because of their proven high stature of professionalism. So, they have taken their campaign of misery & hatred to Iraq for the world to help bring law & order, and establish democracy. This krimnal, racist, facist, insane, brutal system that has openly exported its mission of repression and oppression under the banner of FREEDOM-- whose freedom? The U.S. openly exports BRUTALITY and CRUELTY to the families of Iraq, and at the same time declares itself to be the establisher of “Iraqi Freedom”! Asinine!

The Jericho Movement has been of tremendous political significance in the history of the liberation struggles in the U.S. Our aim is to build a national campaign, with substantial international support, that will force the U.S. government to admit the existence of its political prisoners and prisoners of war, and to grant them amnesty because of the political nature of their cases. And, in so doing, force recognition of the legitimacy of the various national independence and other progressive movements of which they are a part of.

In a unified and coordinated strategic alliance there is enormous strength. It is for this reason The Jericho Movement has coalesced to secure the release and amnesty of ALL political prisoners and prisoners of war held by the american regime. The Jericho 1998 March which took place on Friday, March 27, 1998, was an historical and most significant event in our struggle for the release of our freedom fighters. The Jericho ’98 March was a collective work of over 50 organizations, defense committees and groups. Historical- because all nationalities and ethnic groupings came together under the leadership of the New Afrikan Liberation and the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Africa to demonstrate on behalf of our political prisoners and prisoners of war, and significant because in a resounding manner we have put on the national agenda the demand for recognition of and release of those brothers and sisters who have been captured and incarcerated in the ongoing war that united states wages against its “citizens” who hold differing, revolutionary political views, and those who have supported them. We must never forget that day. Thousands of folks from all walks of life come together under one banner, FREEDOM NOW! FREE THEM ALL!

In a letter from life-long Freedom Fighter Jalil A. Muntaqim dated, November 18, 2004, he recalls the events leading up to the Jericho ’98 March, and the founding of The Jericho Movement: “Jericho originated with the RNA-PG (Republic of New Afrika-Provisional Government), marching in front of the White House in the late 80’s. However, after 1993, these marches ceased, so in 1996, I first called for the Jericho March on the White House, but it was agreed that it was too soon, so in 1996, activists went to D.C., lobbied and demanded for the re-opening of the COINTELPRO Hearings. Then Herman, Safiya, and I had a meeting to develop the means to organize the Jericho 1998 March on the White House, and everything evolved from there. The Jericho ’98 March was sponsored by the New Afrikan Liberation Front and RNA-PG. Under Safiya’s leadership, Jericho organizing committees developed across the country and in Germany, Italy, and associates in the Basque region of Spain, England, etc. Unfortunatley, Safiya became ill and was unable to travel as extensively as she had, and the Jericho Amnesty Movement has faltered in recent years with the loss of organizing committees, the newsletter no longer being produced and distributed, and a general breakdown on communications and enthusiasm in support of U.S. political prisoners.

However, the Jericho Legal Defense Fund still functions and we now have a Jericho Political Prisoners Art Auction Project, plus the current campaign for Afrikan AIDS Orphans. We need to get the newsletter back into existence and ensure the website is kept up to date and further developed. Ultimately, we envision the Jericho Amnesty Movement to Rival such organizations as Amnesty International, and for Jericho to become the primary voice for U.S. political prisoners and political prisoners throughout the world. It will be when we have a Jericho in the Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, China, South Korea, Mexico, Peru, Columbia, and elsewhere, we will have evolved a new revolutionary Internationale, comprising the representatives of these movements and struggles around the World. But, first, charity begins at home and we have to get our own backyards in order in support of U.S. political prisoners”…

Safiya speaking at a Rally for Mumia


Safiya with Yuri Kochiyama & Iyaluaa & Herman Ferguson

The demise of our comrade Sister Safiya Bukhari, co-founded The Jericho Movement & established it’s website, has left us with a mission that has yet to be accomplished. Safiya was a passionate, dedicated revolutionary woman, who was once a political prisoner herself. She served nearly 9 years in prison, and after one escape and recapture, she served 3 years 9 months of her sentence in maximum security before finally being “unleashed” on parole in 1983. After winning her release, Safiya dedicated (in every sense of the word imaginable) her life to winning freedom for the comrades she left behind, still locked away in cages. She used every means she could to support and win release for our FREEDOM FIGHERS still behind the walls. Safiya was a prolific writer. She took it upon herself to put out information & fact sheets about individual political prisoners and their cases. We must continue her struggle! We must “Carry On” this struggle! Safiya worked tirelessly day and night even though she suffered from prolonged illness herself. She served as Vice President in the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika, was the longtime WBAI 99.5 FM radio co-producer of “Where We Live”, and also co-founded the New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition in 1992. She couldn’t stop! Her energy is sorely missed and needs to be remembered and followed as an example for all of us who struggle for our FREEDOM FIGHTERS still trapped behind those walls. Safiya traveled extensively to promote the Jericho cause, and even designed and made political prisoner buttons, t-shirts, bumper stickers, and mouse pads in her “free time”. She never stopped until her heart stopped beating! Some of her closet comrades say that she died from a “broken heart” after losing the hard fought battle win freedom for two of her beloved comrades, thus, watching them slip away and DIE less than 10 months apart. Both of them had been former members of the Black Panther Party and BLA along with Safiya back in the 60’s and 70’s.

On April 28, 2000 Albert Nuh (Noah) Washington died of cancer after spending almost 30 years in prison. Is there no such thing as compassion in this world? There has got to be a better way to, we must create a brighter day for so many FREEDOM FIGHETRS still languishing in prison. Guilty, or NOT, when is the hard time served, medical neglect, mental & physical abuse, and separation from nature and loved ones enough? When? On January 21, 2001 a second political prisoner, Teddy Jah Heath died from cancer after being finally diagnosed only two months prior. He had spent 28 years in prison. If our “movements” do not come together and unify under one banner, we will very soon watch our FREEDOM FIGHTERS die bound and gagged, just as Safiya had to endure. Safiya was only 53 years old when she passed from among us on August 24, 2003. May Allah have mercy on her generous, loving, selfless soul. Freedom is a mission of love, never terrorism or hatred. Freedom will never be won by dropping bombs & chemical weapons on innocent people, babies, and children. NEVER! Truth claims itself one way or another. Ask Assata how she won her freedom! She was set free by a coordinated mission of LOVE manifest! This Movement is based on LOVE! Falsehood leads to retribution and annihilation. Many folks are imprisoned because of the love & humanity that they have in theirs hearts that wouldn’t allow them to sit back and watch the world turn. These are those whom we stand in solidarity with.

In her own words, this is Safiya’s definition of political prisoners:

“There are those prisoners whose arrest and subsequent imprisonment stem directly from their political beliefs, affiliations and activities in furtherance of their political beliefs and goals. These brothers and sisters who dedicated their lives to fighting for freedom and liberation…who looked at a situation that was untenable and made a decision to fight back through political organizing, agitation and education and were framed by government agencies because they were too effective at what they were doing.”

Who are the Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War that we are speaking about?

There are over 100 PP/POWS that have become recognized by The Jericho Movement, including revolutionaries and combatants from the New Afrikan national independence struggle, the Puerto Rican independence struggle, the Native American independence struggle, and the European anti-imperialist revolutionaries who have combated the class and imperialist contradictions of the american society and who have provided critical support to the various national independence struggles within the country. These men and women are courageous Brothers and Sisters who, as a consequence of their political work and organizational affiliations, were targeted for neutralization through the various counterintelligence operations that manipulate & control the general population by media propaganda. They are the survivors of a war in which their colleagues were assassinated by secret regime counterintelligence operations (COINTELPRO) .

The Jericho Campaign to free all of the american regime's political prisoners and prisoners of war seeks to address the political repression that occurred in the 1960s through the 1980s (and that continues to this day) against New Afrikan, Afrikan american, american Indian, Puerto Rican and European anti-imperialist freedom fighters whose efforts were focused through such organizations as the MOVE Organization, the American Indian Movement (AIM), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Black Panther Party (BPP), the Black Liberation Army (BLA), the Republic of New Afrika (RNA), the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), United Freedom Front (UFF), Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional Puertoriqueno (Movement for Puerto Rican National Liberation), and Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (Armed Forces for National Liberation) or FALN, various Environmental Activists, and others.

They are the captured ACTIVISTS who did not manage to escape through the underground, or into political asylum and exile outside the United States. Instead they were captured, arrested, charged with kriminal offenses, tried in kriminal courts, and convicted and sentenced to kriminal punishments that far exceed those for truly violent criminal offenders. While trying them as criminals, the regime has simultaneously, albeit not publicly, tagged them as political offenders in an effort to ensure that they will never be released from prison. Unfortunately, at the same time, we have allowed them to successfully ignore all the facts & evidence which substantiate our claim that the U.S. government is guilty of silencing political dissenters and their organizations. The Case of the Angola 3 is extremely inhumane. Three former Black Panther Party members were framed for the murder of a guard back in 1973. They were labeled troublemakers because of their activities, demanding the rape and abuse at the hands of the prison guards to stop, and speaking out against racism and harassment that was ingrained into this former slave plantation turned Louisiana State Prison.

After just ten months back in CCR (Closed Cell Restrictment), solitary confinement, Mr. Herman “Hooks” Wallace has been thrown back into the dungeon, punishment Camp J again! As of December 14, 2004, Herman is back in Camp J on bogus non-sense charges. The confinement to this torture Camp is used as a means of behavior modification through isolation and punishment. Many of the men go insane or are made into zombies with thorazine & other altering tranquilizers, some with rolling feces, picking at their skin, noses and/ or feet to try and make the time pass away. Here’s an account of some of the inhumane treatment that Herman Wallace has witnessed during his previous two year stay in Camp J. “There is a man here in this dungeon the security is really messing with. The man has been laying on his back in 4-point restraints since 10/13 (date of the letter 10/21). When a man goes on 4-point they let him up the next day, but they are keeping this man like this without a shower or feeding him. I have been sending him my food when I can. He urinates and defecates on himself and they leave him like that. His mother came from Shreveport to visit him and see how he was doing and because they have him in 4-point, they told her she could not see him….”

One can look at the current state of affairs of the POLITICAL PRISONERS and PRISONERS OF WAR at Abu Ghraib & Guantanamo Bay and ask, how could this happen? We cannot view this blatant display of torture as some isolated, new shocking phenomenon. The U.S. government carries its banner proclaiming to rid the world of “terrorism” while at the same time committing human rights abuse after abuse within the occupied lands of Iraq, and also on its own citizens here in the U.S. It is imperative that we formulate a comprehensive, coordinated strategic approach to freeing our FREEDOM FIGHTERS. This is the aim of The Jericho Amnesty Movement.

Recent Campaigns & Events

The Safiya Bukhari Human Rights Weekend as held at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, with a rally and demonstration at Dag Hammorskjold in New York City this past December 10-12th. The cultural events, (music& poetry)pp/pow statements, networking sessions & committee presentations was a wonderful effort incitated by The Jericho Movement’s New York City National Office. Thanks to the efforts by the various contributions of many pp/pow committees, friends & supporters, we celebrated the release of the “PICK UP THE WORK Resource Guide”, honoring the work of Sr. Safiya Bukhari. The event opened Friday evening with the viewing of a short film about the life & work of Sr. Safiya Bukhari, and statement from Brother Jalil A. Muntaquim was read by Jericho co-chair Baba Herman Ferguson.

We would like to take the time to thank each of the collectives, committees, groups & individuals who placed their ads in this most important “PICK UP THE WORK Resource Guide”: Spear & Shield Publications, It’s About Time (Committee to Celebrate the Founding of the Black Panther Party), Kazi & The Jericho Boston Chapter (the PRESENTE! Troupe really put on brilliant performance!), Sally O’Brien, The California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Behatokia (Basque Human Rights Observatory), The MOVE Organization (FREE THE MOVE 9!), the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Anarchist People Of Color (illegalvoices.org), The Irish Freedom Committee (in Solidarity with Irish Republican POWS!), the New York Committee to Free the Five (Free the Cuban Five!), askatasuna, (Basque Movement against repression and for the freedom of all Basque political prisoners), Resistance in Brooklyn (RnB), FREE ALVARO NOW! Committee (freealvario.org), the Friends of Marilyn Buck (order Marilyn’s CD, Wild Poppies: info@freedomarchives.org), 2005 freedom for Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War Calendar Committee ( a must, order:www.twelvemonths.org), The New York State Taskforce for Release of Political Prisoners (MXGMNY@hotmail.com), Break the Chains Collective (http://www.breakthechains.net), The Freedom Archives (http://www.freedomarchives.org/), The Osborne Association (serving prisoners, former prisoners and their families), Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa (formerly known as David Rice) & Efia Nwangaza), the David Wong Support Committee www.freedavidwong.org , The International Action Center (www.iacenter.org), the New York City Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (www.freemumia.com). The BRECHT FORUM (www.brechtforum.org), The East Coast Friends of Marilyn Buck (fomb@yahoo.com), PROLIBERTAD FREEDOM CAMPAIGN (http://www.ProLibertadWeb.com), Justice Community Works, Where We Live & WBAI (www.wbai.org), Siempre Pa’lante--The Justice Committee (www.jc-ny.org), the 36th Annual National Day of Mourning Committee (annual event November 2005 is dedicated to Freedom Fighter Leonard Peltier (http://home.earthlink.net/~uainendom/), and the 4strugglemag: Views, Thoughts, and Analysis from the Hearts and Minds of North American Political Prisoners and Friends (www.4strugglemag.org). Thanks to everyone for their insights, participation and support!

We are currently working on The Education Support Campaign for AIDS Orphans in Afrika. It is a humanitarian effort to raise funds to buy school supplies and materials for Sub-Saharan AIDS orphans and increase AIDS awareness among citizens of the U.S. Efia Nwangaza, Jericho co-chair, long time human rights activist organizer attorney, notes that The Education Support Campaign for AIDS Orphans in Afrika ”continues the Black Panther Parties' legacy at a time comparable to those which birthed the Party, the USA Patriot Act and the "war on terrorism." In 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover denounced the Party as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the U.S." and, through the "Counter Intelligence Program" (COINTELPRO), unleashed the machinery of the federal government, with the assistance of local police departments, to eliminate them.


Boys eat at a Black Panther Free Breakfast Program

Black Panther Party and criminalize its membership. However, the members operated Free Breakfast for Children Program fed thousands of poor and hungry children every day. The magnitude and impact of the program, the first of 35, shamed and forced the federal government to adopt a similar program which exists today in public schools across the country. Indeed, many of the PP/POWS that we stand in unity with worked on these Free Breakfast for Children Programs! Really, ask former NASA mathematician, Sundiata Acoli, who is now 67 years old and has been imprisoned for over 32 years!

Herman Ferguson, organizer and former political prisoner, points out that "despite excessive sentences, parole denials, and harsh conditions, many of today's political prisoners have continued the humanitarian work they began as youth in the Survival Programs of the Black Panther Party decades ago. U.S. communities, both behind the wails and in the streets, benefit from their continued service." The school supplies will be distributed by The Jericho Movement in conjunction with former U.S. political prisoners and organizations serving AIDS orphans. Imprinted pencils, "A Gift of The Jericho Movement to Free US. Political Prisoners," are the project's touchstone. We are grateful to be able to report that of first shipment of school supplies have been received and distributed in Tanzania! Individuals and organizations wishing to cosponsor, endorse or contribute to this campaign are asked to immediately contact Baba Herman Ferguson (iyaluua@aol.com ) and Sis. Efia Nwangaza (mxgrm@aol.com), Jericho Movement, National Office, P.O. Box 3410084, Jamaica, New York 11434-3401, 718-949-3937. All donations are tax deductible.

Our strength as a Movement lies in building a bond across organizational lines. The National Chapter of The Jericho Movement is in NYC. Currently, there are chapters in California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Italy. Currently Herman Ferguson, and Efia Nwangaza are co-chairs. If you would like some practical suggestions on how to organize and coordinate committees in your region, please contact me @ tea-tree@comcast.net.

They're in there for us -- We're out here for them!

The Boston Chapter of the Jericho Movement</