April 26, 2007
4strugglemag 9
This begins our 4th straight year of publication. While we are a little late in getting this issue out, it is packed with information and ideas for you.
We begin with information on a very important new case - The San Francisco 8. The second section continues the discussion on hip hop, revolution and youth, with an important new analytic article by Akili and other material.
Section three has information on Palestinian child prisoners, the Lynne Stewart Organization, the concluding part of Maroon Shoats dynamic article, material on Six Nations prisoners, Leonard Peltier's case and more.
The final section mostly consists of an important document, the 1992 International Tribunal on "Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nations in the USA". While this has significant historical value, the findings remain completely relevant for the reality of people of color in the U.S. today, and their ongoing struggles for freedom and justice.
Issue 10 will be out in July. We encourage feedback on every¬thing in this and previous issues. We value discusiion, but action is always needed. We especially urge people to become involved in supporting the San Francisco 8 brothers. End the War in Iraq -All Troops home Now, and a Militant Mayday salute to all activists!
Jaan Laaman , editor
Jaan Laaman
(W87237)
Box 100
South Walpole
MA 02071
Stop the War Against the Black Liberation Movement: Support the SF8
BY JAAN LAAMAN
This past January 23rd, eight Black Panther Party veterans, were indicted and arrested for charges relating to the killing of a San Francisco cop in 1971. California courts dismissed this charge against some of these same men in 1975, when it was revealed that police in New Orleans had brutally tortured them during their original arrests.
These brothers - elders, are Richard Brown, Richard O'Neal, Francisco Torres, Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones, Harold Taylor, and two well known political prisoners, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqin (both of whom have been in prison for over 30 years). These life long revolutionaries, social justice and Human Rights activists range in age from their late 50's to 70 years old.
Soffiyah Elijah, deputy director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, recently said, "the case against these men was built on torture, just like the history of this country and it's commonplace for law enforcement to claim that they don't torture people, but in the end we always find out that they're lying."
In 1973, New Orleans police employed torture over the course of several days to obtain information from members of the Black Panthers who were stripped naked, beaten, covered in blankets soaked with boiling water, and had electric probes placed on their genitals. In 1974, a court ruled that both the San Francisco and New Orleans police engaged in torture to extract information, and a San Francisco judge dismissed all charges in 1975, based on that ruling.
Speaking on this matter, former political prisoner Kazi Toure said, "this government has used these same tactics under different names, they used to call it COINTELPRO, today they call it the Patriot Act. These atrocities are just another attempt to silence people, to intimidate activists and to distract the public from the atrocities the U.S. government also commits abroad."
This is an extremely important case for at least several reasons and it truly needs our attention and active support. First this clearly is a political case based on the Bush government's war strategy of legitimizing torture of "enemy combatants" in the "war on terror". The government now seeks to expand this to historical events and issues and struggles that have no connection to 9/11/01.
Secondly there are innumerable unresolved incidents in the past 40 years, stemming from the popular struggles against racism, war, protection of our environment, social and economic injustice and in particular the just national liberation efforts of Black people, Indigenous Native people, Puerto Ricans and Chicano/Mexicano people. If the government succeeds in railroading these brothers in this case, this may open the door for who knows what more.
Finally every case where political activists face government repression, trials and huge prison sentences, is a human tragedy for the women and men involved, for their families and children, their friends and community. In this case we are talking about men who literally have devoted their lives to the Freedom Struggle of their People. I'm honored to say I personally know some of these brothers. I know them as genuine and compassionate men, as highly principled, selfless, wise and good human beings who are still hopefull about freedom, justice and a beter world, after all these years.
There is no question that the Black Panther Party was the most dynamic and influential revolutionary organization in modern U.S. history. It had so much impact because most of its members and activists were truly dedicated and principled people. Long after the demise of the BPP, many of its cadres have continued to struggle for the rights and survival of Black people and other revolutionary causes. These 8 elder brothers represent the best of the Panthers then and the ongoing Freedom Struggle today. Now in their hour of real need, we all should actively reach out and support them however we can.
For more information on the San Francisco 8 check out:
www.cdhrsupport.org
www.thejerichomovement.com
www.jerichoboston.org
www.AssataShakur.org/resist.htm
Jaan Laaman
Anti-imperialist political prisoner
A 35 Year Old Case
COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Eight former Black Panthers were arrested on January 23, 2007 and charged with the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer and a sweeping conspiracy involving numerous acts between 1968 and 1973. Ray Boudreaux, 64; Richard Brown, 65; Hank Jones, 70; Richard O’Neal, 57; Harold Taylor, 58; and Francisco Torres, 58, were arrested in California, New York and Florida. Herman Bell, 59, and Jalil Muntaqim, 55, have already been serving time as political prisoners in New York state on other framed-up charges for over 30 years. A ninth man, Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth, is still being sought. No new evidence has been put forward in this decadesold case!
This Case Is Based on Torture
In 1973 Harold Taylor, John Bowman (recently deceased) and Ruben Scott were arrested and tortured by New Orleans police who were assisted by two San Francisco detectives, McCoy and Erdelatz. The torture included electric shock, cattle prods, beatings, sensory deprivation, plastic bags and hot wet blankets for asphyxiation. After several days, the men made torture-coerced “confessions” that were scripted by the police. In an interview with KPFA in 1975, Ruben Scott renounced his “confession” and exposed the torture that he had endured. A Federal court ruled that torture had been illegally used and a San Francisco Judge tossed out the case because of this.
Now, Ruben Scott is thought to be the government’s chief witness. The prosecution will try to use tortureinduced evidence which has no credibility and is inadmissible!
Rooted in COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO was the Federal Government’s secret counter-intelligence program which was used against the Black Panthers as well as other liberation movements, leftists and political dissidents in the U.S. The FBI and local police forces assassinated, arrested, tortured and framed hundreds of Panthers, who were considered to pose the greatest threat to the racist status quo of U.S. society. In San Francisco, the FBI wiretapped the Panther headquarters, infiltrated the organization and used every possible means to provoke violence within the organization.
The SF8 case is a continuation of COINTELPRO’s attack on the Black movement and community!
Rewriting History
Instead of exposing and prosecuting the government agents and agencies who were responsible for COINTELPRO crimes, this case persecutes the people who were targets of Government abuse and torture. None of the officers who were involved in the torture of Harold Taylor, John Bowman and Ruben Scott were ever questioned or charged. The Church Senate Committee investigated COINTELPRO in 1975 and began to report on the abuses of law and power which had been committed, but no one was ever held accountable. Congressional investigation into COINTELPRO’s true history must be reopened!
Homeland Security and Grand Jury Witchhunts
With funds made available by Homeland Security’s post-911 “war against terrorism”, the San Francisco Police Department reopened the investigation of the 1971 Ingleside murder of Sgt. Young and put detectives McCoy and Erdelatz from the original torture team in charge. Along with the FBI they began visiting dozens of people around the country in 2003, pressuring people to cooperate with the investigation. When visits failed to produce the desired results, grand juries were convened to subpoena people to testify. In 2005, Brown, Boudreaux, Taylor, Jones and Bowman were jailed because they refused to cooperate with the grand jury witch hunt. After they were released when the grand jury expired, they formed The committee in defense of human rights to publicize the human rights abuses perpetrated by the government of the United States.
The Abu Ghraib/Guantánamo Connection
Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and Extraordinary Rendition have exposed the ugly reality that the U.S. employs and backs torture in prisons and detention facilities around the world in direct violation of international law. The U.S. has ignored the international outcry and instead has tried to legitimize its use of torture as necessary in its war against terror. The case of the San Francisco 8 extends the effort to make torture an acceptable practice to a domestic case. The prosecution is hoping that what was inadmissible 35 years ago has now been normalized. This case could set an intolerable moral standard and a disastrous legal precedent!
The War Against the Black Community
Under the guise of fighting the “war against terrorism”, the case of the San Francisco 8 opens one more front in the government’s ongoing war against the Black community. Soaring numbers of Black and Brown people are being warehoused in prisons across the country, police brutality continues on a routine basis, and daily murders of Black youth go uninvestigated and unsolved. Hurricane Katrina has spotlighted the degree to which the government views Black lives and welfare as expendable on a massive level. From the bay to the gulf the situation for the majority of Black people has only gotten worse since the days of the Panthers!
Resistance is Possible and Necessary!
As the situation for Black people in the U.S. deteriorates, the specter of Black organizing and resistance is as much of a threat to the government today as it was when the Panthers formed in 1966. The arrest of the San Francisco 8 is meant to send a chilling message to all those who might think about resisting today. In 1998, former Panther Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt was released after 27 years in prison when he finally proved that he had been framed by a COINTELPRO plot. The San Francisco 8 are being targeted by a similar fabrication. The government’s cynical manipulation 35 years later must be exposed and stopped.
Join the effort to free the San Francisco Eight, stop torture, expose COINTELPRO!
• Sign up for the CDHR e-list for up-to-date information at www.cdhrsupport.org
• Show the video Legacy of Torture which gives the background to the SF8 case
• Come to the courtroom to show your support
• Donate to the national campaign to free the SF8 – mail to address below; tax deductible checks payable to CDHR/AGAPE
• Write to the SF8
Herman Bell, #79C-0262,
Sullivan Correctional Facility
Box 116
Fallsburg, NY 12733-0116.
(extradition hearing scheduled for March 30th)
Ray Boudreaux, #2301300
850 Bryant St.
SF, CA 94103
Richard Brown, #2300819
850 Bryant St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
Henry W. Jones, #2301301
425 Seventh St,
San Francisco, CA 94103
Jalil Muntaqim, #77A4283
(Anthony Bottom)
2311826,
850 Bryant Street,
San Francisco CA 94103
Richard O’Neal, #2300818
850 Bryant St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
Harold Taylor, #2305584
850 Bryant St.,
San Francisco, CA 94103
Francisco Torres, #2307534,
850 Bryant St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
Supporters Rally to Demand Freedom for Activists Victims of Torture
BY JUDY GREENSPAN
from Prison Focus, 27. Spring 2007. www.prisons.org
On the same day that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that people do not have a constitutional right to challenge their imprisonment, nine former Black Panther Party leaders and community activists were indicted for something that happened over 35 years ago, the killing of a San Francisco policeman. And if today’s support rally is any indication, the Bay Area progressive community will not tolerate this outrageous attack on the Black Liberation Movement.
On Tuesday, January 23, after a two-year witch hunt by local, state and federal police, seven former Bay area Black Panther Party organizers were arrested,
Richard Brown, Richard O’Neal, Francisco Torres, Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones, and Harold Taylor.
Two well-known political prisoners, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqin (aka Anthony Bottom) part of the New York Three, who were falsely accused and convicted of killing two New York City policemen, have also been pulled into this ancient and unjust case. John Bowman, one of the targets of the two-year long grand jury witch hunt, died in December.
Why did the government indict this group of Black freedom fighters now? Why has the government relentlessly pursued these activists more than 35 years after the alleged “crime” was committed? Today, a local activist media collective, Freedom Archives, premiered their latest exposé of racism and injustice in this country, “Legacy of Torture: The War against the Black Liberation Movement.” The new DVD documented the torture of several of the arrested activists, Bowman. Jones, and Taylor at the hands of the New Orleans police department in 1973. Several of the men were incarcerated for refusing to testify before the grand jury. The video also captured the level of police brutality, assassinations and abuse suffered by the Black community during the 1960s and 1970s.
According to the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), a group devoted to exposing human rights abuses against progressive organizations and individuals, thirteen Black activists, were arrested in New Orleans in 1973 and
tortured for several days in a similar manner to today’s torture at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharaib prisoners. In “Legacy of Torture,” Bowman, Jones and Taylor graphically described being stripped naked and beaten by slapjacks and blunt objects; probed by cattle prods in their genital areas; and nearly suffocated by plastic bags being placed over their heads and wet wool blankets wrapped tightly around their bodies.
The government failed in the early seventies to bring any of these men to trial for the killing of San Francisco policeman John Young. In fact, all of the coerced false confessions from New Orleans were deemed inadmissible by California courts due to the physical abuse and torture suffered by the men. Brown, who has spent the last 30 years working with young people in this city’s African American community, in an interview in the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, denounced the government’s violence against the Black Liberation Movement. “I was named as a participant in 1971 in the murder case.
All Panthers were targeted. If we were doing something constructive, we were singled out. They killed Bunchy Carter, arrested and imprisoned Geronimo. It was just our turn. We were next on the list,” Brown stated.
Soffiyah Elijah, a New York-based attorney who has defended many Black freedom fighters, spoke briefly at today’s program which drew so many people to the Roxie Theater, the movie had to be shown twice.
“In the wake of 9/11 and the Patriot Act, the government is now resurrecting its COINTELPRO actions. Homeland Security is merely an extension of that effort,” Elijah said. COINTELPRO was the domestic government program used to undermine, disrupt and assassinate the leadership of domestic liberation movements, revolutionary organizations and progressive groups in this country protesting U.S. government policies in the 1960s and 1970s.
John Bowman, had this to say in “Legacy of Torture,” now dedicated to his memory, “I am sick of these people trying to destroy our community,” he said. The support at today’s program echoed this sentiment as hundreds of people signed-up to become involved in the defense effort.
A large crowd attended John Bowman’s memorial at the African American Art and Culture Complex following the film showing. For more information about how you can support these activists or purchase a copy of the new video, go to www.cdhrsupport.org or www.freedomarchives.org.
Graphic by Gerald and Maas, www.nightslantern.ca
Lawyers Guild Condemns Racist Arrests of Black Panthers
Evidence Against Men Obtained Through Torture
(San Francisco, February 13, 2007)
The National Lawyers Guild of the San Francisco Bay Area (NLGSF) condemns the arrests and prosecution of eight men believed to be former members of the Black Liberation Army as an attempt to validate political repression, retaliation and state torture...
The alleged crime, the killing of San Francisco police officer John V. Young, took place nearly three decades ago. In purposely removing the trial from the context of its time, the prosecution seeks to capitalize on the change in public consciousness surrounding the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and cast the defendants as violent militants. "There has never been any reliable evidence connecting these men to the alleged crime, but times have changed and prosecutors may believe this is the best shot they have," said Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director of the NLGSF.
"At the time people were more aware of the violence committed by law enforcement against African Americans and radical political movements." The state is also attempting to deny its involvement in torturing several of the defendants. As Stuart Hanlon, the attorney for one of the defendants, emphasizes, "people have to understand this is actual torture with cattle prods by New Orleans policemen, where San Francisco policemen were sitting outside the room, obviously knowing what was going on to get information – torture doesn't lead to the truth. It leads to what the torturers want to hear."
The Guild also sees the prosecution of these men as part of a renewed crackdown on activists that comes as law enforcement goes after environmental activists, animal rights activists, and real or perceived anarchists who rarely pose a threat to anyone.
"The government is attempting to prosecute these innocent men for crimes they did not commit on the basis of their political beliefs. We see this as part of a larger government campaign targeting social justice activists on the false premise of combating 'domestic terrorism.' Organizing against racism and police brutality should not make one vulnerable to state retaliation," said Mel Campagna, Chair of the National Lawyers Guild Anti-Racism Committee.
The National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area has nearly 1,000 lawyer, law student, and legal worker members from Sacramento to San Jose. We seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers of America in an organization which shall function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests.
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
P.O. Box 90221, Pasadena, CA 91109
415 226-1120 CDHR_RIGHT@hotmail.com
Rap, Revolutionary Consciousness, Youth and Struggle
It is a reality of life and of revolution that Liberation and change will come largely from the courage and work of young people. In issue 7 of 4struggle, we printed a letter from Akili, a brother from Pelican Bay. This began an important discussion about youth, culture, political prisoners and revolution. We are continuing the discussion and reprinting Akili's original letter. We are also running a new important analytic article by Akili, as well as more debate on all this. We continue to welcome more feedback on everything said so far. While this began and continues with a focus on hip hop, we would like to invite reggae, punk, reggaton and other music sets to contribute to this discussion also.
COMMUNICATE TO EDUCATE - EDUCATE TO LIBERATE!
Jaan Laaman, editor
Let’s Build an Anti-Racist Culture of Resistance
AR-15: Anti-Racist White Hip-Hop.
Turning The Tide, March-April 2007
By Michael Novick
How did AR-15 start? What is the musical and activist history of members
and your circle of supporters?
The seeds of AR-15 were planted in 1998 when Raw Potential and I met in AmeriCorps in San Diego, CA. We were right out of high school and we were doing community service projects around the West Coast and Southwest U.S. as a way to earn money for college. A Filipino cat from Oakland, who was on our AmeriCorps team, taught us to freestyle rap to pass the time while we worked on a variety of community projects. So we began rapping together while we were literally serving the community. Raw and I went our own ways for about 4 years after that and we reconnected in Oakland in 2003 and formed the rap group that became AR-15.
During the 4 years apart, Raw honed his rap skills in the battle circuit in the Bay Area, CA and took some classes in college with an interest in Black Studies. I went to college at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities for Ethnic Studies and cut my teeth in hip-hop organizing, connecting rappers and activists in causes ranging from immigrants’ rights, police brutality, welfare rights, and anti-war activism.
When we reconnected in Oakland in 2003 the convergence of rap and politics happened for us. I had been trained by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond in anti-racist politics and Raw and I both went through the Challenging White Supremacy workshop in San Francisco supporting various racial justice initiatives in the Bay Area. These experiences focused our activism as rappers on anti-racism and support for racial justice work led by people of color, and generally social justice work led by people that experience social injustice.
In terms of the people that support our music nationally, their activist involvement varies. We meet people where they are at in terms of social change and social justice and welcome all new fans and friends that want to get down with a movement for justice.
How do you try to or succeed in engaging your fans and listeners, who may be attracted primarily by the energy or artistry of your work, into a dialogue about the content and ideas you express?
We try to make music that allows people to enter and enjoy it on a number of levels. Metaphors and similes are our best friends, and we use language to make multi-layered songs. One person might listen to our music and hear dope, gangsta music. Other people might hear a militant or even revolutionary message. It all depends. Our job is to create a musical space where that can happen. We don’t force dialogue, we create the artistic and physical spaces where dialogue can happen. At the end of the day, it’s really up to the people how far we take this, as artists and as a movement.
When we are on tour we partner with local, racial justice organizations led by people of color to speak at our shows and sit on a panel with us after the show for an audience Q&A. It’s brief and not heavy-handed, and creates a space for dialogue. It also plugs audience members into supporting local racial justice work led by folks of color. We also donate 25% of every paid show to local and national racial justice work. Our panels and donations show two examples of what solidarity between white people and people of color against racism and for justice could look like.
I have done many benefits for Anti-Racist Action, even with explicitly political bands like Aztlan Underground, where most of the audience streams out during the breaks between groups, rather than listen to political speakers or even watching a video or slide presentation, or where speakers get heckled by the crowd. Have you had experiences like that? How do you deal with them?
If people come to one of our hip-hop shows, they’re coming for music. So we’re sensitive to that. We give them a good show. We do have speakers during our set sometimes, but they talk for 2 maybe 3 minutes max during. We’ve seen speakers heckled at our shows and we and the speakers keep it movin. As we say, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. The panel at the end of our shows is where people that want a clear social justice message will get it. And not everyone that comes to our shows stays for the panel. We don’t feel like it’s our job to make people listen. We do what we do and if we’re doing our job right people will want to get down and build with us after the show, or follow up on our suggestions for getting involved in local work. We’re real about the fact we are only one piece of a huge puzzle of social change work, and we can’t do everything. That’s what coalition work is for. It’s like a sports team— everyone plays their own position, but we’re still on the same team coordinating plays and strategizing together to win the game.
What mechanisms have you come up with for an on-going dialogue with listeners and fans, or for moving them from buying music or going to a show, which are more or less passive or receptive activities, into activism of their own, or even organizing?
Our obvious hope is that every person that buys a cd or comes to a show leaves ready to get down and do something. But that’s just not how it goes. We reach the people that are ready for the message. But the cool thing is when we come back to a city a second time, or a fan checks out our press or website they may think twice about getting active. We do much to shine the light on books, organizations, films, resources, and fans and away from AR-15. We tell people that they have what it takes to change their own communities for the better. And we also make ourselves available for support and guidance on that path.
In terms of our company, AR-15 Entertainment LLC, we run a street team that gives people a way to support our work and to make money for themselves at the same time. People interested should hit us up on our website: http://www.AR15hiphop.com. We use capitalism against itself in this way. Sure, some people wanna street team for us just to make cash, but if that’s where they’re at, cool. In the meantime, they’re helping us spread anti-racist politics and getting money doing so. It’s a for-profit strategy for social change. The right wing’s doing it, why can’t we? Like Talib Kweli said, we’re “revolutionary entrepreneurs.” And yo, who doesn’t want to get paid making the world better? We’ll have senator and congressman’s kids running cds to the Oval Office soon. Haha!
But, for real, we hire street teamers to sling cds and sell tickets to shows in their hometown and they keep a percentage of their sales. They’re learning business skills, but also organizing skills. The street team becomes a vehicle for mobilizing study groups, political activism, and conscious community on a local level. It is a tool that creates community around politics and it’s effective because it satisfies people’s basic needs— cash in pocket, food on the table, being able to pay rent.
You have probably heard criticisms of "cultural expropriation" when white people take up hip hop or rap, and have certainly been aware of how the music industry "bleached" other Black, Mexicano or Puerto Rican musical and cultural expressions to make them palatable to a white audience. On the other hand, many hip hop performers and recording artists today are finding the bulk of their audiences and of consumers buying their recordings are white. How do you see these issues, or deal with them? Do you address them directly in your music or your shows?
I remember I was in a class on rap poetry taught by Alexs Pate (author of Amistad, the Steven Spielberg flick) and there was a debate about white kids in hip-hop acting black. “What would you rather they do—act white?”, Alexs asked. America’s racist. We know that. White supremacy exists Check. Now whether or not AR-15 is in the rap game or on TV (“‘Ego Trip’s “The (White) Rapper Show”), or in film (“Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible”, World Trust, 2006), or in books (“Other People’s Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America”, Bloomsbury Press, 2007) white people are going to be appropriating culture and getting privilege. We don’t always know we’re doing it, it’s the way the system is designed.
So what do we do about it as white artists or white people? Do we say. “Screw it, everything’s so racist! I’m done with America!” meanwhile we are still receiving white privilege and still appropriating, whether we mean to or not. Or do we deal with the contradictions, the messiness, the craziness and take a stand and get out there? AR-15 chooses to take a stand. Are we perfect? No. Are we part of the gentrification of rap? Yes. But we figure at the end of the day, we’d rather have white folks speaking truth to power and building solidarity with people of color while appropriating, then white folks ignoring racism, ignoring privilege and always cashing in at the expense of other people.
In terms of the whitewashing of rap, we prioritize working with other politically conscious artists of color, women, and queer artists as a way to use our privilege to balance out the music industry when and where we can. Ultimately, its about building coalitions that make demands on the music industry. Hip-hop is an amazing art form, however, because it’s marketability actually relies on it’s blackness. Hip-hop pioneers talk about this as a lesson learned from blues, jazz, and rock-and-roll. As a way to help ensure the blackness of hip-hop, many early artists in rap formed their own record labels and became the middle-man between artists and major labels. This system still operates today, and is a way for the big labels to have street credibility, as well as a way for the black community to maintain some control over hip-hop’s face to the world.
For many white consumers, even, the music is not “real” if it’s not black. We know this, and we also know that as white anti-racist artists we will most likely not be looking at a record deal with a major label anytime soon. But we work with the fact that there are a lot of white fans of hip-hop out there, and we reach them through the fact that we look like them AND we have street cred with communities of color because of our politics and track record in the community. We’re showing white kids that there’s another way to be down in hip-hop, and that street cred in hip-hop can come from racial justice work as well as from skills on the mic.
How do you assess the state of popular consciousness among white young people about white supremacy or white privilege?
It’s not cool to be openly racist in most white communities today, but the understanding of white supremacy and white privilege as institutions and systems is lost to most whites, in our opinion. The fact that in hip-hop you’re lame if you’re racist is an amazing starting point to politicize the next generation of white anti-racists. We capitalize on that fact. Many young white people’s favorite musical artist is black, their favorite movie star is black, their favorite sports star is black, and many white youth have black friends or other friends of color. Broadening the analysis for youth of all colors in terms of what systemic oppression is and what it looks like, and what social justice is and looks like is what our work involves. Making this process fun is the tough part, but the advent of multimedia like digital film and music can go a long way if properly harnessed by anti-racist and racial justice activists, artists, and creative-thinkers. We feel blessed to be doing what we do in this historical moment. It’s an exciting time to be an anti-racist!
The racist right appears to have a much more seamless integration of its "cultural" activity with its political organizing strategy than is true among anti-racist forces. That is, white power bands and labels generally have had close organizational ties to white supremacist and /or Christian fascist organizations, funneling money into those efforts and attracting supporters. How do you see your relationship to membership-based anti-racist organizations and networks? How can we create a closer connection between cultural and political efforts against racism and white supremacy?
I think a big part of the “success story” of the racist right in using culture to put their message out there is that they have no qualms about using capitalism and money-making as a way to recruit and politicize. Because of the history of what money has done to poor people and people of color, the tendency on the left to shy away from business moves is understandable. However, the time, money, and access that many white people on the left have (whether they are honest about it or not) can play an important role in galvanizing some of this cultural power to put out a conscious message.
I’d like to see more anti-racist white people work to infiltrate the areas of music, entertainment, media, law, medicine, business, government, etc. and use their personal or professional contacts to help build the movement from inside the ivory towers, as well as from outside. This, I think is the charge to the next generation of white folks in the movement. Instead of shying away from privilege and access, I’d like to see more white folks work to obtain privilege and access consciously and flip it through accountable relationships with racial justice organizations led by folks of color.
I’ve already mentioned that we donate 25% of our income to local and national racial justice work. I think galvanizing more money for anti-racist work in the white community has to come from white people doing grassroots fundraising in white communities (among family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances). Integrating fundraising as part of the each one/teach one process of anti-racist culture is crucial. We can’t be afraid to ask for money for social justice work!
In terms of white anti-racist organizations, AR-15 works closely with the White Anti-racist Community Action Network (http://www.wacan.org) in New Jersey, the Alliance for White Anti-Racists Everywhere (http://www.aware.revolt.org) in LA, Y-STEP (YSTEPbayarea@gmail.com) in San Francisco, and the White Privilege Conference (http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com) in Colorado Springs this year and now Anti-Racist Action (hope this is the beginning of on-going work!) as a means of building a national white anti-racist coalition that is in lock step.
Creating a closer connection between cultural and political efforts against racism and white supremacy and for justice, I believe, is about staying in each other’s lives, reaching out, breaking bread. If you are a white anti-racist artist, are you connecting yourself to anti-racist and racial justice political work? If you are a white anti-racist activist, are you connecting yourself to anti-racist and racial justice cultural work? If not, why not? We need to become part of each other’s lives. We need each other. White anti-racists can learn much from people of color doing racial justice organizing, where integration of community, culture, and coalition is a basis of the work— many times as a means of survival! We as white anti-racists need to push ourselves to reach out and connect. AR-15 says, “Come get your hugs!” [smile]
Have you had to deal with attacks or threats from white power groups, either to your group or to shows you have appeared in?
We have had no organized resistance to our work, yet. We’re hoping for some. [smile] I guess that will be a sign we’re doing good work! We’ve received individual death threats and hate mail, some of which can be seen on the internet as a response to my video submission to “The (White) Rapper Show”. Check out: http://youtube.com/watch?v=nGItc-ej9P8. But we spend time and energy on the hate, though. We’ve got too many positive white folks and people of color who are feeling our message to connect with!
The white "pride" group Woodpile has been seeking a following among white (and other) prisoners. How do you see AR-15 appealing to or reaching working class white kids such as in juvie, jail or prison?
Neither Raw Potential nor I have been incarcerated. We’ve played gigs in juvie halls and the youth were feeling us. Raw grew up on Section 8. I always had enough growing up. We’ve played for rural and working class audiences that were predominantly white and have received tremendous support. We play wherever people want us. We hope our work inspires more white anti-racists to take a stand and reach out to their own constituencies within the white community, whether their constituency is working class or youth in juvie, jail, or prison, or another community.
In terms of Woodpile, they actually are on an anti-racist tip and a lot of people have it twisted. Check their interview with MurderDog Magazine on the blog on their homepage: http://www.myspace.com/woodpile They say, “There is going to be the people that don’t like what we are doing, promoting hardcore white boys without racism uniting with black dudes. For as many of them who have a problem with it, there will be just as many, if not more, who respect what is going down and see it as a positive movement.” They were signed by West Coast Mafia Records run by Sacramento-based rapper C-Bo who has a lot of street cred in hip-hop and most people assume would not sign a “white pride” group.
The name Woodpile actually refers to the prison term “wood” given to white dudes in prison who don’t affiliate with the Aryan Nation and who kick it with Black and Brown folk behind prison walls. Woodpile’s message is less explicitly anti-racist than ours, and as far as I know they don’t have a focus on social justice and community organizing. But obviously, any time white people get on the mic and spit about race (including us) people are going to talk.
Anti-Racist Action has had to learn some hard lessons about the persistence of male supremacy and other forms of oppression within the ranks of anti-racists, and still struggles to connect anti-sexism and support for queer rights into its work. Criticism of sexism within hip hop have certainly been extensive, profound and justified. How do you see such issues playing out in your music and the development of AR-15?
We see sexism, heterosexism, classism, and racism and other oppressions as interconnected, and so we connect our work against white supremacy with work against patriarchy, heterosexism and capitalism. As I said before we proactively choose to work with artists of color, women, and queer folk in order to be accountable to these politics. We also pay attention to the lyrics rappers are saying and have a pretty strict policy of not working with artists that spit degrading lyrics. Battling the system and battling people are two different things in our minds. Recruiting and paying street teamers who are poor people, women, people of color, or queer is also a priority for us. Their involvement in the company and as part of our work in local communities definitely helps guide AR-15 and ensures that as an entertainment company and rap group we are accountable, inclusive of all struggles against oppression, and seeking to unite rather than divide.
Any last words of wisdom, information, or questions you would like to raise with readers of "Turning the Tide"?
Turning the Tide readers should know that AR-15 stands for Anti-Racist Fifteen, fifteen principles that guide our rap group and company. These principles came out of our own mentorship by the Center for Third World Organizing (http://www.ctwo.org) in Oakland, CA and The Challenging White Supremacy workshop (http://www.cwsworkshop.org) in San Francisco, CA. The principles are explained in more depth on our website, but here they are in short:
1. Practice non-violence.
2. Learn anti-racist history.
3. Study legacies of resistance.
4. Research your family history.
5. Respect leadership of color.
6. Stand in solidarity.
7. Challenge oppression.
8. Listen actively.
9. Create anti-racist culture.
10. Act on your principles.
11-15. For future generations.
Also people should consider this an open invite to connect with us, come to a show, or join the street team. Let’s build an anti-racist culture of resistance!
Check out: http://www.AR15hiphop.com
Peace,
Jus Rhyme, AR-15
PPOC/POCs and the Hip Hop Generation: One and the Same!!
BY HAROUN AKILI MUNGU MTUMISHI (Akili)
In order to address the three questions from issue #7 (re: hip hop) it may be best to take a materialist approach [1] by first addressing the questions within the first question, which seem to be 1a) What is hip hop/hip hop generation? and 1b) What is consciousness? To do so we will use the razor-sharp texts Blood in My Eye by George L. Jackson and False Nationalism False Internationalism (FNFI) by E. Tani and Kae Sera as our reference texts.
Now that we’ve laid our plan, let’s work our plan and see what we come up with.
1a) What is hip hop/hip hop generation?
Foremost, let’s be clear. “the hip hop generation’ is an innocuous label much like the way people refer to cats from the 60s and 70s as the Motown or Black power generation. When in reality we’ve been harmonizing our voices with the rhythm and blues of daily life and making melodies celebrating the cycles of heavens and earths since time began.
When using the handle hip hop generation, one shouldn’t take it to imply my generation is anything different than what our elders are. What it should imply is recognition of our sameness and that we as the hip hop generation realize that with the set backs of the late 70s and 80s and subsequent technological advances, we’ve come into a new phase of this protracted war with its amateur revolutionaries and intensified contradictions. Peep this…
“What imperialism is doing is simple – it is called protracted war, whether revolutionaries do it or not, the state security apparatus is right now conducting war 365 days a year, year in year out. This is currently a one-sided war with all the politicized strategy, military offensives and total command of the battlefield being held by only one side. A one-sided war is still a war. Just because people are not together or ready doesn’t mean that the state security forces are going to call a time out. Although they always like revs to think they are not really active whenever revs don’t see them: ‘out of sight out of mind” is the motto of the amateur revolutionary.” [2]
We must keep in mind revolution is scientific, and science teaches that organic formations in nature whether of a sundial seashell, spider web, the trajectory of subatomic particles, the nuclear force of atoms, the double helix of DNA, galaxies, or even thought are spiral in motion. The progression of spirals is one of condensing and intensifying with every clockwise turn, causing extreme density and heat until there is an explosion and disbursement of the particles which make up that spiraling entity.
Likewise, with every generation the contradictions which abound and are carried form one successive spiral to the next will intensify and grown in heat until there is an explosion and disbursement of energy/matter or as it’s eloquently stated in FNFI – “even when new things come into being they carry with them the old and until and unless these old ideas and class views are consciously struggled out through study and practice, the old still retains its grip.” [3]
This is not only an analogy of revs, and revolutions but of the hip hop generation.
Check it…, there’s nothing new about any of the masta’s negatives or positives that my generation displays through hip hop. What is new is the amount of crumbs falling from the masta’s table, which dull the senses and reinforce the fantasy of success, comfort and prestige, along with the fervor of onesided negative energy via technology and the manipulation of images the enemy culture puts out to the world to keep hold of its illusion of power and privilege.
However, that still doesn’t answer our question. The best way to nail it down, is to hammer out the poseurs and toys (i.e. fakes). It is not this petty bourgeois idea put forward by the ‘opportunist’ of my generation that you hop onto whatever’s hip and clamor like crabs in a bucket for the trinkets of prestige. It has not a thing to do with assimilation and integration or “dumbing down” in order to be put on a paper pedestal by corporate amerika.
Why don’t we take a sec and examine what our G has taught us about prestige, the trinkets of prestige (i.e. material possessions) and why the enemy culture
goes to great lengths to insure there are always exalted puppets of prestige “showing their tin pans to the world!” (as my grandmother would say).
For one, “Prestige stands between the masses and a revolt against their class enemy. The aura of magic, glamour, luster and splendid permanence covers the fascists like a protective layer of fat. The slimy scales of majesty shield and conceal the dilapidation of the old bourgeoisie reign of terror. Although in reality nothing remains but the illusion.” [4]
For two, “Prestige bars any serious attack on power. Do people attack a thing they consider with awe, with a sense of its legitimacy?” [5]
So, the opportunistic petty-bourgeoisie6 puppets playing dress-up in the stolen trinkets of prestige are doing nothing more than passing out diseased blankets on a global scale. Nothing has changed since G observed that the “u.s.a is the colonial master the center of the imperial process where the raw materials are worked into finished manufactured products to be recirculated back into the exterior and interior colonies.” [7] Except that the manufactured products are no longer just Fords and Chevys, but ‘pop hop’ and it’s celebrities.
What we see and hear nowadays is best described as ‘pop hop’ and its marriage to capitalism is a new take on an old trick. As we learn from FNFI, “The CIA had previously arranged for the prestigious Ford Foundation to be their main instrument for penetrating and subverting Afrikan Liberation Movements.” [8]
“Ford Foundation grants were used to fund ‘social science research’ (i.e. intelligence operations), buy off opportunistic Afrikans and cover up for U.S. subversion of popular movements.” [9] I guess we can see why everything from Nasdaq (Wall Street) traded corporations to electoral campaigns have ‘pophop’ in the backdrop, can’t we? “Good, let’s move on.”
It’s not a nation. There is no hip hop nation, nor for that matter hip hop culture. What is popularly expressed as hip hop culture is the mass marketing of varying decrees of Western idiocy and regions of oppressed people gasping for air and a decent life within the vacuousness of capitalist culture, rerocked as ‘pop hop.’
Let’s keep it one hundred, pop hop in this sense, as a culture or nation would have to be classified as another example of false nationalism, false internationalism: let’s examine what false internationalism is to see if the glove fits, so to speak.
“False Internationalism is an opportunistic alliance between petty-bourgeoisie minded elements of different nations…” [10] - Sounds like Def Jam and all these so-called independent labels being pimped by one of the 4 major corporate labels.
“False Internationalism, no matter how “Nationalist” or “Marxist” its outward dress, inevitably promotes slavish attitudes to the supposed superiority of oppressor nations, of the imperialistic way of doing things, etc.” [11] – “Revolutionary but Gangster,” self admission of dope dealing to fund one’s label/lifestyle, and other forms of petty-criminality promoted and marketed by amerikan ‘so called’ legit companies.
“False Internationalism was a cover for dis-uniting the oppressed Nation.” [12] –Misogynous attitudes dressed up as being hip; the pretend East/West coast beef, gangbanging on wax, and all the little beefs since (which might have something to do with why ‘Pac was assassinated right as he began to live up to his name and cultural legacy by starting the One Nation project).
“While False Internationalism involves deception it is more than a trick. It is a class alliance between pettybourgeois and lumpen opportunist elements from both oppressor and oppressed nations. Misleadership and continued dependency on the oppressor nation is promoted against the interest of the oppressed and the collaboration is concealed under the label of revolutionary “solidarity” or “internationalism.” [13] – Trip-out on Paris high fashion and ‘pop hop.’ The international diamond distributors and ‘pop hop,’ the nba, nfl, etc. and pop hop. The major movie studios/media outlets and pop hop – shoot, i hear even nascar is getting in on the trick nowadays.
“False Internationalism is a dangerous weapon against revolution in the hands of revisionism because it uses genuine respect for proletarian unit, in order to reintroduce oppressor nation hegemony.” [14] – Take a sec, and ponder the pop hop mayors; there are two i know of, who won based on posing as members of the hip hop generation. Vote or die, pop hop action network, etc. all of which profit off being Black/from the street, but aspire to a mansion in the hamptons and front row seats at fashion week. Now who you think gon pay for that crap?
That should confirm the glove fits, but let’s not stop here. The fact of the matter is, the hip hop generation was not born of an immaculate conception. We rose from the ashes of burnt out slums in the South Bronx NY.
As a baby we fed on the leftovers of the Black Liberation Movement, while trying to fight city hall and slumlords. As adolescents we scrapped our knees and knuckles, hopping fences in South Central Los Angeles trying to duck the police. As young adults we vacillated between cultural nationalism and petty criminality, all while mixing, scratching, breaking, bboying, tagging and bombing to the sounds of traditional Afrikan rhythms, roots and culture music, funk, blues, jazz, rock and roll, gospel and r&b. Now as an adult the hip hop generation looks squarely down the barrel of the same two-line struggle our elders were faced with…“False Internationalism confronts us with this choice, slavishness or selfreliance.” [15]
So, to speak of hip hop as a nation unto itself, a culture unto itself, is to devalue and disrespect Black Folk and our cultural heritage which is exactly what the enemy culture hopes for. Because, to snuff-out and erase hip hop’s national and cultural hegemony is another way to snuff out and erase the national and cultural heritage and value of Afrikans throughout the diaspora. Also since hip hop supposedly belongs to no culture, has no national/cultural origin, they can justifiably and safely pin the ambiguous toe-tag “amerikan made” on the zombie ‘pop hop’ and peddle it all across the globe as the number one way to blind the oppressed and insulate the decadent oppressor in a cocoon of bling bling and other bullshit things!
Point being, hip hop is not this corporate hybreed – ‘pop hop’ that’s antagonistic to our cultural heritage.
Hip hop is people’s music, it’s grassroots expression of where we’ve been, where we’re gong and how we’ll get there and remain intact.
There’s a card i keep on the wall of this cage that says “I am Afrikan not because I was born in Afrika, but because Afrika was born in me!” Well hip hop is the musical expression of that same Afrikanness born in all Blacks/Latinos throughout the diaspora and by extension the hip hop generation is a house of mirrors in this Imperialist Global Carnival, some of the images will be distorted to appear gaudy, twisted, backwards and cracked. Some will be so grotesque, you’ll want desperately to break the damn mirrors but you won’t, because the reality is that this beautifully ugly image is yours and just like the rear-view mirror in a car – “some images are closer than they appear!”
Can you dig it? Great, let’s push forward and address subquestion 1b) what is consciousness?
Thankfully, our G has answered this for us as follows, “Consciousness is knowledge, recognition, foresight, common experiences and perception, sensibility, alertness, mindfulness. It stirs the sense, the blood it exposes and suggests, it will objectify, enrage, direct…” [16]
With that, we have pretty much answered the subquestions and can now deduce for ourselves the answer to question number one. How has hip hop influenced consciousness of the hip hop generation?
Let’s continue examining consciousness, and see what else G has to say in this regard and how that helps us answer question number two: Does the hip hop generation have a role in struggle today? What is it?
G teaches us, “Consciousness is the opposite of indifference, of blindness, blankness, promoting consciousness involves the general dissemination of the concept that each of us is part of a universal action and interaction. That poles are somewhere connected, that there are natural causes for trauma, vertigo, degenerative disease” [17] and that “Consciousness grows in spirals, growth implies feeding and being fed, we feed consciousness by feeding people addressing ourselves to their needs, the basic and social needs, working organizing toward a united national left.” [18]
There is absolutely no better way to answer question number two than that. Yes, the hip hop generation has a role. Amongst other things, our role is to promote consciousness, feed consciousness by feeding the people, address ourselves as ppoc/pocs [19] to their needs, to organize ourselves nationally as a united front and organize the people along those same lines. The hip hop generation as a whole and ppoc/pocs in particular must create the antidote to the “degenerative disease” of apathy and individualism. We must instigate the spirals spinning in order to increase its speed and friction with the intent of bringing about the explosion sooner than later.
So, let’s continue to push forward and address the 3rd and final question.
3) What should ppoc/pocs be doing or how should we be using hip hop to bridge the gap and support pp/pows?
First, a few more instructive quotes from Comrade G… “After revolution has failed, all questions must center on how a New Revolutionary Consciousness can be mobilized around the new set of class antagonisms that have been created by the authoritarian reign of terror. At which level of social political and economic life should we begin our new attack?” [20]
“In order to develop revolutionary consciousness, we must learn how revolutionary consciousness can be raised to the highest point by stimuli from the vanguard elements…” [21]
As ppoc/pocs our obligation is to act as the vanguard of the hip hop generation. We must capitalize on our observations of the enemy culture such as how it uses its technology (internet blogs, social networking websites, telecom etc) to spread the degenerative disease and neo-slavery, and move in a united front on the enemy cultures inherent weaknesses (i.e. it’s so spread out, it can’t defend all points of engagement).
Specifically, we must devise ways and means to bend their media outlets and technologies to the people’s will and service. We must keep the names, stories, and ideas of PP/POWs fresh in the peoples’ mind. This is the above ground point of attack. In a culture that sells the glorification of petty-criminality and incarceration as a means to weasel its way into a ‘global marketplace’ we as ppoc/pocs have the trump card of authenticity.
As we wrap-up, asking for some ideas on how we can play our card, we would be wise to take heed to G’s instruction that “tactics designed to further the development of revolutionary consciousness must be based upon the prevailing state of class and race antagonisms, created out of the new relationship.” [22]
The “prevailing state of class and race antagonisms, created out of the new relationship” that we are most glaringly faced with is found in such state sponsored statistics as “While Afrikan-Amerikan youth make up 15% of the population they are 58% of those admitted into state prisons.” Job-based health coverage has declined, job-based pensions have declined, incomes are lower, all necessities (gas, food, energy etc) are higher, poverty is more prevalent everywhere in the u.s.a. (“77% of Los Angeles workers don’t earn enough to support a family of 323).
Hopefully, theses facts pointing to the prevailing state of class and race antagonisms along with others we experience on a daily basis have us all thinking of questions, and exploring ideas of how we can develop unitary conduct on a national level which is perfectly natural, as G teaches “unitary conduct implies a ‘search’ for those elements in our present situation which can become the basis for joint action. It involves a conscious reaching for the relevant the entente and especially, in our case the reconcilable.” [24]
My suggestion is that we solidify our vanguard position in work and direct action events, through which we can build bridges amongst ourselves, PP/POWs and meet the needs of our communities. In terms of consciousness raising, working within the frameworks of organizations like Jericho, the MX Grassroots movement and ABC will ensure PP/POWs are represented and that we have the necessary organizational tools.
Push up, push out, push back!
Akili
A. Castlin (J-99402)
(Haroun Akili Mungu Mtumishi)
C-11-220 PBSP
P.O. Box 7500
Crescent City CA 95532
1 My use/meaning of “materialist approach’ is based on Comrade G’s definition: “We’re looking for connections; the materialist approach is to examine things in their total sequence, see them in process, not to merely establish their being in fixed sequential images but to take in the state of being in process; infancy; maturity decline, things in motion, processed, into other things in motion. We’re constantly laboring to determine that which governs, regulates, motivates all the separate but related and interrelated processes – from the viewpoint that consciousness is determined by dialectical, objective developments.” (Jackson. Blood in my Eye. p. 49)
2 Tani and Sera. False Nationalism False Internationalism. p. 249.
3 Ibid. p. 192.
4 Jackson. p. 47.
5 Jackson. p. 49.
6 Tani and Sera p. 5: “The petty-bourgeoisie (literally little Bourgeoisie) is an in-between class, that neither owns the means of production and commands society as the bourgeoisie class, nor sustains society by its labor as the proletariat does. Politically the petty-bourgeoisie is a vacillating and intermediary class, shifting its position back and forth between imperialism and socialism.”
7 Jackson. p. 59.
8 Tani and Sera. p. 182.
9 Ibid. p. 182.
10 Ibid. p. 182.
11 Ibid. p. 255.
12 Ibid. p. 196.
13 Ibid. pp 3-4.
14 Ibid p. 23.
15 Ibid p. 255.
16 Jackson. p. 23.
17 Ibid. p. 22.
18 Ibid. p. 81.
19 PPOC: Politicized Prisoner of Consciousness: A captive who has been politicized (i.e. driven to political action) as a direct result of captivity and the consciousness obtained as a result of that captivity. POC: Prisoner of Consciousness: A captive/prisoner who as a result of their captivity, has become conscious of the political, socio-economic and historical conditions that lead to their captivity, but has not been politicized (i.e. driven to taking political action).
20 Ibid. p. 117.
21 Ibid. p. 12.
22 Ibid p. 80.
23 From “Left Behind: Workers and their Families in a Changing LA”. www.cbp.org.
24 Jackson. p. 105.
This New Form of Hip Hop
BY PRINCE HERU
"Operatin' under the crooked American system too long, Outkast, pronounced outcast, adjective meaning homeless or unaccepted in society, but let's dig deeper than that... Are you an Outkast? If you under¬stand the basic principles and fundamental truths continued within this music you probably are. If you think it's all about pimpin' hoes and slammin' Cadillac doors you probably a cracker, or a nigga that think he a cracker, or maybe just don't. understand. An Outkast is someone who is not apart of the normal world. He's looked at differently. He's not accepted because of his clothes, his hair, his occupation, his beliefs, or his skin color. Now look at yourself. Are you an Outkast? I know I am, as a matter of fact, f**k bein' anything else."
-Ruden Bailey, from Outkast
Hip Hop is an art form and like all art forms it targets a select audience and illustrates the feelings of specific demo¬graphics. The first question Brotha Akili asks is, "How has Hip Hop' influenced consciousness of the Hip Hop generation." A question that needs to be looked into before answered.
It's the people, the pain, the poverty, the joys, and the laughs that produces the consciousness of Hip Hop; not Hip Hop that produce the consciousness of the people. When the community was more conscious, the music was also. As the community weakened and young men were more guided to drug and gang activism, rap also made the devolutionary transition. When the community was more intact and institutions(family, church, mosque, school, community center) were more productive in reaching their main goals, to produce favorable characteristics, rap music couldn't pose a threat to social equilibriums nor was it needed to enhance or influence consciousness.
From the failure of the previously mentioned institutions, mixed with Reaganomics, drugs, and other destructive attributes, rap music/videos became the most prominent if not singular medium that represents or relates to most Black men. These young Black men, most of them living in the ghetto or lower middle class households, needed/depended on rap for validation of their very existence.
Most young people don't listen to rap to enhance their consciousness; rather they listen to rap to soothe and articulate their consciousness. Conscious rappers like Immortal Technique and Common target conscious audiences. That is to say, one has to be conscious prior to listening to the aforementioned rappers in order to be influenced. Tupac was able to synthesize Black personalities: the militant, the preacher, the social activist, the pimp, the gangsta, the tragicomic of Black life. That's why he was apotheosized. Not because he was a "gangsta" as the world would suggest. Ghettocentric rappers like Jay-Z and Juvenile appeal to the ghettocentric audiences. Their goal is to relate to the people by articulating their story and struggle, not critiquing their story and struggle.
With that said, the Hip Hop generation needs educators to influence them, not rappers. We need to be taught about the struggle of Angela Davis and Shirley Chisholm, as well as Lil Kim and Foxy Brown. When one is conscious s/he, can enjoy rap and criticize it at the same time, but for the unconscious, rap validates their criminal mentality and influences them to destroy black bodies verses destroying white supremacy.
Untitled
Prince Heru
This new form of hip hop
Vocalizes my generation's pain.
The gains we seek
By selling poison to the streets.
Felonies
Producing melodies.
Like those Afrikan drumbeats,
Silenced by the Boom Sticks.
We don't scream,
"Black Power"
Or Jessie Owens the fist.
We scream,
"We're in dis bitch",
and fist meet jaws
We gamble in backyards.
We don't protect the streets.
We don't protest the police,
Subconsciously we've accepted defeat.
But
My generation is strong
Not weak.
But sleep
Not awake.
Our mothers pray for the day
That violence would go away
But even the Black Panthers
Couldn't call a truce.
My generation
has been nuked
I named my daughter
Sojourner
Hoping she would be the Truth.
Intellectuals think it's all about
Being misogynous and bashing homosexuals.
They don't understand
The idioms of hoodlums.
We smoke blunts
and get gold fronts,
Trying to reclaim our royalty.
"We want all our royalties."
Joseph S. . Cook #436664
G.B.C.I.
P.O. Box 19033
Green Bay, WI 54307
Liberation or Gangsterism: Freedom or Slavery, Part II
BY RUSSELL MAROON SHOATZ
"When you grow up in situations like me and Cliff... there is a lot of respect for brothers like [drug lords] Alpo and Nicky Barnes, those major hustler-player cats. Cause they made it. They made it against society's laws. They were the kings of their own domain."
Never Drank the Cool-Aid: The Ivy League Counterfeiter, Cliff Evans
The "Original" Black Mafia (BM)
Albeit a touchy matter to many, it's an irrefutable fact that the original Black Mafia was first established in Philadelphia, PA, in the late 1960s, and has since seen its cancerous ideas duplicated, imitated and lionized by Black youth ever since. Moreover, although it's unclear how much the national Nation Of Islam (N01) leadership knew or learned about the BM, there's no question of the local NOI's eventual absorption of the BM under Minister Jeremiah X Pugh. In fact, although the BM was originally just local "stick up kids," culled from neighborhood gangs, their being swallowed up by the NOI would eventually turn them into a truly powerful and terrifying criminal enterprise — completely divorced from everything that the NOI had stood for since its founding in 1930.
Sadly, most of the high level tricks were also used by the government and intelligence agencies to use them against the areas they came from; namely — co-option, the glamorization of gangsterism, separation from the more advanced elements and raw fear. Thus, it must be understood that although the NOI and BPP had different ideologies and styles, to most Black youth, both still held out the promise of helping them to attain what they most desired; self-respect, dignity and freedom.
Interestingly, the puritanical NOI's dealings with the founders of the BM were similar to that of the Catholic Church's historical relationship to the Italian Mafia. Meaning, the BM members who attended NOI religious services did so strictly on that basis, while still coming to the attention of the local NOI leadership as unusually good financial contributors. Within the lower class Black community being served, everybody knew that they were hustlers, stick-up kids, or both. So the same way the Italian Mafia would contribute huge sums to the Catholic Church, the BM would eventually do the same thing within Philly's Temple No. 12.
The national NOI, however, had been under close scrutiny and surveillance by intelligence agencies for decades. In fact, by the time of his death, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, had in excess of one million pages of files within the archives of the FBI alone! Therefore, anyone who still believes that the assassination of Malcolm X did not have a hidden U.S. government hand behind it, has no clear idea of the threat the NOI was perceived to be at that time.
Consequently, the BM's financial contributors would have come to the attention of the intelligence agencies through their monitoring. Nevertheless, overshadowing all of that were the bloody assaults the FBI and local police were leveling against other radical and revolutionary Black groups, like the local and national BPP chapters and branches, the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and scores of smaller formations. Indeed, FBI agents first tried to recruit Minister Pugh as a snitch against the local BPP by telling him that the BPP was out to get him and supplant the local NOI as competition for the Black youths' loyalties. Pugh, to his credit, didn't take the bait and also avoided getting his Temple No. 12 involved in a war with the BPP; although he had to suspect that his taking the blood money from the BM had also come to the attention of the FBI, and thus he was vulnerable.
Miraculously, around the same time, Minister Pugh's name was removed from the FBI's Security Index, which contained all
of the country's top level threats. After Pugh's being on this list for years, and right after they filed a report on his refusal to be a snitch, why would they relax the pressure? Co-option! How did they think it would unfold? Was it to give Pugh and his temple — and their BM followers — enough rope to hang themselves, or to become addicted to a game that was ultimately controlled by their professed enemies — the U.S. government and their underlings — and thus turn the tables on Pugh and force him to be less radical, more compliant, and no longer a threat on the level of the BPP, RAM and company?
For the BM members, the glamorization of gangsterism fit right in. After all, why would a group of Black stick-up kids and gang members call themselves The Black Mafia? This was in the era of Black Is Beautiful, when millions of Blacks began wearing Afros/Bushes and Afrikan dothing and adopting Afrikan names — completely at odds with aping Italians! Why not name themselves the Zulus, Watusis or the Mau Mau — like every young street gang was doing? No, Hollywood's projection of gangsterism was getting through!
Consequently, within a couple of years, the BM would uniformly be recognized as expensively dressed, big hat wearing, Cadillac driving, imitations of the Italian mafia. And sadly, they turned countless numbers of street gang members, former RAM cadre and militants from dozens of other Philly groups, who were fighting oppression, into pawns who were used to
further destroy their own communities.
The third leg of separating them from the more advanced elements operated under cover of Pugh and other insiders continuing to preach Black Nationalist doctrines amongst the youth in the street gangs and within the prisons, never missing an opportunity to hold out the illusion that they could gain pride and respect — while fighting oppression — by joining what they believed was a rebel group that was only awaiting the right time to throw their lot in with the masses of Blacks who were waging non-violent or otherwise bloody battles from coast to coast and on the Afrikan continent.
By tricking them into diverting their energies into gangsterism, Pugh and company were effectively separating them from the more advanced elements; albeit many, if not most, bought into the rationale that their extortion and drug dealing proceeds were a tax that was to be used to build The Nation. A few years later, that would be dubbed drinking the Kool-Aid, after Jim Jones and his CIA handlers tricked and forced hundreds of other Blacks to their deaths. And undoubtedly, Huey had also tricked his people with a similar game, although decades later that was all shown to be completely false! Yes, that money "did" build and/buy some expensive homes, cars, clothing, women and drugs — as well as a few schools and businesses — but to fight oppression — please!
Then, the raw fear being leveled on the entire society had the most devastating effect on them also. Otherwise, how can one explain or account for hundreds — if not thousands — of BM street soldiers, fearless enough to cow Philly's long-established and ruthless Italian Mafia, and its other mobs, and most of its warring street gangs and independents; the BM that fielded headhunters who literally terrorized the city by decapitations — would in turn produce such a lackluster showing whenever it came to confronting anyone in uniform?
I'll tell you how: Their leadership had completely disarmed their fighting spirits by always pointing to the shootouts and gun
battles that the BPP/BLA and other Blacks were known for and telling them not to resist the police until they gave the order— which never came. Comically, after the police and FBI had succeeded in suppressing, jailing, exiling and co-opting most of the BPP, BLA, RAM and others, then they discovered the BM and in turn attacked them with a vengeance — while none of the BM put up anything resembling real resistance, except to go on the lam; while Minister Jeremiah also made a 180 degree turn, becoming a snitch after being caught in a drug sting.
Thus, their legacy is one of a ruthless group of Black thugs, who have spawned similarly ruthless crews — notably Philly's Junior Black Mafia (JBM)and the latest clone, Atlanta's Black Mafia Family. But their most harmful effect comes from their deeds and mystique that has returned a huge segment of Black youth to believing that the only way to gain any respect and dignity is through being the best and most heartless hustler around: full cirde from 1955.
Finally, I used the BPP/BLA and NOI/BM because they present the most well "documented" examples, although both are surrounded by so much mythology that a true analysis is almost never attempted, except by government intelligence sources, who use their findings to refine, update and revise old tricks in order to continue to check and control this country's rebellious youth, while simultaneously persisting in oppressing the communities they occupy — in line with the ruling class's agenda.
Concurrently, the middle and upper class youth — from all segments of the First Wave — allowed themselves willy-nilly, and with few exceptions, to be fully co-opted as the new managers of the system they had vowed to radically change. They became the champions of — and made a doctrine out of — the necessity of always using and relying on passive and legal methods, epitomized by their new saint, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Second Wave: 1980-2005 circa
Thus, by 1980, the youth from the First Wave had, for all practical purposes, been defeated. Following which, they collectively descended into a long, debilitating, agonizing, escapist period characterized by pouring themselves into partying. Not discounting the fringe elements, who had their hands full trying to rebuild their sanity and families, or trying to go back to school or survive in prison or exile; everybody else seemed to be dancing on the ceiling, like shell-shocked vets of WWI and WWII and the post-traumatic-stress sufferers of the Vietnam War.
The most misunderstood victims, however, were that generations children; The Second Wave — from 1980-2005 circa. Albeit, those are the years when that generation either reached puberty or became young adults. Paradoxically, they were left in the dark about most of what had occurred before. They were instead left to the tender mercies of the reformed, but still rotten to the core and ruling-class-dominated schools, social institutions and cultural-propaganda machinery.
So, among all lower and working class segments of the youth, Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise fit the bill: They were raised by the State, either in the uncaring schools, juvenile detention centers and homes, or by the TV sets, movies, video arcades or the streets. Within the greatly expanded middle classes — most notably among the people of color — the youth were back to the gospel of relying on getting a good education and a good job as their highest calling; intermixed with an originally more conscientious element who tackled politics and academia as a continuation of the First Wave struggles. The upper class youth, however, were doomed to follow in the footsteps of their ruling class parents, since the radical and revolutionary changes sought, failed to alter the country all that much.
Like a reoccurring nightmare, the Second Wave youth also fell victim to co-option, the glamorization of gangsterism, separation from the most advanced elements, relying on passive methods and the raw fear of an upgraded police state. Left to their own devices, the lower class youth began a search for respect and dignity by devising their own institutions and culture, which came to be dominated by the gangs and Hip Hop — which on their own could be used for good or bad, but lacking any knowledge of the First Wave's experiences, they were tricked like their parents.
The Gang and Hip Hop Culture
Gangs are a working and lower class phenomenon that dates from the early beginnings of this country, having also been in evidence overseas. In fact, many of those who first joined the First Wave were themselves gang members, most notably Alprentice Bunchy Carter, the martyred founder of the Los Angeles Panthers and head of the notorious Slausons, the forerunners of today's Crips. As little as it's understood, they are in fact the lower class's counterpart to the middle and upper class's youth clubs, Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts, fraternities and sororities. The key difference is the level of positive adult input in the middle and upper class groups. And Hip Hop is just the latest manifestation of artistic genius bursting forth from these lower class youth — seeking respect and dignity.
"Orthodox hiphoppers speaks of holy trinity of hip hop fathers: Herc, Afrika Bambaata, and Grandmaster Flash. But, like moisture in the air before it rains, the conditions were ripe for hip hop before the holy trinity began spinning. Hip hop's prefathers or grandfathers are James Brown, Huey Newton, Muhammad Ali, Richard Pryor, Malcolm X, Bob Marley, Bruce Lee, certain celebrity drug dealers and pimps whose names won't be mentioned here..."
Toure. Never drank the kool-aid, PICADOUR, 2006
Alas, Hip Hop culture is daily being co-opted in ways so obvious it needs no explanation. But woe be it to us if we don't come to grips with how the Second Wave's gangs have been co-opted; an ongoing tragedy, moreover, one that if not turned around will ultimately make the shortcomings of the First Wave pale in comparison!
"Ronald Reagan and crack were hip hop's 80s anti-fathers: both helped foster the intense poverty and teenage drug-dealing millionaires as well as the urge to rebel against the system that appeared to be moving in for the kill, to finally crush Black America."
Ibid
Certainly, the gangs have comprised a sub-culture that has historically been a thorn in the side of the ruling class: One that either had to be controlled and used - or eradicated. Usually, that was accomplished by co-option and attrition, with older elements moving on, or being jailed long enough to destroy the group. Our First Wave, as noted, was able to — somewhat — outflank the ruling class by absorbing some key elements that lent their prestige to the rank and file's acceptance of radical and revolutionary ideas; which were pimped by BM style groups.
It is fascinatingly simple to understand how the Second Wave was tricked and continues to be bamboozled into destroying itself while just about all of the pillars upholding this giant confidence game (con-game) are familiar to everyone through the movies, TV, street culture and our own experiences with friends, family associates, cops, courts, jails, prisons, death and our own unfulfilled yearnings for respect and dignity.
Gangstas, Wankstas and Wannabes
All of the above — more than anything — crave respect and dignity! Forget all of the unformed ideas about the homies wanting the families, fathers and love they never had. That plays a part, but if you think that the homies only need some more hugs, then you've drank the kool-aid! Actually, even if you did have a good father, a loving family and extended family; if everything in society is geared towards lessening your self-worth because of your youth, race, tastes in dress, music, speech, lack of material trappings, etc., then you will still hunger for some respect — which will lead to you knowing some dignity within yourself. Even suburban, middle and upper-class youth confront this — to a lesser degree. No, all of the beefin', flossin', frontin', set-trippin', violence and bodies piling up around them comes from the pursuit of respect and dignity.
This is how 50-Cent put it:
"Niggas out there sellin drugs is after what I got from rappin... When you walk into a dub and the bouncer stop doin whatever the fuck they doing to let you in and say everybody else wait. He special. That's the same shit they do when you start killin niggas in your hood. This is what we been after all the whole time. Just the wrong route."
"50 Cent, Rolling Stone, 2003, in Toure. never drank the kool-aid: The Life of a Hunted Man, PICADOR, 2006
Admittedly, at times that simple — but raw — truth is so intertwined with so many other things, that it's hard to grasp. Namely, nowadays, the drug game and other git money games, as well the fact that most sets do provide a sort of alternative family, as well as a strong cohesion that is mistakenly called love. Hence, to cut through the distractions, I'll illustrate my point as follows:
When the Second Wave was left hanging by the defeated and demoralized First Wave, they unknowingly reverted to methods of seeking dignity and respect that the First Wave had elevated themselves above during their struggle for radical and revolutionary change; a period when gang wars and gang-bangin' was anathema! The revolutionary psychiatrist, Frantz Fanon, in Wretched of the Earth, notes that the colonized and oppressed are quick to grab their knife against a neighbor or stranger, thereby in a sub-conscious way ducking their fear of directing their pent up rage at those responsible for their suffering: their colonial oppressors.
So, the notable early sets like the Bloods, Crips and Gangster Disciples' primary activity was bangin' or gang warring over "turf," neighborhoods, schools, etc., as well as over real or imagined slights. But the real underlying motivation was all of the parties' desires to build their reputations and earn stripes, meaning gain prestige in the eyes of fellow bangers — which translated into respect among their peers. It also caused these youth to bond with each other like soldiers do in combat; a bonding like a family's — even more so. Not surprisingly, many outsiders decreed the bonding was "love," which also caused some youth to parrot that thought, but to exchange love, you first have to love yourself, and the gang-banger, by definition, has no love for his or her self — in fact, they are desperately seeking respect, without which anyone's idea of love being present is fooling themselves.
Example: If you "respect" your body, you can also love" your body, and you would not dare destroy it with drugs or alcohol. But if you don't respect your body, and you go on to destroy it in that fashion, then it follows that you have no love for it either.
The bangin' raged on for years, piling up as many bodies as the Vietnam War — each elevating the attacker's or victim's stature in the eyes of their peers. During those early years, the overseers of the oppressive system bemoaned the carnage, while locking up untold numbers of bangers for a few years, but overall, they did nothing to arrest the problem.
Now, here's where it gets really interesting! Drugs, as noted, had been flooding into these same communities since the 1960s, However, back then, it was mainly heroin, with marijuana and meth playing relatively minor roles. Remember the Serpico and French Connection movies exposing that? But the early gangs, to their credit, never got deeply involved in that They saw dope fiends as weak, and although they would blow some sherm or chronic, it was just a pass time activity for them: They were serious about bangin'!
Consequently, the bangers were all co-opted, wedded as they were to their form of fratricidal gangsterism and totally separated from the remnants of the First Wave — who they knew next to nothing about. And the "good kids" were being indoctrinated in passive, legal — get a good education — approaches, while both groups were scared to death of the police! Despite the bangers hate and contempt, any two cops could lay a dozen of them out on all fours at will.
Hence, Tupac's later iconic stature with them, since he could walk his talk:
"„,the fact that while everyone else talks about it, Tupac is the only known rapper who has actually shot a police officer; the walking away from being shot five times with no permanent damage, and walking away from the hospital the next day and the rolling into court for a brief but dramatic wheelchair-bound courtroom appearance — it's been dangerously compelling and ecstatically brilliant.”
"Tupac," The Village Voice, 1995, Toure, supra.
But something was on the horizon that was about to cause a seismic shift in this already sony state of affairs and alter things in ways that most still cannot or will not believe. Apparently, since this madness was contained in the lower class communities, the ruling dass's henchmen had no desire to do anything but keep their Gestapo-like police heavily armed and fully supported, since technology had made what they dubbed the underclass obsolete anyway: See Sean Penn and Robert Duvall's movie Colors.
Peep the Game
The South Amerikan cocaine trade replaced the French Connection and CIA-controlled US distribution of Southeast Asian Golden Triangle-grown and processed heroin as the drug of choice in the early 1980s. Remember Miami Vice? Well, as usual, this country's government intelligence agencies and the large banks immediately began a struggle to control this new cocaine trade. Remember: control not get rid of, as their lying propaganda projects with their hyped up War on Drugs! Thus, they were contending with South Amerikan governments, militaries, and large landowners who controlled the raising, processing and shipping of the cocaine; although for a few years, the latter had to also do battle with a few independent drug lords, most notably the notorious Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa family-dominated Medellin Cartel.
Within this country, the youth gangs had next to nothing to do with the early cocaine trade, which was then primarily servicing a middle and upper-dass — white — clientele, which had a few old school big time hustlers, along with some Spanish-speaking wholesalers, who also had their own crews to handle matters. Although, after the fact, the Hip Hop favorites Scarface and New Jack City are good descriptions of that period. But, they both — purposefully - left out the dominant role that the US government intelligence agencies played in controlling things.
Alright, I know you're down with all of that — and love it! So, let's move on.
In the middle 1980s, the US began backing a secret war designed to overthrow the revolutionary Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas had fought a long and bloody civil war to rid Nicaragua of its US-sponsored dictatorship in 1979.But after being exposed to the world, the US Congress forbade President Ronald Reagan from continuing his secret war. Like a lot of US presidents, he just ignored Congress and had the CIA raise milions, recruit mercenaries, buy or steal military equipment. and continue the war.
That's how and why crack and the mayhem it's caused came upon us. However, you won't see Hollywood and TV giving that up raw, with few exceptions, like Black director Bill Duke's Deep Cover, staring Laurence Fishbum and Above The Law with Steven Segal; otherwise; you have to search hard to see it portrayed so dearly — later I'll explain why.
Anyway, most people have heard that crack was dumped into South Central Los Angeles in the mid 1980s — along with an arsenal of military style assault rifles that would have made a First Wave BPP member ashamed of how poorly equipped s/he was. Needless to say, the huge profits from the crack sales, coupled with everyone being strapped, magnified the body count! Since crack was also so easy to manufacture locally, and so dirt cheap, just about anybody in the hood could get into the business. Gone were the old days of just a few big time hustlers, except on the wholesale level.
But, make no mistake about it, the wholesale cocaine sold for the production and distribution of crack was fully controlled by selected CIA-controlled operatives. So, to all you around the way dawgs who have been bragging about how big you were/are, an organizational flow chart would look something like this: At the top would be President Ronald Reagan, Vice President and former CIA Director, George Bush, Sr., the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State, General Secord, Colonel Oliver North, major banking executives, Central and South Amerikan military and government leaders, arms dealers, mercenary pilots and drug lords like Escobar and the Medellin Cartel, (originally); Justice Department attorneys, US Navy and Coast Guard officers, US Customs and Border Patrol officers, state and local police officers, county sheriffs and deputies, and their successors in office — arid at the bottom of the barrel: you dawg!
Now, I know you already knew in your hearts that there were some big dawgs over you, but bet you never guessed that the game came straight out of the White House, or that you were straight-up pawns on the game board. If that sounds too wild, then tell me why it is harder to find any government, CIA, military or bankers — like George Bush, Sr. and his crew — in prison than it is to win the lottery? Yeah, they double-crossed Noreaga, Escobar and the Medellin Cartel, and made Oliver North do some community service, but that's all. The real crime lords; the government, CIA, military and banking dons all got away. Albeit, after Congresswoman Maxine Walters made a stink about it, the CIA was forced to do two investigations and posted on their official website their findings and admissions of being drug dealers.
NAw dawg, yell were all played! Face it... That's what happened to you OGs from the 80s. But like Morpheus said in The Matrix, let me show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
Gradually, the US government was forced to crack down on the cocaine coming through Florida, but by then, the South Amerikan cartels and their government and military allies had found new routes through Mexico. At first, the Mexican underworld were just middlemen; but quickly recognizing a golden opportunity, they essentially seized control of most of the cocaine trade between South Amerika and the United States, forcing the South Amerikans into becoming junior partners, who were responsible for the cheaper growing and processing, after which the Mexicans would purchase mountains of cocaine for the transshipment overland and smuggling into the United States and its wholesale markets, that produced oil and automotive industry type profits.
One would wonder how and why would the South Amerikans — powerful players — go for a deal like that? As ever, the answers can be found amongst the Machiavellian and serpentine maneuverings of the US government and their poor Mexican counterparts. You see, in the 1980s, the Mexican government was overseeing an economy that was so bad, that for all practical purposes, they could have — or did — go belly-up bankrupt Indeed, the US and their underlings within the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) were forced to periodically give them millions upon millions in loans, in return for further unfair trading concessions, in order to save their economy. Note that the US was then, and remains today, extremely vulnerable to Mexico, because common sense, and past experience, told them that that the worse things got in Mexico, the more destitute their already — dirt poor — majority would become, forcing millions of them to find a way to get into the US to find the means to feed themselves and their families. Rather than keep prevailing on the IMF to keep lending Mexico money, they saw another way to temporarily plug up the hole in their control of international financial matters.
Thus, another unholy alliance was formed. This one was between the US State Department, the CIA and the big banks and other usual suspects on one side, and their Mexican counterparts — including their first fledgling cartels, on the other; with the South Amerikans now in a junior partnership role. However, I don't want to give the impression that it was all arranged diplomatically, all neat and tidy: Far from that!
No, it evolved through visionaries among the usual suspects putting their ideas before selected insiders and working to craft an unwritten consensus, the same way that they — along with Cuban exiles in Florida — had earlier created the cocaine trade to fund the growth around Miami, only this time it would be Mexico; a much more pressing and unstable situation. But, it was recognized by all parties that Mexico's underworld would eventually land in the driver's seat, due to their ability to take the kind of risks called for, their geographic proximity to the US border, and, most importantly, their strong desire to avoid confronting the US and Mexican governments — like Pablo Escobar had done — thus, they were more than wiling to guarantee that most of their drug profits would be pumped back into the moribund Mexican economy; through large budding projects, upgrading the tourist industry, large-scale farming and other dearly national ventures. And, on the messy side, their gunmen were becoming experts at making reluctant parties fall into fine by offering them a stark choice between gold or lead.
Nevertheless, avoid thinking that the Mexican or South Amerikan underworlds ever became anything more than hired hands of the big dawgs in the US government and their partners in the banking industry, who always remained in control. In fact, under President George Bush, Sr., the invasion of Panama — which was/is a major hub of offshore money laundering - was ordered after their hired hand, Manuel Noriega, became unmanageable in 1989.
These hired hands would ensure that the chosen corrupt politicians would gamer sufficient votes in the Mexican elections by bringing in plane loads of money that the South Amerikan gangsters and government/military partners would make available as part of their overhead expenses. But more importantly to the United States, a major part of the profits would be pumped into the Mexican economy in order to forestall its looming bankruptcy.
Consequently, by the middle 1990s, the Mexican underworld had established the super powerful Gulf, Juarez, Guadalajara, Sinaloa and Tijuana cartels. Moreover, they had consolidated their power by not only controlling who all were elected to key political posts in Mexico, but had also perfected the art of bribing key local, state and regional police heads, as well as strategic generals in Mexico's armed forces. Check out the movie Traffic and the Antonio Banderas/SeIma Hayek Bandalero and Once Upon a Time in Mexico and again — after the fact you'll see Hollywood spilling the beans, but don't let the fancy stunt work lull you into thinking that there's no substantive truth to the plots!
emember: Mexico's cartels would not be able to function without the collaboration and protection of the highest levels within the US Establishment; just as the CIA has openly admitted it was an illegal drug merchant during an earlier period, you can believe nothing has changed – except their partners!
The hilarious part is that none of the wannabe real gangstas in the US know that in reality, they are low-level CIA flunkies; or can't wait to get out of prison and become undercover government agents – slinging crack. Alas, most think it's crazy to believe that the government of the US would allow it's cities and small towns to be flooded with cocaine, clinging to the illusion that they are something more than pawns on a chess board.
If one doesn't go beyond the idea that this whole thing is just a plot to destroy the Black and Brown peoples – a favorite though short-sighted theory – there is no way to see just how deep the rabbit hole really is. I repeat: the main objective was to pump billions of dollars into the Mexican economy in order to avoid a complete meltdown and the subsequent fleeing to the US of 60 million or more Mexicans out of its "then" 90+ million inhabitants. This would have been a crisis that would have dwarfed the numbers who did cross over and are just beginning to make their presence felt.
Actually, the big dawgs in the US probably didn't know just how they were going to control the fallout that would inevitably accompany their cocaine/crack tax – they routinely tax alcohol, gambling (from the lotteries to the casinos) and even prostitution in certain areas, don't they? – S9, yeah, a clandestine operation to use cocaine to rescue Mexico and stave off an economically-induced invasion of the US by it's population, made poverty-stricken by five hundred years of colonialism, slavery, peonage, neocolonialism and the theft of one-third of their country by the United States in the 19th Century: an indirect tax.
Sadly, though, our First Wave's degeneration into the glorification of gangsterism; the Second Wave's hunger for respect and recognition that fueled the gang carnage; and the Hip-Hop generation's ability to provide the youth with vicarious fantasies to indulge their senses with the hypnotic allure of the temporary power that the drug game could bring them – led the youth in the US back to emulating the First Wave's Superfly and Scarface days. Others also see that:
"My theory is that nine times out of ten, if there's a depression, more a social depression than anything, it brings out the best art in Black people. The best example is Reagan and Bush gave us the best years of hip hop... Hip hop is created thanks to the conditions that crack set: easy money but a lot of work, the violence involved, the stories it produced – crack helped birth hip hop. Now, I'm part conspiracy theorist.”
Ahmir Thompson, aka? Quest love, The Believer, 2003, Toure, supra.
With the deft moves of a conjurer, the big dawgs in the US seized upon all of this and began to nudge these elements around on the international chess board – within their giant con game. Moreover, these big dawgs in the United States had very little choice because you can't develop something that dangerous and it not be planned. I don't think crack happened by accident... Crack offered a lot of money to the inner-city youth who didn't go to college. Which enabled them to become businessmen. It also turned us into marksmen. It also turned us comatose."
Cocaine in its powder and crack forms is so addictive, and the ambiance of the cultures that use them regularly so alluring amongst the rich and famous; the Hollywood set; corporate executives; lawyers; doctors; weekenders; entertainers; athletes; college kids; suburbanites; hood rats; hustlers; pipers; etc., until its demand is guaranteed! In most ways, it could be argued, it's just like alcohol and tobacco – which have never been able to be successfully suppressed in the US for long.
It follows then that, despite all of their propaganda about "Just Say Nor and the bogus War On Drugs, the big dawgs never had any intention of even trying to eradicate the use of cocaine. However, at the same time, the Black and Brown communities were becoming major headaches; ones that if left unchecked could evolve into a real strategic threat. Yes, crack had turned their lower class neighborhoods into lucrative mainstays of the big dawgs' alternative taxing scheme; however, the urgency graphically driven home by the non-Black/Brown communities' consumption of more – mostly powder – cocaine, but the trade in the Black/Brown hoods and barrios was accompanied by an unforeseen, exponentially
rising rate of ever more sophisticated, drug-related violence, especially since the gangs got seriously involved.
Now, as I've pointed out, the gangs were mainly just pursuing respect prior to getting involved with hustling drugs; and the carnage connected with that was not a real concern to the big dawgs. But unlike the earlier dumping of heroin in those communities, accompanied by the comparatively isolated violence of the Black Mafia-style groups; whose violence, though terrifying, was also more selective; the widespread availability of crack and assault rifles led the big dawgs to come to understand that if they did not aggressively deal with the ultra-violent, inner-city drug gangs, they would eventually move to consolidate their gains by forming South Amerikan and Mexican-style cartels. They could eventually take over inner city politics, like the Mexican cartels, threatening to become less predictable – once they realized that the money and power would not of themselves provide them with the kind of respect and dignity they sought. To understand why not, just observe the rich and famous Hip Hop artists who continue to wild-out, because they still lack the respect and dignity that comes with struggling for something other than money or power. In short, some type of cause.
Anyway, the Hip Hop generational favorite TV drama The Wire lays out the entire phenomenon pretty much like it had earlier played itself out in Baltimore and other urban areas; in fact, the fictionalized TV series derives its realness from an earlier long-running expose featured in a Baltimore newspaper: Another after the fact but still useful piece of work to study. Indeed, the show depicts the earlier years of the Black gangs getting deeply involved in the crack trade and clearly illustrates my point about the gangs evolving into proto-cartels – and subsequently being triaged before they matured into real strategic threats; leaving the crack trade intact.
That's why the "Prison Industrial Complex" was formed! It was formed as a tool to neutralize the Second Wave before they woke up to the fact that – despite their money and power – they were being used and played like suckers. A rub that the more astute of the big dawgs feared that money would not sooth. Thus, all of your draconian gun-related and mandatory sentencing laws were first formulated on the federal level – where most of the big dawgs have their most power – and then were forced upon the states. It was all to ensure that the Second Wave would never be able to consolidate any real power, precisely because they were proving themselves to be such ruthless gangstas, in imitation of their Hollywood idols, coupled with the potential power derived from their share of the undercover tax being extracted from their communities: that convinced the big dawgs to triage them every time they get too big, which averaged from one to three years in a run, then everything they acquired was taken. The martyred Hip Hop icon The Notorious B.I.G. put it all together in his classic song – rightly entitled Respect
"Put the drugs on the shelf / Nah, I couldn't see it / Scarface, King of New York / I wanna be it... Until I got incarcerated / kinda scary... Not able to move behind the steel gate / Time to contemplate / Damn, where did I fail? / All the money I stacked was all the money for bail."
Biggie Smalls, The New York Times, 1994, Toure, supra.
Let's get another thing straight! I mean an angle that continues to have short-sighted people chasing ghosts about why powder cocaine and crack am treated so differently. Within the big dawgs' calculations, there was no reason to harshly punish the powder cocaine dealers and users in the same manner as they were doing with the crack crowd. And, racism was not the driving motive – it was the potential armed threat within these proto-cartels! The big dawgs witnessed a clear example of what was to come by way of the Jamaican posses that cropped up in the Black communities at this time. Young men from the Jamaican and Caribbean Diaspora, who were also a consequence of the degeneration of its lower class's attempts to throw off the economic and social effects of its former slavery and colonial oppression. Led by the socialist, Michael Manley, and inspired by the revolutionary music of Bob Nestor Marley, which can be glimpsed in the later Steven Segal Marked for Death and DMX/Nas Belly movies, the Jamaican posses were the Black Mafia on steroids! .
Moreover, their quasi-religious nationalism, coupled with their ability to operate nationally and in the Caribbean, as well as their heavily armed soldiers, put the big dawgs' teeth on edge. Their ten thousand or so were nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands in the wings in the Black and Brown communities!
The cry from the big dawgs' mouthpieces in Congress was about the gunplay, not so much the drugs. What was not said, however, was the big dawgs anxieties about stopping these gunslingers before they got over their mental blocks about using their weapons against the police – or the system. They wanted to stop them while they were still hung up on imitating their Hollywood and Euro-Mafia icons, who made a mantra out of instructing their gunmen not to use their weapons against the police. Indeed, with few exceptions, the Second Wave allowed themselves to be disarmed and carted off to prison like pussycats!
Add to all that the unforeseen windfall of thousands of new jobs for the rural communities that were being destroyed economically by capitalism's drive for fuller globalization. These conservative rural communities are vital to the big dawgs, who need their religious-fanatical support.
We must struggle against the short-sighted view about racism alone being the driving motive force that fueled the construction of the prison-industrial complex. Instead, if you do a follow up and add your own research, you'll be able to detect and document the who, when, where and how the big dawgs set everything in motion; as well as how they continue to use us as pawns in their giant, international, con game.
Conclusion
Ask yourself the following questions:
1. How can we salvage anything from the how the First and Second Waves allowed their search for respect and dignity to degenerate into gangsterism?
2. In what ways can we help the Next Wave avoid our mistakes?
3. What can we do to contribute to documenting who the real big dawgs behind the drug trade are?
4. Why have they never been held accountable?
5. How come our families and communities are the only ones to suffer?
6. How can we overcome our brainwashing?
7. How can we truly gain respect and dignity?
8. In what ways can we atone for our wrongs and redeem ourselves, our families and our communities?
9. What are some of the ways to fight for restitution and reparations for all those harmed by the government imposed - undercover - drug tax?
10. How can we overturn the "13'th Amendment" of the US Constitution and finally abolish slavery in the US?
Once you've answered these questions and begun to move to materialize your conclusions, then you will have made the choice between Liberation or Gangsterism: Freedom or Slavery.
Things to Read
1. The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon and fall
2. Black Brothers Inc., The Violent Rise' of Philadelphia's Black Mafia, Sean Patrick Griffin
3. Monster. The Autobiography of a L.A. Gang Member, Sanyika Shakur
4. Dark Alliance, Gary Webb
5. Lost History, Robert Parry
6. Down by the River, Charles Bowden
7. Inspector General's First and Final reports on Iran-Contra and the Illegal Drug Trade, CIA's official website
8. We Are Our Own Liberators, Jalil Mutaquim
The Plight of Palestinian Child Prisoners
FROM PRISON FOCUS, 27 (SPRING 2007)
www.prisons.org
Palestinian Layth Ghalib Bedwan, 14, was arrested and detained by the Israeli authorities in August 2006. Since then, his family has waited anxiously for him to return home.
His mother is crying all the time. “I contacted all the children’s rights organisations in the hope that they can do something to accelerate the release of my son, but all my efforts were in vain,” said Ghalib Bedwan, 36, Layth’s father.
In September, an Israeli military court accused Layth of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, sentencing him to three months in prison, and imposing a U.S. $400 fine on him. “The occupation force stormed into our house at 2 a.m. in the morning,” his father said. “They were shouting and threatening to use their guns. They asked me to get my son Layth, and soon after they tied his hands, covered his eyes and put him in a military vehicle and drove away.”
Activists say the manner of the arrest and detention of children like Layth contravenes international laws protecting children. Iyad Misk is a lawyer for the NGO Defence for Children International (DCI) in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). He said international law allows for the detention of children or adolescents under 18, but under specific conditions.
“A specialised interrogator for children should interrogate them. The interrogation should be filmed and the parents should attend to be sure that the child was not subject to psychological pressure or abuse,” Misk said. He added that minors should appear before a special tribunal for children and only be detained in facilities dedicated exclusively for them, never with adults. “All these conditions are not provided to Palestinian children detained by the Israeli authorities, although they do provide it for Israeli child prisoners,” Misk said, adding that Israeli authorities try Palestinian children in military courts—another contravention of international law.
Misk said Article 37 of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child states that detaining children should be a measure of last resort, and must be for the shortest possible period of time. Israel signed this pact in 1990 but the NGO’s lawyers say that it is only being applied to Israeli children. Orit Stelser, a spokeswoman for Israel’s prison service, denied that the conditions Palestinian child prisoners are held in, contravened international law. “Of course they don’t break the law. There are lots of organisations, such as the Red Cross, who come to visit them and who check their conditions,” she said.
“Five thousand children have been either imprisoned or arrested in Israeli investigation centres for different periods of time since the start of the Intifada,” said Dawood Dar’awi, head of the DCI office in OPT, adding that they were being detained for participation or “suspected participation” in intifada activities.
Dar’awi said 95 percent of detained children are from the West Bank and the rest from the Gaza Strip. This is because Israel maintains overall control over the West Bank and not the Strip, from where Israel disengaged in July 2005.
A landlocked territory bordering Jordan and Israel, the West Bank is home to 2.4 million Palestinian residents and some 400,000 Jewish settlers. As such, Israeli soldiers regularly patrol the streets and make arrests as they see fit.
The Palestinian Ministry for Prisoners’ Affairs and children’s rights activists, like the DCI, confirmed the presence of about 450 Palestinian children from the West Bank in Israeli prisons, including three girls aged 15, 16 and 17. About 100 are ill, they said, three of them suffering from gunshot wounds.
This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Report, IRIN, 5 December 2006.
Remembering a 15 Year Old Palestinian Woman in Prison Chained to the Bed Springs She Had Refused to Stop Singing
BY MARILYN BUCK
Summer '88
Singing songs
chained
for singing
clear melodic minor notes
welling from sweet young throats
and mouths
which have tasted the tightness of screaming silences spit upon cursed and beaten
when children are dying from Boer bullets
Israeli bombs
and slave master's lashes
sounding a whining wrath
And still songs soar
Sounds sung sweetly
soaring skyward
Reeling remembering revealing souls and spirits
Women singing songs
lullabies lovesongs
and blues songs
chanting cantillating song
of living life
and dying death
Searching sounds not yet noted
on bars
not yet ordered on scales
Exploring the breadth of hell
Seeking the expanses of the universe
and freedom
Justice for Lynne Stewart!
BY PAT LEVASSEUR
Excerpted from the Lynne Stewart newsletter, Spring 2007, www.lynnestewart.org
The Lynne Stewart Defense Committee wishes to thank all of you for your steadfast support of Lynne Stewart. In April it will be five years since Lynne’s arrest. Although we were all relieved at the 28-month sentence that Lynne received - it is still over two years in prison and for a 67 year old woman, who has suffered breast cancer and other health issues, a considerable length of time in prison (at last exam Lynne was cancer free and remains on medication to prevent a reoccurrence).
Lynne went to court on the day of sentencing fully expecting to go to prison for the rest of her life. On the eve of her sentencing over 750 people attended a rally at Riverside Church of New York. On the day of sentencing a spirited rally took place outside the courthouse. People walked with Lynne to court but most were unable to get in to the courtroom. You can imagine Lynne’s emotions when she exited the courthouse after several hours to find many people still waiting for her with flowers and cheers.
An exhausted but overjoyed Lynne spoke to the People thanking the Judge and especially all the people who have stood by her. (A transcript of Judge Koeltl’s sentencing remarks is available at lynnstewart.org).
The Government is appealing Lynne’s sentence. The Defense is appealing Lynne’s conviction. The struggle continues. While reviewing our work of the past five years the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee feels very proud of the organizing we have done both in terms of fighting for Lynne Stewart and developing the broad support for Lynne Stewart and the issues her arrest raised.
Fighting the Bush administration’s attack on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We intend to continue to do both - as we all know our rights are far from secured by a newly elected democratic congress.
America seemed to wake up during the last election and the tide of opinion has turned against the war in Iraq but we breathe no sigh of relief from this election, only hope that the People will remain awake.
We also don’t believe that the People’s vote was just against the war, we believe the American people are also affronted by the loss of many rights which many of us still remember fighting to secure and a deep concern for the environment. We are united in securing a world our grandchildren can flourish in body and soul.
The continued disintegration of the attorney client privilege and the conditions of prisoners, the shameful treatment of detainees, the length of prison sentences meted out in this country, the Prison Industrial Complex, the challenge to and loss of the right to Habeus Corpus all cry out for our continued vigilance and unity.
…We hope that you will continue to work in solidarity with the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee, help us to continue our work and continue the unity in the progressive community that we have built over these last five years.
We have been able to continue our work over these last 5 years mainly from individual donations. We continue seeking donations. These funds will be used to support a part time staff person, to send Lynne Stewart around the country to speak about her case and continuing to struggle for justice, to support the work of Lynne’s appeal, to continue the Newsletter and to hold events to build unity and knowledge as we fight back. Checks should be made payable to: Lynne Stewart Organization or if you prefer a tax deductible contribution to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation with “Lynne Stewart Organization” on the memo line.
Mail all to the same address:
350 Broadway, Suite 700,
New York, NY 10013
Back from the Brink
BY LYNNE STEWART
Government apologists, critical of the opposition we have mounted declare that the Lynne Stewart case is “one of a kind”, and has had no chill effect. They even have gone so far as to say that my remarks are an attack on the defense bar, those who continue to represent the most despised. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Initially, my case is unique in the over-reaching techniques (invasion of the attorney client privilege, searching of my law office, computers, date and message books, use of evidence that was incendiary and not relevant at trial etc.) employed by the Government to gather “evidence” and convict. Also, the use of an executive department prison regulation (SAM) directed at my client, to glue together a criminal indictment by using overly broad conspiracy and terrorist theories was indeed unique, but may not remain so.
In the months since my sentencing, there has been an increase in the Government regulation of lawyers–in particular those who are representing so called terror suspects at Guantanamo and elsewhere. The playing field for adversary proceedings has shrunk from the size of a basketball court to a ping pong table and even then it is (at least in Guantanamo cases) only possible for lawyers to play doubles. Their partner? A Government lawyer of course, who is privy to most if not all defense strategy and also the interpersonal relationship of lawyer and client. It is an unwarranted intrusion and I believe, could not be accomplished were the Guantanamo lawyers, who labor in this Gulag, not painfully aware of “what they did to Lynne Stewart.” Lawyers, under oath, without any regulation, must act ethically. Why impose these heavy handed rules that do not permit the lawyer to do the work effectively by establishing trust and then exploring all possibilities with the client, alone? The answer is simple.
The government to perpetuate their own self righteousness of “saving” the world for democracy and relying on the fear of the “other” is exercising what they proclaim is a world wide commission by locking up their designated “bad guys” and throwing away the key. They will brook no interference from pesky lawyers.
Proof of this is found in recent events as they have been revealed to us. First, the Government assertion that Guantanamo detainees should not be allowed to talk to their lawyers about the torture inflicted upon them because the techniques are classified. They even went so far as to suggest that there should be no lawyers for 14 of the detainees. (Washington Post, New York Times, November 4, 2006) If indeed the muscle of repression is always flexing to limit challenges, this is another mark of our descent into state control. What could be more relevant to a defending lawyer than how the prosecution obtained inculpatory information? Indeed a murderer, accused of crime, is not only protected from use of torture (coerced confessions) but must be warned by officials of his/her right to remain silent. Here the government asks the Courts to “protect” its methods and to do so by burying, without voice, those who would dare complain!! This is not a proposed shrinkage of the right to counsel but a disappearing of it.
We also have seen the rant of a high ranking defense department official, Cully Stimson, Deputy Asst. Secretary of Defense for detainee affairs (Charles ‘’Cully’’ Stimson has since resigned his Defense Department post as deputy assistant secretary for detainee affairs.). He invokes the fear of the loss of the almighty dollar when he calls upon CEO’s to check out the big law firms who are providing pro bono representation to Guantanamo prisoners. In that narrow shadowy world that is the Bush administration, Stimson assumed that Corporate America was in their pocket (and it may well be!!) and could be “enlisted” to “control’ if not eliminate those annoying lawyers!! While Mr.Stimson has now apologized, the horse has still been stolen. The New York Times (1/13/2007) commented on its editorial page that even for the Bush administration’s notions of justice, this was a new low and called for Stimson’s firing. It seemed to me that it is the logical conclusion of everything since the enactment of the Patriot Act. And even after an apology, wasn’t this the rallying cry?
And hasn’t it thus been ever in US history??
The latest escalation of the domestic war on the defense lawyers is revealed in the book form “Guide”, authored by the Pentagon (the adversary/prosecution) for the conduct of the “trials” now scheduled for eight detainees who ostensibly have ties to Al Qaeda. (Washington Post, 1/18/07) Replete with gross violations of due process (hearsay evidence, tortured confessions, and more), this guide is the script for performance of show-trials and the defense lawyer better learn the proper lines and stage directions. What punishment for deviating? Just look at what happened to Lynne Stewart.
This is never to say that the brave and thankless work performed by the lawyers for the despised is anything less than the best it can possibly be under the circumstances. Many of those who represent the detainees at Guantanamo are those who are in the forefront politically in denouncing the restrictions placed upon them. And the highest praise is due to the lawyers in the Public Defender’s Office for the federal district court in Miami and New York lawyer Andrew Patel for their no-holds barred defense of Jose Padilla based in part on the isolation, mental and physical torture he sustained and still suffers from. The work goes on because defense lawyers are a dedicated group. Yet, I don’t believe that any one of these would not agree that their role has been diminished and that there is a certain fear level implicit in each decision they make.
Finally, in a recent stor