4strugglemag

From Henekis Williams Stoddard

As I grieve my father's death, the many ways that my heart has always honored him rise to the surface of my being and a smile is put on my face. My father was captured when I was just three years old and yet he continued to raise me through the miles and through the bars with grace, wisdom and the deepest love. My dad and I laughed together always. We gave that to each other--one of the many things that he did not allow them to take away. He prepared me for our lives together, gave me a political scope with which to view the world, sent me flowers when I graduated, told me the story of my birth (every year), consoled my broken heart and prepared me for his death. In these actions he taught me how to live will without dependency on circumstance. He taught me that all of our actions must be guided by the deepest love and the passion to make change. He taught by making his life an example of how it could be done. In these lessons I realize that we can possess something that can never be taken away, something that makes us stronger in this struggle. Of all the ways my father has shown his strength and served as a role model of personal responsibility and love--he shined when it came to being a father, a comrade and a friend. In losing one of the dearest loves of my life, I find that beneath my great sorrow lies an even greater inspiration. He wove his spirit into mine and in that he is still alive.

Venceremos--Henekis Williams Stoddard

Issue 6--Winter 2006

Comrade Brother Richard Williams, Organizing Against the War, Black History, Repression

This issue features a tribute to Ohio 7 political prisoner Richard Williams, who died this past December. We mourn our brother's passing, but we celebrate his life, his words and deeds of resistance and hope. We also offer some reflection and high tribute to Filiberto Ojeda Rios, the Puerto Rican Independence leader murdered by the FBI last Sept. 23. In this same vein we must share the sad news that Schafik Handel, a principle commander and founder of the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) of El Salvador, died of a heart attack on Jan. 24. The brother was 75 years old. While we mourn these losses, we certainly hope that the next wave of Richards, Filibertos and Schafiks are already out there, picking up the weapons of Liberation and Freedom, perhaps some are even reading these words.

This issue also has important words for the anti-war movment. In light of Black History Month (which of course should be every month); Dhoruba's thoughts are especially significant. We also feature a section on the First International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners.

As I explain in my personal appeal for support at the end of this issue, which I hope lots of you will seriously consider, my state sentence is ending and I'll soon be transferred to some federal prison. Therefore the next issue, early summer, will be coordinated by Bill Dunne.

As always we encourage feedback, especially on our discussion board at www.4strugglemag.org/board, but also via letters. For everyone that can, go out and take part in the March anti-war activities. Do it for yourself, your family and friends, for our world, and do it for all us political prisoners who so want to, but can't be there!

DYNAMIC PEACE AND JUSTICE
Jaan Laaman, editor

Table of Contents

Comrade Brother Richard Williams

The Death of Political Prisoner Richard Williams by Jaan Laaman
Maired by Richard Williams
Statement from Netdahe Willams Stoddard
Statement for Memorial in Puerto Rico Delivered by Rick Laaman
Statement from Kazi Toure
Statement from Ray Luc Levasseur
My Friend Richard by Jaan Laaman
To the Friends and Comrades of Richard Williams by LA-ABCF
Workers Vanguard Statement
Two Prisoners Named Williams by Dan Berger
Letter to Richard from Russell Maroon Shoats
Interfaith Tribute
The Sea by Richard Williams

Organizing Against the War

Anti-War Movement Unity by Jaan Laaman
UFPJ Leadership Divides the Anti-War Movement from Workers World
March 18-19 Callout from the Troops Out Now Coalition
When Peace Activism Becomes Collusion with Colonial Occupation by Marta Rodríguez
Blindfolded Men by Marilyn Buck
The Five Faces of Fascism by Michael Novick

International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War

Reports on December 3, 2005
Introduction to International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners by Jalil Muntaqim
Statement to Oakland Event from Marilyn Buck
Solidarity is the Tenderness Between Peoples by David Gilbert
Defend Our Movements by Benjamin Evans
Political Prisoners in the United States by Jaan Laaman
Art by Alvaro Luna Hernandez

Black History

Assata by Akili Castlin
The Ethics of Black Atonement in Racist America: The Execution of Stanley Tookie Williams by Dhoruba Bin-Wahad
Bridging the Gap by Ken Broussard
Editorial from Right On! The New Black Panther Party – Prison Chapter
Revolution by Kysim Noble
Art by Ali Shakka

Repression

On the Recent Wave of Repression from the Warrior Wind
Update on Daniel McGowan
Filiberto Ojeda Rios, Puerto Rican Leader, Killed by U.S. Forces
Words from Anti-Imperialist Political Prisoner Jaan Laaman to the Boston Memorial for Filibert Ojeda Rios
FBI Stepping up Repression against Boricuas
Feds After Google Data
Rehabilitation is Not the Answer by C. Landrum
Poem by Artesia Cabral
A Personal Appeal from Jaan Laaman, Ohio 7 Political Prisoner

Comrade Brother Richard Williams

The Death of Political Prisoner Richard Williams

by Jaan Laaman

It is with great sorrow and loss that I need to let people know of the death of my dear comrade, long held political prisoner Richard Williams. Richard's liver failed and he passed on Dec. 7th, 2005, in a federal prison in North Carolina.

Richard Williams, who turned 58 only last month, was a life long anti-imperialist and socialist, one of the Ohio 7 who had been in captivity since 1984. Richard was a peace and justice activist, a revolutionary and a freedom fighter. He was the people's soldier, a friend and an ally of the poor and oppressed, of the working class around the world.

As a young man Richard was inspired by the life and words of Che Guevara, and in his own life he became a true example of proletarian internationalism.

Everyone is invited to post their remembrances and condolences about Richard Williams on 4strugglemag's discussion board - www.4strugglemag.org/board.

Jaan Laaman
Ohio 7 anti-imperialist political prisoner
December 11, 2005
Walpole, MA

Maired, St. Patrick's Day, 1988

by Richard Williams

The SAS thought that by pumping bullets
into your prone body they were also killing a
cause.

How ignorant they are
You can't kill a revolution
by killing a revolutionary
Bob Sands' example must give them pause.

But no, those english shits
ran up and killed you and your comrades on a foreign
soil ignoring all laws.

Though we'll miss you, you didn't die in vain your light
and truth will never be suppressed we'll keep fond your memory
as we continue the wars.

Statement from Netdahe Willams Stoddard

Warm and revolutionary greetings in this new year!

Sadly, I write this now to inform the supporters and loved ones of Political Prisoner Richard Williams of his death last month. This note comes late; I was waiting to receive dad's property from the feds- to see if this might include a final statement from Richard himself. Unfortunately, dad was unable to get anything down on paper, due to the speed with which his body deteriorated toward the end. With Richard passing I lose not only one of my two dads, but one of my very best friends. I want to share a bit of him, understanding there are not words in the language I know to accurately describe either his wonderful intricacies, or the depth of my love for him.

Richard died on the evening of December 7th of liver failure related to Hepatitis C. Richard's son Richard was able to visit him earlier that afternoon, and he knew that two more of us were en route to see him. We believe Richard chose to let go of his pain that night, knowing his family was there and ready to claim him from the system and according to his wishes.

Richard's death is a small chapter in the book of his life, but it is important to keep in mind, and to relay to others the story it tells of the federal government's criminality. We should use his death as a consciousness-raising tool; he would want it no other way. Richard was a strong and healthy man up to that autumn of 2001. Fifteen months of solitary confinement, lack of exercise, medical neglect and abuse by a reactionary and vengeful federal government left dad suffering from an array of medical problems, severe enough that he was moved to a federal medical center in North Carolina December '04. Dad did receive adequate medical treatment and some level of comfort during his last year, but it was too little too late. The abuse he suffered from 9/01 to 11/04 proved too much, and is why I'm not the only one who understands that Richard's death was murder, brought about by an extended period of intentional medical neglect, indifference and delay.

In the last weeks of his life dad would joke that his six-year-old grangrandson could-"kick his ass", due to his deteriorating and underweight body. None-the-less, he was always fully shackled for transport to outside facilities, and Lieutenants' future careers were made because they could put on paper that they had "successfully transported" such a "dangerous" man. We would laugh out loud at such idiocy, but this policy and the government's actions/inactions that led to Richard's death are very real, and should inform our arguments against government proponents, as well as strengthen our resolve to bring about conditions that make Richard the last of the people's soldiers to die in captivity.
Crazy as it may sound, I believe there is more to be strengthened and empowered by in dad's passing than to be disheartened by. One of the main purposes of the prison is to isolate and disempower its captives. His family, friends and supporters worked successfully against such design right up to Richard's death. Richard received more visits this last year than probably any other year in captivity. He had more letters of support than he had time left to read them. He laughed, loved and felt loved to the end, and appreciated this support beyond words. Richard is an example that supporting our political prisoners and POW's in any and all ways is even more important and empowering than we generally realize. It helped Richard stand tall to the end.

Richard had advanced warning of his death, which was unexpectedly empowering in its own right. He was able to make some end-of-life decisions that he might not otherwise have been able to make. He had some important conversations with people (his mother for one) that he may not otherwise have had. Richard was able to be explicit about his wishes for his remains, which we were able to carry out to the letter. Dad is/was a freer spirit than most, myself included, and years ago had requested that his children see him free, if only after he had died. For us to see him a last time free but dead was better to him than a last image alive in captivity. We were able to do this, as well as remove any trace of the FBOP (#'s, tags etc.) before he was cremated. The three of us present were happy to do so and felt strong. This was extremely important to dad and to us.

The thing we can be most positive about in all this, something: really only fully realized after one's death, is that Richard died a principled man who never gave the system an inch. He never regretted his choice to take a stand against oppression and stay standing, no matter how difficult or painful were the consequences. We successfully kept/built loving family ties through the bars, and against all intended design. Richard decided, as a fairly young man in NH state prison, that he would be aligned with the racially and economically oppressed majority across the globe, against our common oppressors. He died thirty years later equally committed to that end. Everything about the prison system is designed to disallow this possibility. As with some other's before him, Richard's spiritual strength, steadfastness and his being principled to the end are huge victories over hopelessness that should be celebrated. I have to believe that Richard, his example and integrity, helped create more consciousness out here than the system takes in his death. Venceremos!

There's so much to say of my father, I could never do him justice, but I want to mention a few things about him that would be hard to know, unless you knew him. Richard had a younger heart and spirit than many half his age, and was incredibly strengthened by the love and support shown him, especially in times of extra hardship in captivity. Dad was someone who was more likely to survive and succeed the worse the odds were against him. It was impossible to break him, because attempting to do so only strengthened his resolve further. He had one of the most critical minds, questioning every position in effort to find the truth. He also encouraged criticism, knowing that he was as fallible as anyone. The times that I questioned and/or disagreed with him most were times I could feel his respect for me grow most. He wanted no truth sugar-coated, equating straightforwardness with respect.

Richard was no theoretician or leader in any traditional sense. One of his last and most adamant requests was that we not let anyone turn him into a "hero", knowing the movement would gain more from accurate reflection of his life and actions than from doing his persona any favors. Dad rejected the concept of "hero", because he believed everyone equally capable of effecting change- willingness to participate/sacrifice, perhaps being the only difference.
Richard's was a most thoughtful, caring and brilliant mind. Though he put little down on paper, he was as equally well read and informed as anyone I've known. But, he needed no recognition or honors for it. He had weaknesses, as do we all, and liked for them to be addressed, but never let them detract from his strengths. Contrary to the government's projected image of my father, he was not a reckless man. His actions were guided by egalitarian theory and worldly survival. He made hard decisions, and sacrificing a life of freedom with his children was as difficult for him as it would be for anyone. Richard was an incredibly loving and respectful father.

I need to mention of dad, how anti-racism manifest in his person. Richard knew that he wasn't perfect, and could grow and learn from the personal experiences and oppression of others. He was an avid anti-racist (in the spirit of John Brown and family), but knew he could always be a better one, perfection being an illusion. The too common "white guilt" phenomenon was nowhere to be found in Richard. He took responsibility for white historic atrocities and white skin privilege, and would grab firm hold of his humanity by acting against such forces. He made a decision as to where he stood and backed that position with action, making war on the institutional profiteers of racist imperialism. The self-hatred endemic in all areas of our society was unable to take root in Richard. He would not mire in guilt, but find redemption though action.

Dad took his death with surprising ease, considering. Even after more than two decades in captivity, and nearly five years of ill-health, he knew he had been able to live a good and principled life. In a time when so many children die hungry, bombed or from curable diseases while a select few grow fat, he was lucky to get to live to 58 and to make his stand. Especially for those of us who love him so much, his loss will be a long, deep pain. It is Richard's wish though that we rejoice, celebrate and strengthen ourselves with his memory; that we learn form his missteps and find drive in his many successes!

Richard wanted, and will get, a warriors good-bye and party. He wanted us to forgo the traditional memorial, and instead use the opportunity to celebrate and network-to strengthen ourselves for our protracted struggle. Please memorialize Richard in whatever way you see fit. For those who would like to be a part, we will be partying and giving Richard's ashes to the mountains of Vermont this June 2006. Please write me for directions etc. if interested.

Richard's family was shown incredible support and generosity to help with dad's passing. We have excess contributions that we've decided will be redistributed to the Rosenberg and for Children, the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee, the Jericho Movement, and the Jaan Laaman Legal Freedom Fund in dad's name. In lieu of flowers, so to speak, contributions in Richard's name should be 'made not to his family, but to these organizations or your local political prisoner support and/or prison abolition organizations.

Free all political prisoners and POWs!

Netdahe Williams Stoddard
P.O. Box 160
Johnson, VT 05656 USA

Statement for Memorial in Puerto Rico

Statement for the gathering in Puerto Rico honoring Richard Williams (delivered by Rick Laaman)

Let me share some brief words from my father, Jaan Laaman, who is in Walpole state prison in Massachusetts. My father was Richard's life long comrade and friend.

Compañeras y Compañeros,

I truly wish I could be physically there with all of you right now, but I am pleased and honored to be able to participate in this event with the help of my son Rick.
2005 ended with some real losses. First the murder of Filiberto and soon after the death of Richard.

My brother Richard was a dedicated anti-imperialist, and a solid Marxist and Maoist. But he was most inspired by the words and life of Che Guevara. Richard's own life came to embody the true principles of revolutionary international solidarity - of Proletarian Internationalism. He always recognized the key role that the Puerto Rican Independence struggle played in the overall freedom struggle in the United States. Richard Williams was a true friend and ally of the Puerto Rican revolution.

Today, as I join with all of you in sending my love and salute to Richard, let me clearly state that Richard's firm support for Puerto Rican liberation and Filiberto's life long dream and mission of an independent socialist Puerto Rico, will surely come to be, because we are all here to carry on the dream and the struggle!

VENCEREMOS!

Jaan Laaman
Walpole State Prison, January 15, 2006

Statement from Kazi Toure

To my Friend, Brother, and Comrade Richard Williams. We met through his compañera Sally. Sally and I were on the bus to Walpole prison. I was going to visit my brother, she was going to visit a friend. After some conversation she gave me her address and said, if I was ever in town again I could crash with them. As it turns, a few months later I came back to visit my Brother and gave Sally and Dickey a call. We hit it off immediately and from that point on we were involved in many conspiracies, always with the long term objective of, overthrowing u.s. imperialism.

Richard, Dickey, to his closest friends was a man who lived his life similar to what John Lennon sang about in his song, "A Working Class hero" is something to be. Not someone who aspired to wearing fancy clothes, or driving flashy cars. He never took up more space than he needed. It really wasn't his style. He wore mostly blue jeans, work shirts, black leather vest and timberlands before they were fashionable. I loved the brother and still do. He loved to party but was a hard worker as well.

When we first met he was working at New England Free Press. He ran one of the big multi lith 35" presses. He probably could have worked for the Globe or Herald if they would hire ex-cons. But as many of you know, by passing the repressive measure that they do, not allowing people entry back into society, they inadvertently make revolutionaries. We lived together on three different occasions including a stint underground. He was a person that you could count on and that is what made him a friend.

We knew at the time of going underground that there was a chance, big chance, that we would either be killed or imprisoned for a long time because of our actions. It was through these discussions that it became clear to me that he understood the importance of taking up the mantel of anti-racism. That one clear way of rejecting his white skin privilege was to wage a tireless struggle, campaign, and war against the perpetrators of the worlds modern day racism, and that's what made him a Brother. Embracing it he named his son Netdahe, which translates, "death to all white intruders."

He was a man who read a lot, but said few words. He was more action than talking. I can not think of too many other people, 1 would have catch my back. We were together many times on the barricades, doing security at marches from Greensboro N.C. to sitting up in peoples houses in Dorchester, that came under racist attacks. If you ever needed another soldier, another John Brown, in the good fight, Richard Williams could be counted on. That's what made him a comrade.

Until we meet again Bro....All Power To The People!!!

Amandla... Kazi Toure/United Freedom Front

Statement from Ray Luc Levasseur

The first time I met our comrade Richard Williams was in a safehouse, underground. For the next decade we engaged in a common struggle to provide whatever support we could muster to the downpressed—be they victims of apartheid in South Africa, or slaughtered in Central America—and to defend ourselves. It wasn't until the last hour of the last trial that we were consigned by our enemy to different prisons. I would never see him again.

Richard, like many political prisoners, has never received the recognition and respect he deserves. He has been vilified in the media and ignored by the left—a shared experience by many political prisoners. But then, Richard never sought accolades. The brother I know is not ego driven nor laden with grandiose ideas about what others should march to. He has at his essence that uncommon quality of a revolutionary—feeling every injustice done to the poor and working people of this planet.

I know Richard well, having risked our lives together time after time. He never waivered when confronted with danger, and didn't disappoint when demands upon us were critical. I've seen him act decisively when it took courage to step up, and step down in situations that required defusing. He's all of that—a people's soldier and friend.

A man of deep commitment and fiery passion, he dedicated his life to others. The fallout from that was not being able to see his own children during the most dangerous years. He made that sacrifice, but the longing for his kids was intense and it laid heavy in his heart.

Sacrifice. How deep the sacrifice for what we believe true and necessary? When the U.S. killing fields in Central America were littered with the bodies of compañeros and their children, Richard did not stand idly by. When apartheid drenched South Africa in the blood and suffering of African people, Richard chose to act. The lineage from prison and antiracist activist to underground guerilla is not difficult to figure—Richard has the heart, consciousness, and political perspective to take it to a brutal enemy.

He did it in his time, when time was of the essence. When he knew he had the strength and endurance for a protracted and extraordinarily difficult struggle. That time has now past.

The brother I know, who withstood 50,000 volt stun gun assaults and the rigors of solitary confinement, has fallen. This brother of such infectiously good humor, so respectful of elders, and without a cynical bone in his body, is dead. He chose to pass on in as dignified a way as possible given the inherently abusive conditions of his confinement. They never crushed his spirit.

Brother, I do not say goodbye, for there are no words for this in the language we know best. Until next time—among oak leaves, the feathers of a hawk, nurturing new life from a coral reef ....

I love you, Ray

Ray Luc Levasseur, December 8, 2005

My Friend Richard

by Jaan Laaman

(Below are some words I wrote for and about Richard Williams, one week before he died. Sadly he never got to hear or see them)

Richard Charles Williams, my dear brother, my comrade, I could write a honk or maybe a screenplay about you and your life. It would be a righteous movie, action packed, principled, some real humor, and all built around a life of struggle and hope. Of course between revolutionary "need to know" principles and Hollywood's comic book propaganda movies, it's not too likely your real movie is going to get made just yet. But your revolutionary life, your warm good heart and your determined spirit of resistance will continue to inspire and guide those of us who know you and all those who will yet come to know you.

From our earliest days, 34-35 years ago, working together, struggling and having each others back, I remember how seriously you took the words of Che Guevara and how much you admired his life. You know I've always thought of you as embodying the true living spirit of Che. While you have consistently been reasoned and practical in strategic outlook, you have always been willing to pick up the struggle of oppressed nations and peoples anywhere in the world. You are a true anti-imperialist and humanitarian. Your entire adult life is a solid expression of the real meaning of proletarian internationalism. And if anyone is not real familiar with this term, go do a little investigating. It's not only to see what kind of man Richard has been his whole life, but this world needs new and more socialists and revolutionaries in the 21st century - you could be one.

You long were a solid Marxist and Maoist. Besides the labels and "isms" though, if I had to briefly tell you about Richard, I'd say he is for real, a regular and nice person. He is someone you would want to be your friend and fellow worker. For me personally I have no dearer friend or closer comrade than Richard. We were there for each others children's home births, and we put in some hours on pin ball machines in quite a few pubs and clubs. From construction sites (Richard was a good carpenter) to picket lines and yes, battle lines too, I feel proud and honored to have shared these with you my comrade, my brother, my friend.

Jaan Laaman
Ohio 7 anti-imperialist political prisoner
December 1, 2005, Walpole State Prison

To the Friends and Comrades of Richard Williams

from Los Angeles Anarchist Black Cross Federation

With a heavy heart, we are saddened by the news that political prisoner, Richard Williams has passed away. Many of Richard’s supporters agree with his friend and comrade, Diane Fujino, that his problems were stemmed from the15-months of isolation he faced after 9/11. The State was tireless in its efforts to break his
spirit and his will. His body, no longer able stay as strong as his spirit, began to weaken under the pressure of captivity.

For those who are not aware of Richard, his death ended 26 years of imprisonment. He was sentenced to life for actions carried out in support of those who suffered under apartheid regime and the paramilitary death squads in Central and South America. He targeted those responsible for the death and torture of the innocent. His love was so deep for the people of the world; resistance was the only option against those who oppressed. He lived in resistance so that others can experience a moment of life.

His life was defined by his continuous struggle. The flame in his heart burned bright for the oppressed and colonized. His spirit, dedicated to the struggle for
freedom and humanism in every corner of the world, inspired us all to follow his lead. His sacrifice for the struggle of liberty and resistance everywhere,
humbled those of us who found ourselves in his shadow. We, who knew him, count our blessings for the moments we shared.

Our sadness is only relieved by the knowledge that our comrade will be met by the likes of Steven Biko, Bobby Sands, Pedro Albizu Campos and others who struggles against oppression. We have to accept that such a man could only walk among us for brief moment in time. A candle can only burn so long before the light is forced to go out.

Richard went through life with open arms but closed fists; prepared to embrace the world but fight for what is right and just. Richard can now relax his fists. It is time for us to close ours.

Amandla,
LA-ABCF

Workers Vanguard Statement

Workers Vanguard No. 862, 20 January 2006

Richard Williams, one of three remaining Ohio 7 prisoners, died at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, on 7 December 2005, one month after his 58th birthday. The cause was complications resulting from cancer and Hepatitis C. Prison and government authorities hounded Williams—who maintained to the end his anti-imperialist, anti-racist beliefs—to his grave. When he could barely walk, he was still shackled and chained any time he left the Butner facility. Interferon treatments were delayed until it was far too late.
This is bitter news. Williams had been held at U.S. Penitentiary Lompoc, California, and was remanded to solitary after the September 2001 terror attacks. As his son, Netdahe Williams Stoddard, wrote in a recent letter: “Richard was a strong and healthy man up to that autumn of 2001. Fifteen months of solitary confinement, lack of exercise, medical neglect and abuse by a reactionary and vengeful federal government left dad suffering from an array of medical problems.” Even after he suffered a mild heart attack in February 2002, during a short stay back in the general prison population, Lompoc authorities sent him back to solitary.

Richard Williams came of age politically in prison. A working-class kid from Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1967 he chose prison over joining the Army when convicted of marijuana possession. In prison again in the early ’70s, he organized protests and strikes for better conditions. After his release, he joined other activists in protecting the homes of people in the Boston area who were targeted by anti-busing racists. In 1979, he and his comrades went to Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest the Klan’s murder of five unionists, civil rights workers and supporters of the Communist Workers Party. In 1981, he joined what he called “the armed clandestine movement.”

Williams was convicted in 1986 of five bombings of military recruitment and corporate facilities and sentenced to 45 years. But an effective life sentence wasn’t enough for a government that wanted to bury such radicals in prison. The next year he went on trial for the 1981 killing of a New Jersey state trooper. Fellow Ohio 7 defendant Tom Manning testified that he had shot the officer in self-defense and that Williams was not even present. The result was a hung jury.
In 1989 Williams was tried on charges of conspiring with fellow Ohio 7 defendants Ray Luc Levasseur (released from prison in November 2004) and Patricia Gros Levasseur to overthrow the government of the United States. The charges of “seditious conspiracy” were based on a 1948 law designed to criminalize left-wing political and labor activity (see “RICO Witchhunt Targets Ohio 7,” WV No. 476, 28 April 1989). But despite spending millions on a trial that dragged on for months against an isolated handful of leftists, the government’s attempt to revive “thought crime” sedition prosecutions was rejected when the jury refused to convict.

The government wasn’t finished, however. In 1991 he was retried and convicted of the New Jersey killing in a courtroom packed with state troopers and their supporters. Criminally, Williams and the rest of the Ohio 7 were abandoned by the bulk of the left, including many of those who had vicariously cheered their earlier actions. As Ray Levasseur wrote in 1992: “The real deal with those that renounce us and retreat from trials and prison battlegrounds is that we are seen as anti-imperialists with guns.... The dichotomy was striking: a frenzied police power bent on exacting their pound of flesh, and the wilted response of the Left.”
The actions of the Ohio 7 are not crimes from the standpoint of the working class. However, as Marxists, we do not share the political views that animated Richard Williams, Jaan Laaman, Tom Manning and the rest of the Ohio 7.

Despairing of organizing the proletariat in struggle, they decided that the road to fighting this racist, exploitative system was “clandestine armed resistance” by a handful of dedicated leftists. Despite these political differences, the Spartacist League and Partisan Defense Committee have forthrightly defended these militants, adding Williams, Laaman, Manning and Levasseur to the PDC’s prisoner stipend program, and have always respected their commitment and integrity.
At the PDC’s Holiday Appeal benefit in New York City, two days after Richard Williams’ death, leftist attorney Lynne Stewart spoke movingly of her years-long association with Williams. Stewart, who faces sentencing on trumped-up charges of “aiding terrorism” for her defense of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, noted that Williams and his comrades “truly believed in what they were doing. And they truly believed that victory was around the corner.”

Richard Williams stood up to some of the worst that the rulers’ courts and prison system could inflict and never wavered. He never repudiated his road taken, and more than 20 years in prison hellholes could not break him. Honor Richard Williams! Free Jaan Laaman and Tom Manning!
* * *
Richard Williams’ family requests that any donations in his memory be made to: the Rosenberg Fund for Children, the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee, the Jericho Movement, or other organizations that support political prisoners or fight against the prison system.

Two Prisoners Named Williams

by Dan Berger

www.thenation.com/doc/20051226/berger

In denying Stanley Tookie Williams clemency, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the former gang leader had failed to prove his redemption. Part of his argument rested on the fact that Williams had dedicated one of his books to a group of political activists, mostly black, who have all served time in prison, as well as a general dedication to those "who have to endure the hellish oppression of living behind bars." The governor was particularly incensed that Williams included George Jackson in the dedication list, saying that the late black militant's inclusion "defies reason and is a significant indicator that Williams is not reformed."

In 1958, at the age of 18, George Jackson was given the brutally vague sentence of one-year-to-life for his role in a $70 gas station robbery. While in prison, Jackson began to change his life: He read voraciously, was an outspoken political analyst and became a leading figure in the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and early '70s. The Black Panther Party made him a field marshal, and support committees sprang up nationally after he was charged in 1970, along with John Clutchette and Fleeta Drumgo, of murdering a prison guard. Jackson's book of prison letters, Soledad Brother, became a bestseller, complete with an introduction by noted author Jean Genet. Jackson was killed August 21, 1971, during an alleged escape attempt from San Quentin.

By 2005 George Jackson is far from a household name, and yet Schwarzenegger found him appalling enough to merit silencing forever the 51-year-old Williams, who had endeavored in the last ten years of his incarceration to dissuade young people from joining gangs. On December 13, the state of California executed Williams by lethal injection for four 1979 murders. To the end, Williams maintained he was innocent.

Five days before Tookie Williams's execution, another man by the name of Williams died in prison. Fifty-eight-year-old Richard Williams came from a different background but shared some similarities with the Crips co-founder. From a white working-class area outside Boston, Richard Williams had several brushes with the law and by the time he was 23, was serving time for robbery. It was 1971--George Jackson had been killed and one month later the rebellion at Attica Correctional Facility took place. Richard Williams began organizing for better conditions in the New Hampshire prison, where he was incarcerated.
He got out a few years later and threw himself into an array of antiracist organizing efforts: Among other things, he helped organize the historic 1979 Amandla Concert at Harvard Stadium, an antiapartheid benefit show featuring Bob Marley. On November 4, 1984--his thirty-seventh birthday--Richard was arrested in Ohio with four others. All were accused of membership in the United Freedom Front (UFF), a group of white activists who bombed a select collection of government or corporate buildings in the early 1980s, mostly in and around New York City--including General Electric, IBM, Union Carbide, Army and Navy offices--to protest US financial and political support for the apartheid regime and death squads in Central America. No one was injured in the blasts.

Richard faced a series of trials with seven others--two of whom, Jaan Laaman and Tom Manning, remain in prison. In 1986 he was sentenced to forty-five years for his role in five bombings and, with Manning, given a life sentence in 1991 for the death of a New Jersey state trooper, killed during a 1981 shootout. With two of his comrades, Williams was tried of seditious conspiracy in 1989, a rarely used law passed in 1918 that bars "two or more persons...to overthrow or put down or destroy by force the Government of the United States." The jury failed to convict the trio, and despite the millions of dollars it had spent on the case, the government did not pursue the case after the judge declared a mistrial.

Still, Williams already had a lengthy sentence, and he remained in prison.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, however, Richard was inexplicably placed in isolation for fifteen months at Lompoc prison in California. According to Diane Fujino, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara who monitored his case, Richard's health soon deteriorated: He had a heart attack, was treated for cancer and suffered assorted maladies without adequate medical care, including hepatitis C, which caused liver failure and ultimately led to his death. He was transferred to the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, last month; he died there on the morning of December 8. Neither his post-9/11 isolation nor his death captured headlines.

So in less than one week, two prisoners have died--flawed men, each of whom had tried in some fashion to promote social justice. One was executed openly and deliberately, because his antiviolence work with young people was somehow nullified in part by dedicating a book to black radicals. The other was killed slowly and quietly, because he fought quite literally against the pernicious acts of his own government on behalf of the oppressed people of South Africa and Central America.

Although the two men had different life experiences, emerged from different communities and never met, their lives--and deaths--intersect. The government feared both men, not as individuals but for what they represented: Stanley Tookie Williams, an ex-gang member who commemorated the lessons of Black Power into antiviolence messages for youth, and Richard Williams, a committed anti-imperialist who never divorced himself from movements opposing war and racism. Whether they entered prison with a political consciousness or developed it on the inside, Richard Williams and Stanley Williams both were inspired by a unique legacy of radical social justice.

It is not just tough-on-crime and tough-on-terror policies that led Stanley Williams to be executed and Richard Williams to be sent to solitary confinement for more than a year. It is that both men were inspired by anti-establishment heroes--from George Jackson to Nelson Mandela, from struggling black urban youth in America to Third World peasants and beyond. Both men embraced the difficult task of remembering. Memory can be burdensome, even uncomfortable, because to remember requires a conscious choice to pay attention to human tragedy. To remember is to choose sides.

The memories Stanley Tookie Williams and Richard Williams invoked were, it would seem, more than the government wanted to deal with. But the issues their lives and deaths raise--the specter of Black Power, anti-imperialism, personal redemption and political commitment--will not be buried with them.

Letter to Richard

from Russell Maroon Shoats

This letter unfortunately didn't reach Richard in time before his passing and was returned.

November 24th, 2005

Comrade Richard,

Just this evening I learned of your worsening health condition and even as I hope for a recovery, I await word of whatever will come, knowing that it has been an honor to have been able to live and struggle in solidarity with an individual like yourself.

Moreover, I pledge to you that I will do everything in my power to assure
that others also recognize and remember your work, ideals you struggled for and your total committment.

Finally, you must take heart in knowing you've produced a son (Netdahe) who will carry on in your footsteps...and know that your comrades will from here on out embrace him as "our son" in your absence.

Ever onwards to victory!

Your comrade and brother,

Russell Maroon Shoats AF-3855
175 Proggress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370 USA

Web-Based Tribute Book for Richard Williams

The Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience Project has created a tribute book for Ohio 7 anti-imperialist political prisoner Richard Williams. This book should be available soon. They can be contacted at:

Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience Project
P.O. Box 77068
Lakewood, OH 44107 USA

ipoc@sbcglobal.net

The Sea -- Again

by Richard Williams

I was brought up in New England

by the shore

And many nights I think

of the fog and the mist
of the smell of the sea
of the sound of the waves

And I need to be free.

I remember the feel of sun-drying

salty wet skin

And the good ache of my back and hands

While rowing a dory on the water
of the cold spray upon me caused by
wet oars being wind-whipped
As they are drawn out for another stroke

And I know I must be free — again.

Organizing Against the War

Anti-War Movement Unity

by Jaan Laaman

Unity in the anti-war movement is our key to strength and success. From our first issue in 2004, 4strugglemag has advocated for and supported all anti-war marches and activities. As a voice of political prisoners in the United States with up to four decades of experience in the struggle, we know that it is only with unity and larger participation of the people, that we can force the government to end its military invasions, occupations and wars.

Broad anti-war solidarity and unity should not mean everyone has to adhere to a single weak or homogenized position and set of demands. An important source of strength for a vibrant growing movement is some diversity of specific demands put out by many different organizations and leaders. What we should be united on is a basic call for an end to war and occupation. Beyond that organiza-tions and individuals can and do have various demands and analyses. We can debate and even disagree with the lines put out by different groups, but we need to and can stay united by our basic opposition to the Bush government's wars and occupations.

Most if not all U.S. political prisoners have a strong anti-imperialist foundation to their politics. We recognize U.S. imperialism as the principle source of war and injustice and the main obstacle to the progress that poor, oppressed and working people in the U.S. and around the world so need and want. Political analysis, theory and line are important. It is what guides organizations and the overall struggle. Debate and struggle around political positions, demands and ideology do have value and in anycase will happen. But we should reserve our main focus and attacks against our common foe -- the war and occupation of the U.S. government.

Here in early 2006, the Bush government and its imperialist war policies coupled with its growing internal police state, is more disliked, distrusted, disbelieved or at the least, not supported by more people here in the U.S. than ever. The anti-war movement can reach and motivate more people now than ever before. It is so important for this movement, for us, to come out as loud and strong as possible in the coming months. This is not the time for us to divide ourselves or to put energy into fighting each other. Now is the time for all our organizations, with our varying positions to all come forward and embrace the people, as we all call for an end to the war and troops home now!

4strugglemag has always supported all the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition anti-war activities as well as the United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) activities. These are the two main anti-war coalitions in the U.S. We are not directly affiliated with either group. We do call on them both to keep working for unified national and regional anti-war events. Now is the time for more anti-war unity and organizing. Groups and coalitions can and will do their own work, but let us stay united in our big public events and gatherings.

It is with this call in mind, that we are reprinting the following Workers World Party statement. It deals with concerns about recent words from UFPJ, and their reluctance to continue working with the ANSWER coalition.

VENCEREMOS!
Jaan Laaman, editor

UFPJ Leadership Divides the Anti-War Movement

from Workers World

www.workers.org/2005/us/ufpj-1229/index.html

It was with deep concern that we read a recent communication from United for Peace and Justice, sent out on Dec. 12 by its national coordinator, Leslie Cagan. It stated that the coalition had voted by a two-thirds majority to no longer collaborate with the ANSWER coalition in the anti-war movement.

We salute the one third of the member groups who put the need for principled unity of the anti-war movement first. They had the courage to stand up and resist the pressure to support what is a totally unprincipled measure, which can severely injure the unity of the movement at a critical time when there are new openings to escalate the anti-war struggle.

The UFPJ document is filled with organizational complaints about ANSWER. We believe that these organizational complaints are merely a cover behind which the UFPJ leadership is readying an open shift to the right, orienting to the so-called “anti-war” elements in the capitalist establishment and preparing to use the anti-war movement as a platform for promoting the Democratic Party in the 2006 elections. We think that beyond being an attack on ANSWER, this document was a reflection of the aversion of the UFPJ leadership to anti-imperialist politics of international solidarity and to the orientation that rejects support for the Democratic Party.

But some things must be reviewed for the record. In the preamble to UFPJ’s declaration it referred to how they originally “did not believe it would be productive to make coordination with ANSWER a centerpiece of our September 24 efforts” and then went on to make a convoluted explanation of why they had changed their minds.

The truth about UFPJ and Sept. 24

This is completely disingenuous. The facts are that UFPJ, after having called for a demonstration in New York City on Sept. 10, 2005, switched it to Sept. 24 in Washington, D.C.—the same day and the same city where ANSWER had already called for a demonstration. This precipitated a crisis of disunity and confusion in the movement.

It had the effect of forcing people to choose between going to a demonstration organized by anti-imperialist forces, who defended the Palestinian and Arab cause, or going to one called by the more moderate anti-war forces. This, in spite of the fact that there was a strong political basis among the rank-and-file, new and old, for unity around the question of bringing the troops home now, ending occupations, and using money for human needs, not war.

Fortunately, the progressive activists in the movement prevailed and forced UFPJ to retract its plans for a separate demonstration.

This hard-fought unity resulted in a major revival of the anti-war movement in which 300,000 people came out and marched together. There were, of course, many shortcomings of the demonstration, including the fact that it was predominantly white and that the working class was not a strong force in the demonstration. But those are major historical problems that the movement must fight to overcome. These are matters outside the framework of this dispute and do not diminish the success of Sept. 24, such as it was.

The UFPJ communication ostensibly based its decision on three grounds, arising from the Sept. 24 demonstration: that ANSWER went beyond its agreed-upon time slot and thereby got more coverage on C-SPAN, putting forth a political message that was skewed; that ANSWER began the march an hour later than agreed upon; and that ANSWER did not turn out enough volunteers, thereby putting an added burden on UFPJ.

ANSWER has given a detailed refutation of these charges. But whether some or none of them are true is beside the point. Whatever difficulties were experienced by UFPJ, actual or perceived, they pale in comparison to the need to unite the broadest possible forces who are devoted to the immediate, unconditional and complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq.

All organizations in the anti-war struggle owe it to the Iraqi people, the people of the Middle East, and the workers and oppressed people right here at home to subordinate their own particular organizational interests to maximizing mass mobilization, so long as it is on a principled basis.

The Iraqi people are suffering death and destruction every day from the onslaught of the U.S. military machine. According to Johns Hopkins University, the Iraqi death toll now stands at upwards of 119,000. Tens of thousands are in jails. Families are separated. Cities and towns are in ruins from repeated U.S. military raids and air bombardments. The Iraqi resistance fighters are giving their lives daily to expel the colonial occupiers.

The suffering and sacrifice of the Iraqi people in the daily struggle are of such monumental magnitude in human terms that the UFPJ leaders should be ashamed to even bring up their relatively minuscule organizational complaints as a reason for breaking the unity of the struggle against the war.

But UFPJ’s motivation is not organizational. It is political. The leadership of UFPJ has always been against the left and has always oriented towards the Democratic Party. Those who constitute the leadership today were in organizations that tried to isolate and undermine the anti-imperialist forces and all militancy going back to the Vietnam-War era. These leaders were in favor of “sanctions, not war” during the Gulf War of 1991.

UFPJ was actually created in reaction to and in opposition to ANSWER after Sept. 11, 2001, when ANSWER became the central force resisting the Bush campaign of “permanent war.” From the moment UFPJ was created, its leadership resisted any united front and had to be dragged by the movement, including its own member organizations, into united activity. This happened on April 20, 2002; Oct. 25, 2003; March 20, 2004; and this past Sept. 24.

UFPJ and the Democrats

Up until now, however, the UFPJ leaders have handled their splitting activities one demonstration at a time, without openly elevating their opposition to ANSWER and, in reality, the whole anti-imperialist left, to the level of firm policy. What has changed? It’s the combination of the beginning of a split in the ruling class and the approach of the 2006 elections.

John Murtha, the militarist Democratic Party Congress member from Pennsylvania who is close to the Pentagon, declared that “It is time to bring the troops home”—when “practical,” hopefully in six months. He is for leaving a strike force “over the horizon.” Murtha’s position reveals a growing split among the generals and in the ruling class over the war.

Murtha, Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic Party leaders did not shed one tear for the Iraqi people. On the contrary, they represent the forces that want to find a way to salvage the interests of U.S. imperialism, which has sunk into a quagmire with the colonial adventure in Iraq. At the same time, they want to utilize the growing anti-war sentiment, not to get the U.S. out of Iraq, but to get themselves into office, where they will pursue a “multilateral” approach to securing the interests of Washington, Wall Street and the Penta gon in Iraq and everywhere.

Leslie Cagan and the social democratic leaders of UFPJ took this as their cue to put up a firewall between themselves and the anti-imperialist left and stretch out their arms to what they hope will be a bourgeois opposition. At the same time, they see Bush’s poll numbers dropping, the Republicans beset by corruption scandals, and the Demo cratic Party salivating in expectation of taking back the Congress in 2006.

Up until now, the UFPJ leadership had been forced to unite with the anti-imperialist forces because the capitalist politicians were nowhere to be found in the fight against Bush to stop the war. Their criticisms were restricted to what happened before the war—the lies about WMDs, about Iraqi links to al-Qaeda, etc.—and how badly the war was going. John Kerry was still calling for more troops until only recently. Hillary Clinton was also a hawk. But now that the odor of a bourgeois opposition has arisen from the halls of Congress, the UFPJ leadership is anticipating new alliances to the right.

This is not only a matter of speculation. Communications from U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) reveal that before the UFPJ leadership issued its attack on ANSWER, it was already in discussions about an April action with the moderate and bourgeois forces, including USLAW, Win Without War, NOW, PUSH and other moderate, social-patriotic forces, all of whom are oriented to the Democratic Party.

Democrats: a war party

The Democratic Party leadership is firmly under the control of the imperialist establishment. The Democratic Party, on the whole, is a war party. Virtually every Democratic president in the last hundred years has carried out imperialist wars and interventions. Just in the last half century, John F. Kennedy invaded Cuba and began the Vietnam War, which Lyndon Johnson continued; Carter tried to invade Iran and started a clandestine war against what was then a progressive government in Afghan istan; Clinton carried out air wars against Yugoslavia and Iraq and imposed genocidal sanctions on Iraq. The Repub licans, of course, were part of all this.

The social democratic, liberal and pacifist forces that the UFPJ leadership is looking to form a bloc with, as opposed to anti-imperialist forces, see the ascendancy of the Democrats as the solution to the Bush reaction. But the only real way to push back the reactionary forces of capitalism so as to end the war and benefit the workers and the oppressed at home is to build an independent, militant movement on the ground that is willing to fight.

Winning Congress for the Democrats won’t end the war. Congress is a talk shop. If it were more than that, at any given moment it could use any one of a hundred reasons to impeach Bush, to cut off funds for the war and occupation, to bring up Cheney on charges of being the “torture vice president,” and many other things.
Getting the Democrats in the White House, where they will be administering the aggressive, repressive capitalist state against the people at home and abroad, is no answer either.

The pages of this newspaper have advocated and encouraged anti-war unity with ANSWER and all other progressive and anti-imperialist forces, and will continue to do so where appropriate in the interests of the struggle. Organ izational questions must be subordinated to the task of ending the occupation.

In that regard, we encourage the movement to call to task the leadership of UFPJ and force them to reverse this divisive policy. The solemn duty to get U.S. imperialism off the back of the Iraqi people, to bring the troops home, and to defeat U.S. schemes to impose an “Iraqization” of the occupation requires the strongest unity, independent of the parties of the war makers.

Workers World
55 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011 USA

Email: ww@workers.org

March 18-19 Callout

from the Troops Out Now Coalition

MARCH 18 - 19:
World Unity Against The WAR - Bring All the Troops Home Now!
End All Occupations
Stop the War Abroad and the War at Home
Justice for Katrina Survivors
Money for Peoples' Needs, Not War

Demos in NYC; Boston; Detroit; Denver; Baltimore; Atlanta; Los Angeles; San Diego; Raleigh, NC; Washington, DC; Buffalo; and across the country...

On March 18 and 19, the Third Anniversary of the War--

The Troops Out Now Coalition joins the world movement against the war in calling for coordinated mass protests and resistance to the war and occupation of Iraq on the weekend of March 18 and 19, the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion. It must be clear that the people will not be fooled by partial withdrawal plans. We Demand the withdrawal of all occupation troops now.

Let's stand together with our sisters and brothers across the world against all colonial occupations from Iraq and Palestine, to Afghanistan and Haiti, to the Philippines, South Korea and Puerto Rico. Stop the threats on Iran and Venezuela. Hands Off Cuba. Together we demand no more new wars.
Bush's arrogant response to the demand to withdraw the troops from Iraq is a renewed vow to continue the criminal colonial occupation of Iraq and elsewhere until "victory". The leaders of the Democratic Party, for all their criticism of the way that the Bush regime has conducted the war, remain war supporters.

If we've learned anything over the past 3 years, it is that the only force that we can rely on to stop the war and occupation, bring the troops home, and to stop the plan for world empire by military force is the people mobilized into a mass, militant movement that makes itself felt in the streets.

In the U.S., TONC urges all anti-war forces, at the local and national level, to work together on the mobilizations in March for this is the best way to insure that the popular opposition to the war be turned into mass opposition in the streets. It is not necessary that all coalitions have identical views BUT it is necessary that we not allow differences to be an obstacle to unity.

With the level of opposition to the war stronger than ever, we could bring the entire country to a halt on March 18 and 19. We, as a movement, can do just that if we commit to forging unity.

TONC will be organizing for March 18 and 19 in every city large and small, from Boston, to Los Angeles, from Atlanta to Detroit. In New York City, TONC invites everyone to join us in a mass march from Harlem to Times Square for a rally on Saturday, March 18. By marching from the capital of the African-American community in the U.S. to the center of the city, we hope to underscore the reality that we are fighting to stop two wars-- the war abroad and the war at home against racism and poverty.

Amongst the many challenges that we face as anti-war activists and organizers, nothing is more important than linking the concrete struggles of poor and working people, especially people of color in this country, to the anti-war struggle. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's denial of clemency to death row inmate, Stanley "Tookie" Williams, is only the latest example of the systemic racism that oppresses, tortures and kills people in many different ways.
Our unity is strengthened by supporting full rights for immigrant workers here in the U.S. - not sweeps, arrests, deportation and fear. And our unity is strengthened by standing with people struggling for the right to return to their homes - this includes tens of thousands of people in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast kept from their homes by the criminal neglect and racism of FEMA to the Palestinian people struggling for the right to return to their historic homeland.
The racism and lethal hostility of the government towards poor and working people, exposed by the response to Hurricane Katrina, has made the strengthening of links all the more urgent. TONC proposes that all anti-war and progressive forces demonstrate solidarity with the struggle of Katrina survivors by making the demand for justice for Katrina survivors central to the March protests by engaging communities of color; making the protests relevant to these communities; coordinating with the survivors of Katrina and the activists that are involved in the Katrina struggle.

Let's keep the movement where it needs to be-- in the streets and let's work together like never before.

Troops Out Now Coalition
39 W. 14th St., Suite 206
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646

info@troopsoutnow.org
www.troopsoutnow.org

When Peace Activism Becomes Collusion with Colonial Occupation

by Marta Rodríguez

www.onepalestine.org

December 16, 2005

The recent abductions in Iraq of four Christian Peace Team activists produced two reactions within the American antiwar movement. Some forces, exemplified by the International Solidarity Movement, assumed the Iraqi Resistance was behind the abduction, and condemned the action. Others like Kurt Nimmo, who publishes frequently on the Uruknet site, speculated that the abduction could have only been the result of occupation black ops.

We need only remember the October arrest of British soldiers dressed in Arab clothing and loaded with explosives -- not to mention the many bombings of Shiite mosques and other civilian venues denounced by the Association of Muslim Scholars as occupation efforts to sow distrust among Iraqis -- to see why Kurt Nimmo would point the finger at black ops. Unfortunately, all of our speculation won't help us determine who was behind this abduction, because the occupation's efforts to censor the resistance, or drown its message in the cacophony of its black ops propaganda, makes it difficult for us to be certain of what is going on sometimes. However, regardless of who is behind it, we need to consider the possibility that there could be instances where resistance organizations would have legitimate reason to oppose the presence of some nonbelligerent entities in their countries, like peace groups from an aggressor country.

A reading of the CPT web site suggests that there very well could be legitimate reasons for Iraqis engaged in armed struggle to find fault with that organization's role in their country. The CPT not only engages in nonviolent protest, but promotes it to the Iraqis. They do this, not for the purpose of adding to the arsenal of tactics which should be at the disposal of any resistance movement, but for the purpose of replacing that armed resistance altogether. They have stated that their role in Iraq is to "take the initiative from those who would do violence." That would include the legitimate defensive violence employed by Iraqis against the war criminals and thieves who slaughter and torture them, in order to plunder their country without hindrance.

In addition, the manner in which the CPT goes about seeking relief for Iraqis abused by the American military, takes them from the line of nonviolence and human rights advocacy, directly into the realm of collusion with the occupation. For instance, the 2004 CPT report offers us various descriptions of meetings between their activists and occupation forces, where the military is told by them that if it ends its abuses and excesses, their security situation will improve.

This same report describes a January 24, 2004 meeting with Ambassador Richard Jones, (at the time Deputy Administrator and Chief Policy Officer of the Coalition Provisional Authority) and other American occupation personnel. In this meeting, Ambassador Jones discussed the creation of an executive board to work on the human rights abuses experienced by Iraqis. The CPT suggested that Ambassador Jones's staff arrange for regular meetings with Iraqi Human Rights lawyers, and "involve them in the planning for the new justice system in Iraq." Before the meeting was adjourned, the CPT says: "We left information with them about contacting three such groups that we work with on a regular basis and offered to help make initial connections with them."

First of all, this may come as a shock to the CPT, but colonial occupiers have no right to security; least of all when their invasion hasn't been prompted by even the semblance of provocation, and when no war crime has been considered too heinous when it comes to terrorizing those who oppose it. How can people who claim to be against the occupation of Iraq offer advice to occupying troops about what might improve their security, even as a carrot for better treatment of the occupied population? What occupier is going to feel compelled to leave a country where it's not welcomed, if its soldiers feel safe to trample about at their leisure?

Secondly, that "new justice system for Iraq" which the CPT is so pleased to have Iraqis help design, is the result of an illegal and unprovoked invasion. Its purpose is to legalize that invasion, and the plunder of resources it was meant to secure.

Thirdly, anticolonial resistance movements require the support of their people, and their commitment to protect their fighters. This support and protection is in part guaranteed by the people's refusal to dialogue with their enemies, or to settle for anything less than their complete and utter defeat, and ultimate expulsion from their countries. The CPT's promotion of dialogue between Iraqis and their occupiers, and the stick and carrot approach from the other side that often accompanies such dialogue, compromises the security of the Resistance, because it presents the potential for infiltration.

Fourth, promoting the collaboration of Iraqis in the design of any structure of the occupier is as good as promoting their acceptance and validation of the occupation of their country. Any relief that would result from this kind of collaboration with the occupiers would only serve to make the occupation palatable, thereby facilitating the U.S.'s hold on Iraq and its resources. This would give a resistance movement all the reason in the world to see the CPT agenda as a threat to their struggle for the liberation of their country, and to go after that organization.

Few would find fault with some of the CPT's actions in support of Iraqis, like their attempts to relieve the suffering caused by U.S. sponsored sanctions, and their willingness to serve as human shields to prevent the invasion of their country. But that does not give their organization the right to collect on their efforts by influencing the Iraqi response to their invaders, so as to make life safer and more manageable for them. For anything that citizens from an aggressor country do on behalf of people attacked by their government is owed to them, by virtue of the fact that it is their government who is pursuing their victimization. If the CPT and other American pacifists are so determined to see the plight of their occupation soldiers as somehow equal to that of the people they invade and brutalize, they could at least be principled about the manner in which they pursue their safety. They could encourage them to desert the occupation of Iraq, instead of trying to tie the hands of people who barely have enough to defend themselves with.

Relief for prisoners and other Iraqis abused by the occupation should not have to wait until the U.S. is forced to withdraw from Iraq. But there's no reason that Iraqis should have to trade that relief for the security of their movement, or their right to dictate the terms of the U.S.'s withdrawal. Here too the CPT's advocacy for civilians and prisoners is problematic at best, as they create a distinction between the "innocent" and "unjustly" imprisoned -- read those who do not combat the occupiers -- and Resistance fighters, which could undermine the support they require. Many of the objectors to the war in Iraq have described said war as criminal, because it was unprovoked, because it violates the sovereignty of the Iraqis, because of the many abominable war crimes the Americans and British have engaged in throughout its course, and because to prosecute it they've violated the international law they pay so much lip service to. If we truly believe that, then we have to consider all Iraqis intervened with by U.S./British forces as unjustly targeted, be they combatants, randomly brutalized civilians, or persons mistaken as Resistance fighters. As war criminals, international rogues and intruders, those occupiers lack the moral and political legitimacy to hold any Iraqi. Anyone wishing to alleviate the suffering of Iraqi civilians and prisoners should therefore pursue that work under the leadership of the Resistance, so that the relief is not obtained at the expense of their struggle for liberation, and doesn't produce artificial divisions among the population, that would compromise the support that all engaged in that struggle need and deserve.

There are those who would argue that the CPT's actions in Iraq are well-intentioned. Perhaps they are the product of the paternalism and naiveté that is so prevalent in the American peace movement, rather than outright malice and investment in their colonial/settler privileges. But the movement here could have sought their release without acting as another mouthpiece of the occupation's demonization of the Iraqi Resistance, or placing their need for freedom and safety above that of Iraqis. They could have demanded that the occupation secure their release by freeing the prisoners the abductors want liberated. Their failure to do that demonstrates once again the self-indulgence, white exceptionalism, colonial arrogance, and anti-Arab bigotry that have driven this movement's response to people fighting colonial conquest in the Middle East. The International Solidarity Movement showed its unabashed opportunism when it attempted to bolster its anti Iraqi Resistance stance by distributing a communiqué, apparently redacted by Hamas, demanding the release of the CPT'ers. The ISM has never supported those in the Palestinian armed resistance, who sacrifice their lives for the liberation of their people. Yet here they are, hiding behind Hamas, in order to take a swipe at another resistance movement, on behalf of citizens of their colonialist regime.

If American peace activists are at all interested in making their work relevant to people fighting colonial occupation, they might want to take a page from Ms. Ruth Reynolds, a U.S. pacifist who worked in Puerto Rico, when the Nationalist Party was leading our struggle for independence. Ms. Reynolds worked closely with the Nationalist Party. Though, as a pacifist, she chose not to partake of the party's efforts to organize insurrection against the United States, she did not treat the Puerto Rican people to the disrespect and colonial arrogance of attempting to dictate our methods of struggle. Her work to end violence in Puerto Rico was directed to the ones responsible for it -- the U.S. government who entered our country at gunpoint, and continues to repress our people in order to secure their stay there.

Her work, and the work of the Nationalist Party, did not lead to our independence, as other forces derailed the Nationalists' efforts with the "nonviolent solution" of the "Commonwealth" status, which to this date keeps our country in the hands of the U.S. government. But the support work Ms. Reynolds did for our movement is greatly valued to this day by independenistas throughout our country. This is the kind of support that Iraqis, Palestinians, and all peoples fighting colonial conquest are owed. Anything less is simply useless and irrelevant. Any support work which requires that colonized people wait till their aggressors are good and ready to stop their violence, or that they settle for anything less than full restitution of the lands and resources that have been stolen from them, is no support work at all. It's betrayal and collusion with colonial aggression, which is no less harmful than the bullets and bombs employed to force the subjugation of the colonized.

From Iraq to Palestine, long live the Mujahideen!
Victory to the Iraqi Resistance!
Libertad para Irak y Palestina!

Blindfolded Men

by Marilyn Buck

A row of men are marched, youth and ancients, blindfolded men,
hands bound tight behind, steps off balance, blindfolded men.
The line holds fast, the breath of one measures for the next;
prodded toward trucks, they stand attendance, blindfolded men.
The line folds up, each captive hoisted in by soldiers;
called a package in GI parlance, blindfolded men.
In hooded darkness, lines of men are moved to prison camps;
they listen as the sightless do, awaiting entrance, blindfolded men.
The line unfolds, dissolves into a breathing pool
bodies spread murmuring endurance; blindfolded men.
Captors guard blind-eyed over the tormented sea,
ignore the clank of manacled dance: blindfolded men.
Unfaced men become commonplace on front-pages
media disguises intolerance: blindfolded men.
Indifferent citizens don’t care to look behind prisoner masks;
the tortured would stare back, askance. Blindfolded men.

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

The Five Faces of Fascism

by Michael Novick
Anti-Racist Action-LA/People Against Racist Terror (ARA-LA/PART)

Like the weather, everybody talks about fascism, but nobody does anything about it. Just like the barrage of deadly hurricanes that continue in record numbers this season are being fed by global warming of ocean waters, the growth of fascism is being fed by a key underlying reality. The Empire is coming face to face with its own limits and with the catastrophic consequences of its own
self-destructive contradictions.

The economic "race to the bottom" of corporate globalization has de-industrialized the U.S. Simultaneously it's created a massive over-capacity of production using labor priced below the cost of human reproduction in China, south Asia, and elsewhere.

There's a concurrent race towards disaster between Peak Oil and Global Warming. On track one, we have the runaway train of economic and social devastation because of the soaring demand for a shrinking supply of petroleum and natural gas. On track two is the runaway destruction of the climate and the seas, through pollution by the gaseous wastes of petroleum. The only question seems to be how rapidly the tracks intersect and how total the smash-up will be.

Meanwhile, the endless war that hid beneath the surface of the "Pax Americana" has come out into the open. Domestically we see the Empire trying to contain social upheaval by militarizing the schools, the border, the police, and disaster relief. We also see the ineffectiveness of that military approach. Internationally, the US war machine is bogged down and bloodied in two land wars in Asia, Iraq and Afghanistan, trying to figure out how to deal with its problems by expanding them regionally.

In the face of these growing and intersecting crises in the political, economic and environmental spheres, fascism is once again rearing its ugly head. But like the crisis, fascism presents itself in a multi-faceted way. There are five main forces competing, contending and colluding in building a fascist response and "solution" to the problems of the Empire. Anti-fascist forces committed to human liberation and planetary survival must simultaneously challenge the Empire itself, develop solutions for the problems fueling the fascist response, and disrupt the fascist forces.

To do so, we need to get a clearer picture of the fascist elements and the contradictions among them.

Self-proclaimed Nazis, though not the largest or most serious threat, are a place to start. This is the element with the most naked racist approach, based on open white supremacy. They incorporate traditional nazi/fascist symbolism, and classic scapegoating of Jews. Particular groups within this tendency suffer setbacks, and ego drives rivalries between various "leaders." But this faction has an opportunist
tactical flexibility. It benefits from effective use of the media to magnify its forces and appeal. Nazis seize on every sign of racial friction. It appeals to younger whites with a sense of grievance about lost entitlements. They often present themselves as anti-establishment or even anti-capitalist, yet usually seek protection by the cops. They use methods of physical intimidation, as bullies do. But like all bullies, they are highly susceptible to organized physical resistance.

Clerical fascism is a second major component, also connected to an element of traditional fascism. It is based in religious fundamentalism, and often incorporates well-established and well-funded religious organizations, whether churches or lay fraternal groups. They base their appeal on a sense of moral decay under the Empire, but they are otherwise more than happy to operate within the mainstream and existing political institutions. In the U.S., we are
speaking mostly about Christian fascist groups, which focus on anti-woman and anti-gay organizing, opposing abortion and other reproductive rights, gay marriage and similar issues. But in a global context, Jewish fundamentalism linked to a more secular, but still religiously-justified, Zionism is an important element of this tendency, and in the U.S., Christian and Jewish Zionists make common cause. In the colonized and semi-colonized Muslim world, Muslim
fascist fundamentalism plays a role more similar to that of western Nazism, presenting itself as the voice of grievance, with an anti-establishment, "anti-imperialist" politics.

Anti-immigrant border vigilantes have resurrected the worst components of the old militia movement. They're most interested not in replacing but in supplementing the power of the state. Although some elements engage in anti-corporate or anti-politician rhetoric, this faction, like the Christian fascists, are generally content to seek entry into, and work with, mainstream political power.

Thus the Minutemen and such vigilante projects work with the Border Patrol, or run for elective office. They sponsor propositions targeting immigrants, particularly Mexicans, and work closely with Republican and some Democratic office-holders. While professing not to be racist, they also provide a convenient conduit and nesting place for nazi and white supremacist forces. For example demonstrators at anti-immigrant protests in Orange County, CA, showed up waving swastika and Confederate flags.

This is a growth area for a mass base for fascist solutions. The state legitimizes the use of extra-governmental armed force in direct anti-immigrant action. Anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican hysteria, an outlet for white grievance, has enabled these groups to spread with Mexican and Central American migrants into the southeast, northeast, midwest and northwest, from the US "southwest," occupied northern Mexico.

An element within uniformed and clandestine military, law enforcement, and state security forces, operating independently of the official chain of command, is a fourth component of a fascist movement. This aspect has been somewhat dormant in recent years, at least in the U.S. But the increasing use of mercenaries by the Empire, as well as concerns within the ranks and the brass about the inadequacy of current domestic and international counter-insurgency efforts, is resurrecting it. Continuing setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan could
increase this component dramatically, with a possible appeal among demobilized and disoriented veterans unable to find a productive niche in civilian life.

Fascist elements within the state, the governing party and the ruling economic and political elite are the fifth element, since fascism is built from above as well as below. The Bush forces have been willing to cement one-party rule through electoral fraud and coercion. They provide red meat and marching orders to the clerical and vigilante fascists, and reward or protect fascist elements within the military and law enforcement. This will grow as the disastrous consequences of Empire, and the inability of the rulers to "deliver the goods" to anybody but an increasingly narrow stratum of the wealthy, erode popular support. The Democrats offer at best token alternatives to, if not outright reinforcement of, these approaches. This shows the systemic nature of the crisis, and the limited options available to the rulers as the crises deepen.

The strength of fascism in the U.S. in particular can only be understood when we recognize that the US political and economic system has always contained key elements of what later came to be called fascism. White supremacy, genocide, slave labor, and independent armed action outside the "authorized" use of force by the state, have always been key aspects of the US system.

The interpenetration of corporations and the state, and the incorporation of a mass base into repressive state organs, have always been found in the US because it is a settler colonial society.

Colonized people have always existed domestically within the expanding
borders of the U.S. Therefore such colonial methods of rule have always been present within the U.S.

Moreover, fascists understand, as the "left" in the U.S. mostly doesn't, that the Empire has always been a cross-class project. The system allows independent armed action by other classes and class fractions that support the imperial project, rather than a monopoly by the state or bourgeoisie.

The only effective resistance to fascism must be a thorough economic, political and social transformation. We can't appeal to some democratic principle or institution to forestall fascism. Passing a law, winning an election, or even impeaching or removing a president won't do it. This is a fight to the finish for human and planetary survival.

Let's get organized, and build the solidarity and connectivity among people to withstand a fascist onslaught and the underlying economic system and way of life that are causing the very dislocations the fascists claim to have a solution for. Individually and collectively, we must not merely abandon but actively overthrow an Empire that is destroying the planet. We need to develop a political jiu jitsu, use the force of opponents' offensives against them.

We must take advantage of the elite's growing inability to govern or rule in the old ways to begin to govern ourselves in self-determined ways, through solidarity, mutual aid and direct action.

In each sphere of fascist activity, we need to build alliances among the potential victims as well as counter-organize among potential supporters.

This is not about an electoral coalition based on a lowest common denominator effort to muster more votes and 'throw the rascals out' in favor of a new group of rascals. It's about uniting all the disenfranchised, exploited and oppressed to build a new way of life.

The calamitous nature of the state response to Katrina on the Gulf Coast has been reinforced by their activities in the wake of Wilma's devastation in Florida. Extreme weather will only become more severe.

Yet the 'best' we can expect from the state is military and police action to protect corporate property and enforce pre-existing privileges.

So we need on-going, pro-active efforts to build new forms of community, solidarity and environmental responsibility. We must create alliances among Mexican, Haitian, Asian and Muslim immigrants who are being targeted by the state and vigilantes; the women, lesbians, gay, bi, and transgendered people targeted by the Christian right; the Black/New Afrikan people targeted by the cops, courts and prisons; and working people generally. Only decolonization and self-determination provide a basis for this.

We must create a culture of resistance uniting militant young people with older generations capable of learning from past errors in order to prevent their repetition. This will allow us to confront and topple the state and fascists.

With Christian and other clerical fascism, we must identify the fault lines within the base of the fascists, as well as believers who share the religious faith but not the fascist vision of the right.

Regarding open nazis, vigorous, overt opposition as well as covert intelligence gathering and network disruption must be combined with a pro-active organizing strategy for reaching disaffected young white people. In this regard, work against not only military recruitment but also the militarist and propagandistic nature of education is important. So is a defense of young people's health, cultural expression, and rights, including those of young women.

Immigrants' rights organizing must proceed on the basis of a vigorous anti-corporate strategy for labor, and include solidarity with workers world wide.

Our opposition to the Empire's military aggression must reach women and men recruited as cannon fodder, because the struggle for a better world will require that they turn the guns around.

If we don't act to topple the Empire at its seat, the rest of the world's people will pay a terrible price to do it for us.

This is lead editorial from "Turning the Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist
Action, Research & Education," Volume 18 Number 5, November-December
2005. A free sample copy in the US is available on request from
ARA-LA, PO Box 1055, Culver City CA 90232. One year subscriptions are
$16 in the US, $26 outside the US, payable to "Michael Novick" at
same address.

www.antiracistaction.us

International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War

Reports on December 3, 2005

December 3, 2005 marked the first International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. Events to raise awareness of our imprisoned comrades were held in over 25 countries, including Palestine, the Philippines, Haiti, Brazil, Italy, Switzerland, England, India, Turkey, Mexico, Croatia, Canada, Spain and the United States. Below are some programs and reports of the diverse activities that took place in the U.S. (excerpts).

http://ppsolidarity.revolt.org/

There are over one hundred political prisoners incarcerated in the U.S. and tens of thousands imprisoned around the world. The U.S. government is using the Patriot Act and the “War on Terror” to imprison more people every day at an alarming rate. The force-feeding of hunger strikers in Guantanamo and the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib are only two of the grave human rights abuses taking place around the world under the authority of the U.S. government.

In response to escalating human rights violations, activists from around the world have decided to initiate an International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners. Donato Continente, a recently released political prisoner from the Philippines explained: “It’s time we took a united and international approach to the freeing of political activists and freedom fighters - it’s essential that we share our experiences and that we mount international campaigns.”

San Francisco - “Political Convictions: Liberating Political Prisoners” film festival

Oakland - Former Black Panther leader Kathleen Cleaver and Former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner “Speaking Out About U.S.-Authorized Human Rights Abuse”

When asked why she was participating, Ms. Cleaver said: “It's essential to work for the freedom of those still imprisoned because of their contributions to the human rights struggle within the U.S. particularly in these days of intensified government surveillance of and restrictions against dissent....”

Puerto Rican Independentista Alicia Rodriguez, who was pardoned by President Clinton after 19 years in prison, joined Ms. Cleaver. “The U.S. government just assassinated our freedom fighter Filiberto Ojeda Rios because they want us to believe that resistance is futile. Nothing could be further from the truth. We know from our experience that we must continue our fight to get all of our prisoners out -they must know that they are not alone.”

Houston: A Slave Has a Moral Obligation to Escape
by Yerba (More photos)

As part of the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, Robert King Wilkerson of the Angola Three spoke at the Station Museum on December 3, 2005.

Citing what he called the "irrelevance" of his own experiences while being incarcerated in solitary confinement for over 30 years on false charges, King's talk dealt primarily with his assertion that we are all--both the ruling classes and those under their thumbs--in his mind, "political prisoners" of a sort.

“If somebody dehumanizes you,” he said, “they have to dehumanize themselves, first.”

Filmmaker Jimmy O'Halligan showed a preview of his upcoming documentary Three Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation, and Angola 3 activist Scott Crow was also on hand for the event which was organized by Houston Anarchist Black Cross.

For more information on the Angola Three, check www.angola3.org/
To buy some of King's tasty Freelines go to www.kingsfreelines.com/
and to learn more about O'Halligan's film check www.3blackpanthers.com/

Boston - PRESENTE! - opening cultural performance

- Mumia Abu-Jamal, death row political prisoner
- Kazi Toure, former political prisoner
- Sergio Reyes, former political prisoner held by the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile
- Marilyn Buck, anti-imperialist political prisoner
- Speakers from Palestine
- Saja Raouf, Iraqi attorney
- The Foundation, radical hip hop
- Dennis Brutus, former political prisoner held by the apartheid regime in South Africa
- martial arts demonstrations
- Netdahe Stoddard son of Richard Williams
- Lynne Stewart, peoples' lawyer

Jericho Boston
www.jerichoboston.org
P.O. Box 301057
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

New York: International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners

Speakers: Ninotchka Rosca (Philippines, Gabriela network); Andra (Basque Country, Kalera Project); Ashanti Alston (Black Liberation Movement, U.S.), Frank Velgara (Puerto Rican Independence Movement, U.S. and Puerto Rico); plus a Palestinian comrade and statements from David Gilbert and Marilyn Buck, white anti-imperialist political prisoners.

Sponsored by Columbia Univ. SIPA Human Rights program, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement; Jericho (national and NYC); Hands Off Assata Coalition, NY Taskforce on Political Prisoners; Gabriela Network, ProLibertad Freedom Campaign; Resistance in Brooklyn; Women's Anti-Imperialist League; NYC Mumia Colition; Latin@s for Mumia.

Fairhaven College, Western Washington University: Beyond Bars: A Conference on the Politics of the Prison Industrial Complex

http://myweb.students.wwu.edu/~heddena/beyondbars.html

On Saturday, December 3rd, close to two hundred people came to Fairhaven College to attend “Beyond Bars,” a conference exploring the politics of the prison industrial complex. For an event in Bellingham, and particularly for an event on a college campus, the event was by all means a success: the attendance was fantastic, plenty of networking occurred amongst those already devoted to work around the prison industrial complex, and more permanent projects in Bellingham, including a branch of Books to Prisoners, will likely emerge in the future.

In commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity, the next session of conference was devoted to a panel featuring former political prisoners and political prisoner support activists. It began with a poem by Massada Grenella, which was followed by recorded audio statements by long-time political prisoners Mumia Abu Jamal and Marilyn Buck. Then followed a series of questions and answers with the panel. Included on the panel were Mark Cook, who spent 24 years in prison for alleged involvement in the George Jackson Brigade, an underground group in the Pacific Northwest; and Amin Odeh, a Palestinian who spent time in Israeli prisons during the first intifada. Cook and Odeh represented both domestic and international perspectives on political prisoners, and each stressed the centrality of United States policy to their experiences. Political prisoner supporters on the panel included Harjap Grewal of No On Is Illegal in Vancouver, British Columbia, who linked the issue of political prisoners to larger issues of immigration and state control; Danielle Ni Dhighe, who stressed the importance of international solidarity in supporting prisoners; and Christina McLean, who related the topic to her experiences as a friend of eco-prisoner Chris McIntosh.

Introduction to International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners

by Jalil Muntaqim

Ours is an initiative that speaks to many languages, cultures and civilizations bridging these differences into a single purpose. That purpose is to give recognition, solidarity and support to political prisoners, especially those suffering at the hands of US imperialism, either directly or indirectly; either by colonial or neo-colonial forms of oppression. Although we here participate and join in solidarity with this initiative, I am of the belief we in America, in the belly of the beast, need to do more. For decades, I have raised the issue of US political prisoners, and the need to broaden support for political prisoners internationally. We have successfully brought petitions to the United Nations on the issue of political prisoners, and the Jericho Amnesty Movement has established links of communication with political prisoner support groups in the Basque region, Italy, Germany and France, to just name a few.

What does this mean for the future of the solidarity initiative for political prisoners? Unlike Amnesty International, the Jericho Amnesty Movement gives recognition and support to political prisoners and prisoners of war. Jericho understands that the Geneva Accords and Protocols must be applied to those captured and confined for their militant opposition to US imperialism and that the US must abide by these international laws. Despite the United States connivance in conjuring new terminology to identify militant opposition to US imperialism, terms such as “enemy combatants” simply deny them recognition under international laws. There cannot be any true international solidarity without rejecting this conjured terminology. In this regard, the Jericho Amnesty Movement seeks to ensure that all militant freedom fighters are provided the opportunity to be treated in accordance with international laws governing political prisoners and prisoners of war.

To this end, I have proposed that once again a petition alleging human rights violations be brought before the United Nations, a comprehensive petition that speaks to both domestic and foreign held political prisoners and prisoners of war, including the disappeared. I ask all the representative groups and individuals in support of political prisoners attending this event and other events throughout the world to support the petition. We who live in the belly of the beast have the onus to take the lead in furthering this cause. Obviously, there is a need for a new revolutionary international movement. The oppressed peoples of the world are anxiously waiting for progressive and revolutionary forces in the US to get organized and mobilized. The oppressed peoples of the world are depending on progressive and revolutionary forces in the US to fight for our own freedom and liberation, and in so doing, free them of the tyranny of US imperialism. We can not, must not allow history to judge us any longer as being complicit. We can not, must not allow our silence to an oppressive US foreign policy be detrimental to others and beneficial to the ruling class.

There can not be international solidarity without substantial work to manifest the true meaning of solidarity. The task then becomes one of gardening the seeds of our commitment, cultivating our revolutionary determination and harvesting liberation and freedom. At the dawn of the new century, let us build a truly revolutionary international movement that is organized at the very heart of progressive and revolutionary movements throughout the world. Let us work for the amnesty and release of political prisoners and prisoners of war.

Long live the Jericho Amnesty Movement
Long live international solidarity with political prisoners of war!

Jalil A. Muntaqim #77A4283
Auburn Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 618
135 State Street
Auburn, NY 13024 USA

Statement for December 3 Events

by Marilyn Buck

To everyone who supports political prisoners, especially you who have been political prisoners and continue to struggle for we who are absent, we the hidden, thank you. Thank you all for being here for political prisoners worldwide.

More of us would be in the darkness and depths of imperialism, militarist and dictatorial dungeons if you did not keep the light and candles lit to keep us visible. We would be whited out before the glaring interrogation lights or the searchlights that deny sleep as part of torture to grind down our lives without the support of our movement, groups, and people who believe in human rights and dignity as well in the international agreements like the Geneva Accords and Declaration of Human Rights, so hard fought for.

This is a gruesome time for political prisoners to be. The U.S. naked embrace of torture, disappearance and isolation has been appalling. But it is significant that this syphilitic, demented prepotentate is stripping itself bare. Ironic, really, when stripping prisoners bare is one of the implements of degradation so commonly used. But we live in ironic times. We in the U.S. have an autocratic, demagogic president who blithely compliments Latin America on being free of military dictatorships. Perhaps he has forgotten that his family, his advisors and cronies – his government of the School of the Americas and CIA assassins – trained and financed those military coups in the 1960s and 70s with their torturers, disappearances and execution of people like us, like you.

So here we are. Here many of us still are, imprisoned from the Philippines to Turkey to Haiti to the U.S. In every country that is a stooge and henchman for global imperialism, on every continent, there are POWs and political prisoners of conscience. More than a few of us have been here for an entire generation. More are coming. We are alive, though some of us may be silent, waiting; our hearts still beat and shine like jewels – like Nazim Hikmet wrote – in the right side of our breast. The human rights side, the justice side, the side of the people world wide who have borne the depredations and degradations of white supremacist, neo-colonial war and rape of the land, resources, and bodies.

Sadly, we can’t last forever. We are women and men who are being ground down daily. Some who are silent, scream from being driven insane, out of their minds. Isolation and constant repression does destroy, especially after 10 years or 20 years or 30 years. Those of us who are still relatively intact are fortunate to be so. I believe your support and efforts have helped to save our sanities. Certainly, you have saved mine. We need your voices, your ongoing and fresh efforts on our behalf, in this battle for humanity and justice. Carry on the tradition – the tradition of struggle for justice, humanity and socialism.

Hasta la victoria siempre! Free all political prisoners.

Marilyn Buck, 00482-285
Unit C, 5701 8th Street, Camp Parks
Dublin, CA 94568 USA

(U.S. anti-imperialist political prisoner)

Solidarity is the Tenderness Between Peoples

by David Gilbert

For 12/3/05: International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners

Today we face, in US-led imperialism, the greatest destroyer of human life and potential in human history. The illegal and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq has caused 100,000 civilian deaths, contemptuously dismissed by the perpetrators as “collateral damage.” This war was preceded by a decade of ruthless economic sanctions that resulted in over one million deaths, more than half of them children, due to breakdowns in food, water, and medical supplies. The aggression against Iraq is one example of the much more widespread brutality needed to enforce a global economic system where 11 million children die each year from easily preventable causes and where 2.8 billion people live on less than two dollars a day. This system is so rapacious and ecologically irresponsible that it threatens the very basis for sustaining human life on the planet. Love of people and belief in life lead us to resist imperialism, always striving to find the methods that are most effective and most consistent with our underlying humanism. An important way to reaffirm the history of struggle and to contribute to the spirit and energy of today’s movements is to never forget, and to actively support, political prisoners around the world.

David Gilbert #83-A-6158
Clinton Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 2001
Dannemora, NY 12929 USA

(U.S. anti-imperialist political prisoner)

Defend Our Movements

by Benjamin Evans
Boston Chapter of the Jericho Movement, Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, and Prairie Fire Organizing Committee

Why is it important to defend our political prisoners? Why should young activists work to defend these veteran warriors, men and women who have been imprisoned for decades, when there is so much new work in our communities to be done?

As anti-imperialist political prisoner David Gilbert wrote in a message to mark the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners on December 3rd, support for political prisoners can be “an important way to reaffirm the history of struggle and to contribute to the spirit and energy of today’s movements.”

We must continue to work to free our political prisoners because in defending our prisoners, we are defending our movements. As the events of the past few years have shown, and continue to show, the U.S. government still sees our political prisoners as symbols of resistance, even if some of us have forgotten them. The U.S. government continues to punish the veterans of our liberation movements as a way of intimidating younger activists. If we allow this, we are surrendering a vibrant history of militant struggle and letting the state limit our future struggles. Moreover, movement veterans still have important lessons to teach us about the importance of resistance, solidarity and struggle, by any means necessary.

Several Panther veterans taught us an important lesson about how to resist government intimidation recently. On November 1, 2005, Richard Brown, Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones, Harold Taylor and John Bowman were released from jail in San Francisco without being charged. All five men are veterans of the Black Panther Party and were jailed for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigating the killing of a police officer back in 1971. Harold Taylor and John Bowman were first charged with this crime thirty years ago, but a judge dismissed the charges because police had tortured them with cattle prods, and other horrific methods, to get “confessions.” Now, as the Bush regime is advocating the use of torture against its’ enemies, an assistant U.S. attorney worked with the California State Attorney General’s office to reopen the case. However, all five former Panthers were steadfast and the grand jury’s term expired without any indictments being issued. After being released the five expressed their thanks for all the support they received, but cautioned, “it ain't over yet!”

In fact it’s not over, as veteran activists around the country are being investigated on decades old charges. For both federal and state prosecutors, reopening old cases and charging radical veteran activists appears to be a surefire way to appear “tough on terrorism.” We need to change this equation by using these cases to educate and organize. The Panther veterans provide a strong example. By refusing to cooperate and going to jail, they blocked any indictments and illustrated how to build a culture of resistance.

The Puerto Rican independence movement provides another example. On September 23, 2005, while Puerto Ricans on the island and across the diaspora marked the "Grito de Lares," celebrating resistance to the Spanish Empire, FBI agents, serving a 20 year old warrant, shot and killed Filiberto Ojeda Rios, a 72 year old, independence leader. However, the assassination of Ojeda, far from intimidating activists in Puerto Rico, has lead to calls for the FBI to leave the island from statehooders and independentistas alike. Puerto Ricans have transformed outrage over the FBI’s actions into organizing.

The possibility that other grand juries will be convened continues. For example, on October 6, 2005, Maroon Shoats, former Black Panther, was visited by two New York City police detectives investigating the deaths of two police officers in 1972. Maroon Shoats is a 61 year old grandfather who has been serving two life sentences for the past 33 years, 27 of them in a lock-down sensory deprivation unit. Why is the NYPD now asking him about an unsolved case from three decades ago?

Recently, FBI agents have been harassing the Puerto Rican community in Chicago. Agents visited former political prisoner Alberto Rodriguez and the bakery where the director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (and brother of political prisoner Oscar Lopez) works as well as other community institutions created by independentistas in Chicago, such as the Vida/SIDA health clinic. The agents are apparently looking for Luis Rosado Ayala, an independentista who didn't show up for his last court date back in March 1981. Today, his whereabouts are unknown. But what is clear, is that Puerto Ricans in Chicago, familiar with the political uses of grand juries and investigations, are refusing to cooperate with the FBI.

We should all be familiar with the history of our movements’ resistance to political repression, including grand juries. When liberation movements surged in the 1960s and 70s, members of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, the Puerto Rican independence movement, and other advocates of self-determination for oppressed peoples within the U.S. were targeted by the FBI’s counter intelligence program (“COINTELPRO”). COINTELPRO aimed "to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" liberation movements. When it was pushed to investigate, the Senate found that COINTELPRO was "a sophisticated vigilante operation...fraught with illegality." Former assistant FBI Director William C. Sullivan told the Senate’s commission: "This is a rough, tough, dirty business...No holds were barred." This "dirty business" included unauthorized wiretapping, warrantless break-ins and even, in the case of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, assassination.

Only two government officials were ever convicted of COINTELPRO crimes. And one of the first things Ronald Reagan did upon assuming power in 1981 was to pardon them. Justifying the pardons, President Reagan explained that “they acted not with criminal intent, but in the belief that they had grants of authority reaching to the highest levels of government.” Meanwhile, there has been no pardon for the majority of the victims of COINTELPRO. Activists like American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier, a 61 year old grandfather, remain in prison after a quarter of a century.

The victims of COINTELPRO continue to be convenient targets. For example, immediately after September 11th, 2001, many political activists imprisoned for their political beliefs, affiliations and actions, including targets of COINTELPRO, were among the first federal prisoners to be moved into isolation units and refused permission to contact their lawyers. For example, seventy-seven-year-old peace activist Father Philip Berrigan, held in the federal prison in Elkton, Ohio, was locked down on September 11, 2001. Prison officials later explained that Father Berrigan was not allowed to contact his family or lawyer “for his protection.” Black Panther Sundiata Acoli, Puerto Rican independentistas Antonio Comacho Negron, Carlos Torres, and anti-imperialist activists Marilyn Buck and Richard Williams, were all placed in isolation units, along with many Muslim prisoners. Why were these prisoners, who clearly had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, locked down after Sept. 11th? On December 7, 2005, Richard Williams died in prison of health problems exacerbated by his 15 months in isolation. We can not allow any more of our comrades to die in prison.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues to target veteran activists. On July 27, 2004, Gary Freeman, a Canadian librarian was arrested at gunpoint outside the Toronto Reference Library. Freeman is charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery stemming from the March 7, 1969 shooting of Chicago police cadet Terrence Knox. U.S. Attorneys now claim the shooting was linked to the Black Panther Party following the murders of Illinois Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, and although nothing has yet been presented in court to definitively link Freeman to the Panthers, media reports refer to him as a “former Panther.” A Canadian judge finally ordered Gary Freeman (formerly known as Joseph Pannell), who has been locked up since July 2004, extradicted to the U.S. on November 25, 2005. Why is the U.S. government targeting a librarian who has lived in Canada for 13 years with his wife and children, with no criminal record? Is this part of the “war on terror” or an attempt to intimidate those likely to dissent? It is certainly part of a pattern.

On April 28, 2005, the U.S. Attorney General authorized the federal bounty on Assata Shakur, the former Black Panther who has lived in exile in Cuba for the past twenty years, to be increased to $1,000,000. This is a threat to Assata's life, designed to induce international bounty hunters and opportunists to capture her.

In 2003, another former Panther, Kamau Sadiki, was charged with the murder of a police officer which took place in Atlanta in 1971. Federal agents questioned Kamau, who is the father of Assata’s daughter, about helping them capture Assata. He refused and was convicted on the thirty year old murder charges.

On March 27, 2003, a 49-year-old homeless man, Arlo Looking Cloud, was arrested in Denver on a warrant issued by federal authorities in South Dakota for the 1975 murder of American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Looking Cloud, a Lakota Indian, was also a member of AIM in the 1970s. “The majority of the testimony presented [at his trial] had nothing whatsoever to do with Arlo Looking Cloud,” according to Leonard Peltier’s Attorney Barry Bachrach. Instead it focused on discrediting AIM and its leaders, including Peltier. Looking Cloud was convicted in February 2004. Leonard Peltier comes up for parole in 2008. Peltier’s bid for clemency was successfully blocked by the FBI as President Clinton left office in 2001. After twenty-five years of inaction, why is the FBI investigating Anna Mae Pictou Aquash’s murder now? And what about the murders of the many traditional Lakota and AIM activists which have never been investigated?

The U.S. government may be trying to replicate its success in prosecuting several people accused of being members of the long disbanded Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). The FBI declared the SLA vanquished two years after a May 17, 1974 shootout between the SLA and 400 LAPD, FBI, and California Highway Patrol in Los Angeles, California. Six SLA members were killed and the house they were in was burned to the ground. After twenty-four years, in June 1999, Sara Jane Olson was arrested in St. Paul, Minnesota, and when her trial was scheduled for October 2001, pled guilty to a failed plan to bomb two LAPD patrol cars 25 years earlier, rather than face a post-9/11 jury. Olson originally received a five-year, four-month sentence and was scheduled for a July 2005 release. Then the prison board turned to a seldom-used section of California law, allowing it to recalculate Olson’s sentence in light of new, tougher sentencing guidelines, and increased her sentence to 14 years. In early 2003, Olson had another six years added to her sentence, when she, along with William Harris, Emily Montague (Harris), and Michael Bortin were convicted of a 1975 SLA bank robbery in which a bystander was killed. Another former SLA member, James Kilgore, was extradited from South Africa and sentenced to 54 months in prison for explosives and passport fraud charges. Before her arrest, Sara Jane Olson had spent over two decades as a peace and social justice activist in St. Paul. The SLA cases showed how the government can use decades old crimes, particularly after 9/11, to discredit today’s movements.

Another government victory was the conviction of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a Muslim cleric and community activist in Atlanta in 2000. Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is a veteran activist who was a leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and participated in its direct action campaigns to organize Black people in the south. He later joined the Black Panthers, advocating anti-imperialism, Black Power and the right of the oppressed to defend themselves and win liberation “by any means necessary.” In April 1968, after over one hundred rebellions broke out in Black communities across the U.S. following the assassination of Dr. MLK, Congress passed the notorious "Rap Brown Amendment" which made it illegal to cross state lines to "incite" rebellions. In 2000, Al-Amin was convicted of killing one sheriff’s deputy and wounding another while they were trying to serve him with a traffic warrant. Al-Amin was arrested by the FBI in Alabama days after the shooting occurred in Atlanta. The FBI agent who arrested Al-Amin openly bragged in court that he kicked and spit on Al-Amin, saying, "This is what we do to cop killers.” Al-Amin is now serving a life sentence. During his trial documents revealed that the FBI had been targeting Al-Amin and his community organizing in Atlanta’s Westend since at least 1995.

In 1993 Imam Jamil Al-Amin published “Revolution: By The Book”, in which he wrote, “The struggle is an ongoing process...When the first slave rebelled against being a slave, he gave an alternative to slavery that has been built upon until now. That’s struggle; and there have been many movements in the struggle - the abolitionist movement, the antislavery movement, the civil rights movement...but, the struggle still goes on.”

Defending our political prisoners is part of that struggle. And as the state continues to use its legal system to criminalize the struggle, we must respond by organizing to defend our movements.

Political Prisoners in the United States

by Jaan Laaman

There are about 100 political prisoners in various prisons across America. These women and men are listed and recognized as political prisoners by numerous Human Rights, Legal Defense and progressive/socialist organizations. These people all