The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – April 4, 1968

It was 45 years ago when our beloved freedom fighter, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in what we believe was a conspiracy by the government, particularly the FBI.

I remember exactly where I was when the news came over the radio that Dr. King had been shot. 

I was in New Haven, Conn. driving my 8-year-old son and his friends from Rock Creek Road to a drive-in movie.  I turned the car around and went straight back home. We learned on arrival the shot was fatal and the King of Love was dead. I was devastated.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968

The following quotes from our beloved freedom fighter, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., are as pertinent today as they were when he spoke them, at least 45 years ago.  It now amazes me that he was only 39 years old when he was assassinated in the Spring of 1968. He had wisdom beyond his years.

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. [S]he who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”

“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

OBAMA'S HYPOCRISY

December 17, 2012

When I first heard the news of so many children, 20, none over 7, being killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I was so stunned I could feel no emotion, just a kind of numbness. I’m a parent.  

Not another mass murder.

Later, on hearing of the heroism displayed by six slain teachers, I was buoyed.  Then came the anger, the rage I’ve learned to control, hone, and use as a weapon, the pen being mightier than the sword.

Barack Obama, leader of the most violent nation in world history, dabbed at dry eyes as he practically preached a sermon on the latest domestic killing spree.  Hypocritical is an understatement. 

Voting for Our Own Oppression (November 6, 2012)

I have been in physical pain at least some of which I owe to the stress of this incredible voter turnout -- an overwhelming mandate for fascism (corportavism/militarism).  

The only contradiction that proved a positive is the clear demonstration -- at last -- of our multicultural diversity and the minority that is the while ruling class and all their white lackeys (liberal and conservative).

Unfortunately, the multicultural diversity has multifaceted, convoluted politics.  

ON BOYCOTTING THE ELECTION 2012 by Kiilu Nyasha

If voting could change the system, they would make it illegal. (Jamil Al-Amin, aka H. Rap Brown) 

Here are a few arguments for those who insist on voting for the lesser of evils.

One of the first things Black folks say is, “We fought and died for the right to vote.” 

Yes, having fought in every war beginning with the revolutionary war of independence from Britain, we have always done the dying; we've always been on the front lines of struggle in this country.  SNCC, Fannie Lou Hamer, and all the valiant freedom fighters of the civil rights movement are to be honored and revered for their uncompromising fight for our right to vote.

However, after we won that particular battle in1965, the reactionaries in power initiated new ways to suppress and vacate our vote -- new rules and laws of disenfranchisement, such as denying prisoners and felons the vote, fraudulent registration procedures, vote tampering, rigged voting machines, new photo ID requirements, etc. 

Eric Nielson writes that since 2010, 11 states have passed laws that make it more difficult to vote. Citing a report from The Sentencing Project, 5.85 million people are now barred from voting because of a felony conviction, about 2.5 percent of the total population. The principled position would be all of us or none or all for one and one for all.

The systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters in Florida, 2000, and elsewhere across the country validates the following statement:

"...the two parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a 'gentlemen's agreement' of non-recognition, no matter how we vote...May God write us down as asses if ever again we are found putting our trust in either Republican or the Democratic parties."  (W.E.B. DuBois)

THE REVISION AND ORIGIN OF BLACK AUGUST by Kiilu Nyasha (2012)

     “As a slave, the social phenomenon that

            engages my consciousness is, of course, revolution.”

 (George L. Jackson)

The Revision of Black August

2012 marks the 33rd anniversary of Black August, first organized to honor our fallen freedom fighters, George and Jonathan Jackson, James McClain, William Christmas, Khatari Gaulden, and sole survivor of the August 7, 1970 Courthouse Slave Rebellion, Ruchell Cinque Magee.

During these three decades, we’ve witnessed a steady revision of the meaning of Black August and its inherent ideology, the undisputed leader of which was our martyred Comrade, George Lester Jackson. 

RAPE IGNITES A NATION DURING CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Carmen Rivera

Introduction by Kiilu Nyasha:

As a Black woman who grew up in the 1940s, ‘50s, and 60s. I’m fully aware of the treatment of colored girls and women not only by White men, but men of every description.  I’m old enough now not to be too embarrassed to state that I was raped numerous times and didn’t even know it was rape.  It was referred to as Bogarting when men forced you into sex against your will in those days.  There were no phrases like “date rape,” or “sexual harassment,” though both were quite common, the latter mostly in the work place.  Black women were singled out particularly due to the prevailing racist notion that we were animal-like and oversexed. 

May Parole Hearing for Hugo Pinell, in Solitary for at least 42 yrs -- POSTPONED!

NEWS ALERT (4/6/12):


Yogi's board hearing has been postponed another year due to CDCR's new gang validation rules.  Uncommon Law, the firm of Keith Wattley, is handling Yogi's case and they think they can get some relief for him under the new rules.  So let's take this year to do everything we can to support Yogi and help him to stay strong in that hell hole for another year.It would be a good thing for those with resources to check with Att. Wattley to see if Yogi needs financial assistance in covering legal fees.

BOOK REVIEW: Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the 21st Century

Book Review, by Kiilu Nyasha
March 19, 2012

Dorothy Roberts’ new book, Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the 21st Century is a must read for all human beings desiring to witness the beginning of the end of racism.
“We have long had scientific confirmation that race is a political and not a biological category. The recreation of biological race in genomic science today, like its invention by scientists in past centuries, results from an ideological commitment to a false view of humanity,” writes Roberts.

In 2000, The Human Genome Project mapped the entire human genetic code, proving that race could not be identified in our genes, that we are not naturally divided into genetically identifiable racial groups, that there is one human race.

Roberts explains and elucidates race as a political division, not a biological one. And details how the new science and technology of racial genetics is threatening “to steer America on a course of social inhumanity that already has begun to dominate politics in this century. Government policies that have drastically slashed social services…accompanied by particularly brutal forms of regulation of [so-called] racial minorities: mass imprisonment at rates far exceeding any other place on Earth or any time in the history of the free world; roundup and deportation of undocumented immigrants, often tearing families apart; abuse of children held in juvenile detention centers or locked up in adult prisons, some for the rest of their lives;…torture in police stations and prison cells; and rampant medical neglect that kills.”

U.S. PRISONS: SLAVERY ON THE NEW PLANTATION (update March 2012 and retitled May 7,,2014) By Kiilu Nyasha

"Slavery 400 years ago, slavery today. It's the same, but with a new name. They're practicing slavery under color of law." (Ruchell Cinque Magee)

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution retained the right to enslave within the confines of prison.  “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Dec. 6, 1865.

Even before the abolition of chattel slavery, America's history of prison labor had already begun in New York's State Prison at Auburn soon after it opened in 1817. Auburn became the first prison that contracted with a private business to operate a factory within its walls. Later, in the post Civil War period, the "contract and lease" system proliferated, allowing private companies to employ prisoners and sell their products for profit. 

Today, such prisons are referred to as “Factories with Fences.” (/www.unicor.gov/information/publications/pdfs/corporate/CATMC1101_C.pdf) 

Slave Farms in the 21st Century: Reflections on the Socio-economic and School Pipeline to Prison

In the age of globalization, Blacks, Immigrants, and resisters are targeted for elimination and enslavement by the power brokers, fearful of losing their wealth, privilege, and whiteness. Central to this process is the school to prison pipeline, high unemployment, homelessness, and the so-called war on drugs that supply the prison system with its oppressed population. In this presentation, we explore some of the facts that characterize this system—no less insidious than past forms of slavery—and some of the narratives, policies and practices that work in the interest of the dominant corporate plutocracy.

To accompany this new video of Kiilu addressing the University of Wisconsin, she has released an updated version of her 2006 essay entitled "Slavery On The New Plantation" (Read the full article here), where Kiilu writes:

Chattel slavery was ended following prolonged guerrilla warfare between the slaves and the slave-owners and their political allies. Referred to as the “Underground Railroad,” it was led by the revolutionary General Harriet Tubman with support from her alliances with abolitionists, Black and White. It only makes sense that this new form of slavery must produce prison abolitionists.

As George Jackson noted in a KPFA interview with Karen Wald (Spring 1971), "I'm saying that it's impossible, impossible, to concentration-camp resisters....We have to prove that this thing won't work here. And the only way to prove it is resistance...and then that resistance has to be supported, of course, from the street....We can fight, but the results are...not conducive to proving our point...that this thing won't work on us. From inside, we fight and we die....the point is -- in the new face of war -- to fight and win."

Power to the people.

SOLEDAD BROTHER: Memories of Comrade George (updated 9/23/11

SOLEDAD BROTHER: MEMORIES OF COMRADE GEORGE (updated 9/23/11)
By Kiilu Nyasha

It’s hard to believe that our beloved Comrade, George Lester Jackson, would be 70 years old this date, September 23, 2011.

On reading his first book, a 1970 bestseller, “Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson,’ I felt a kindred spirit with George’s rage and resistance, but thought he contradicted himself on women. So I began a correspondence with him from New Haven, Connecticut, where I was a member of the Black Panther Party, and working for the lawyers defending Chairman Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins, and Lonnie McLucas, as well as organizing community and national support for their freedom.

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Comrade George Jackson

(ABOVE: Painting of George Jackson by Sundiata Acoli)

The SF Bay View Newspaper has published Kiilu's new article reflecting on the 40-year anniversary of George Jackson's assassination. An excerpt is featured below, but you can read the full article here.

This Black August, let us honor our martyred freedom fighter, Comrade George, as well as those who recently joined the ancestors: Donald Cox, Michael Cetawayo Tabor and geronimo ji Jaga. And let us not forget all those who remain captive after many decades: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Herman Bell, Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, Ruchell Cinque Magee − sole survivor of the Marin Courthouse Rebellion of Aug. 7, 1970 − Jalil Muntaqim, Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace, Leonard Peltier, Oscar Lopez-Rivera and exiled freedom fighter Assata Shakur, to name just a few.

“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done; discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”

George Jackson - 40 year commemoration from Freedom Archives on Vimeo.

Robert H. King on the Angola 3 and His Autobiography, "From the Bottom of the Heap"

Freedom is a Constant Struggle TV show, November 28, 2008.

Our guest, Robert Hillary King, (aka Robert King Wilkerson), one of the "Angola Three" (members of a prison chapter of the Black Panther Party), along with Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, was serving a life sentence at Angola State Penitentiary. In February 2001, after 31 years of imprisonment and 29 continuous years of solitary confinement, King walked out of the gates of Angola a free man. King continues to struggle for the release of his comrades and all political prisoners. He has also written a book, From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King, with an introduction by Terry Kupers, M.D., M.S.P. (PM Press).

For more information, visit www.kingsfreelines.com, www.angola3.org, and www.angola3news.com

(This show begins with commentary by Mumia Abu-Jamal)

RELATED ARTICLE: The Case of the Angola 3 --A review of the new film “In The Land of the Free...” (Nov. 22, 2010)

Pierre Labossiere on Haitian Disasters & Ramshackle Infrastructure

Freedom is a Constant Struggle TV show, November 21, 2008.

Pierre Labossiere, a Haitian national, co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee, has been a long-time social-justice activist and advocate for the Lavalas Party of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, currently exiled in South Africa. Pierre has also been active in the campaigns to free political prisoners in Haiti and the U.S.

Learn more at: www.haitisolidarity.net and www.haitiemergencyrelief.org

(This show begins with commentary by Mumia Abu-Jamal)

RELATED EPISODES: Pierre Labossiere: Revolutionary Haitian History (Oct. 12, 2007), Pierre Labossiere: The Kidnap & Exile of President Aristide (March 14, 2008), Pierre Labossiere on Haiti's 2008 Hurricanes (Sept. 19, 2008), Pierre Labossiere: Haiti's Heroic History (Aug. 14, 2009), Emiliano Echeverria & Pierre Labossiere: Coups in Honduras and Haiti (Oct. 23, 2009), Pierre Labossiere on the Disastrous Response to Haiti's Earthquake (July 23, 2010)

Ona Move With Pam and Ramona Africa

Freedom is a Constant Struggle TV show, September 26, 2008.

Pam Africa is the Minister of Confrontation for the MOVE Organization and the Coordinator of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Ramona Africa is the Minister of Communication for the MOVE Organization and the sole adult survivor of the May 13, 1985 massacre. On that day, a State Police helicopter dropped a C-4 bomb, illegally supplied by the FBI, on the roof of the MOVE Organization’s house at 6221 Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. The bomb started a fire that was allowed to burn, and eventually destroyed 61 homes, leaving 250 people homeless: the entire block of a middle-class black community.

The Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission (The MOVE Commission), appointed by Mayor Wilson Goode, documented that when the occupants of the house tried to escape the fire, police shot at them, blocking their escape. In the end, six MOVE adults and five children died. Ramona Africa and 13 year-old Birdie Africa were the only survivors, after successfully dodging the police gunfire.

For more information about death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, visit www.freemumia.com and www.abu-jamal-news.com and read/listen to his essays at www.prisonradio.org

For more about MOVE and the struggle to free the MOVE 9, visit www.onamove.com and move9parole.blogspot.com

RELATED EPISODE: Crystal Bybee: Kevin Cooper and Mumia Abu-Jamal (Oct. 30, 2009)

Dennis Cunningham on the Attica Prison Uprising

Freedom is a Constant Struggle TV show, September 12, 2008.

Our guest, Attorney Dennis Cunningham, established the People's Law Office in Chicago, from which he and young Attorney Jeffrey Haas conducted a landmark civil rights lawsuit, "Hampton v. Hanrahan," on behalf of the families of slain Black Panther Party (BPP) leaders Mark Clark and Fred Hampton, and the survivors of the Dec. 4, 1969 police raid on the apartment of Illinois BPP Chairman Fred Hampton, at 2337 West Monroe Street in Chicago. The civil rights lawsuit lasted for almost 13 years, but ended with a $1.85 million settlement paid equally by the city, county, and federal governments--although Chicago's killer cops were never criminally charged.

Dennis continued doing civil rights cases over these 40 years, during which he also worked on the long-running class action for the prisoners who rebelled and survived the massacre at New York's Attica State Prison in 1971, and the Earth First case resulting from the 1990 bombing of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in Oakland, among many other defenses of protesters and victims of police misconduct, brutality and/or murder.

RELATED EPISODES: Dennis Cunningham: The FBI and the Resistance (May 2, 2008), Dennis Cunningham: The 40th Anniversary of the Assassination of Fred Hampton (Dec. 4, 2009), Bobby Seale: The Attica Uprising (Sept. 11, 2009), Elbert "Big Man" Howard and Billy X Jennings: Black August (Aug. 7, 2009), Willie Sundiata Tate: Black August (Aug. 21, 2009)

Pierre Labossiere on Haiti's 2008 Hurricanes

Freedom is a Constant Struggle TV show, September 19, 2008.

Pierre Labossiere, a Haitian national, co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee, has been a long-time social-justice activist and advocate for the Lavalas Party of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, currently exiled in South Africa. Pierre has also been active in the campaigns to free political prisoners in Haiti and the U.S.

Learn more at: www.haitiaction.net and www.haitisolidarity.net

RELATED EPISODES: Pierre Labossiere: Revolutionary Haitian History (Oct. 12, 2007), Pierre Labossiere: The Kidnap & Exile of President Aristide (March 14, 2008), Pierre Labossiere: Haiti's Heroic History (Aug. 14, 2009), Emiliano Echeverria & Pierre Labossiere: Coups in Honduras and Haiti (Oct. 23, 2009), Pierre Labossiere: Haiti (July 23, 2010)

Dylcia and Cisco on Panthers and Independistas

ABOVE: Full, 39 minute version. BELOW: Edited, 10 minute version.

Dylcia and Cisco on Panthers and Independistas
--SF8 Hearing on March 2

By Kiilu Nyasha and Angola 3 News

This February 26, 2011 episode of Freedom is a Constant Struggle features Dylcia Pagan and Francisco Torres.

Dylcia Pagan is a Puerto Rican freedom fighter and Independista, who spent nearly 20 years in Federal prisons on charges of seditious conspiracy for her role in the underground wing of the Puerto Rican independence movement. One of 11 Puerto Rican political prisoners granted clemency in 1999 by President Clinton, she was paroled to Puerto Rico, where she has continued to struggle against U.S. colonialism nonviolently. Born and raised in New York City, Dylcia studied psychology, political science, and Puerto Rican studies at Brooklyn College where she founded the Puerto Rican Students Union. Her culture and politics are expressed through painting, ceramics, poetry, writings, and film.

She has participated in the production of a video about her life and compañeros in the struggle; and while in prison, she helped direct a documentary about Puerto Rican Women Prisoners of War. Her biography has been published in Puerto Rican Women: A History of Oppression and Resistance and she appears in the new film Machetero (view a clip with Dylcia here).

Francisco Torres (Cisco), 58, of New York City, was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. He is a Vietnam Veteran who fought for the grievances of Black and Latino soldiers upon his return to the states. A former Black Panther, he has been a community activist since his discharge from the military in 1969. Cisco continues to work with troubled youth in his Queens community.

Cisco is the last of the San Francisco Eight to still be facing charges. As Cisco discusses in this interview, he had an evidentiary hearing scheduled for March 2, 2011. However, three days after the interview, on February 28, this hearing was canceled. A short update published on the SF8 website states: "An evidentiary hearing had been planned to take up the question of wiretaps, whose existence had long been denied by the prosecution. It now appears that the question may be settled without a hearing. Details to be posted here as soon as available...Stay tuned for future court dates." For the latest developments in the case and what you can do to help, please go to www.freethesf8.org.

--This episode of Freedom is a Constant Struggle is a collaborative project by Kiilu Nyasha and Angola 3 News, which is a project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more.

RELATED EPISODES: Charles Bourdon: The San Francisco Eight (Feb. 8, 2008), Harold Taylor: The San Francisco Eight (April 25, 2008), Ray Boudreaux and Richard Brown: Free The SF8! (July 3, 2008), Richard Brown & The SF8 Case (Sept. 5, 2008), Francisco Torres: The San Francisco 8 (Oct. 2, 2009)

Bato and Sundi Remember Comrade George

Freedom is a Constant Struggle TV show, Black August 22, 2008.

Luis Bato Talamantez and Willie Sundiata Tate were in the so-called Adjustment Center (lockup!) in San Quentin on Black August 21, 1971, the day their/our comrade George Lester Jackson was assassinated by prison guards in what we believe was a set-up by the Administration.

Bato and Sundi were comrades who became known as The San Quentin Six, and are currently members of All of Us or None. They both did time in California juvenile and adult prisons where they got to know Comrade George, became politicized, and turned their lives around. Bato also works with the ANSWER Coalition and California Prison Focus. They continue to advocate for equal justice, freedom for political prisoners, and equal opportunities for ex-prisoners upon release.

RELATED EPISODE: Willie Sundiata Tate: Black August (Aug. 21, 2009), Elbert "Big Man" Howard and Billy X Jennings: Black August (Aug. 7, 2009)

Richard Brown & The SF8 Case

Freedom is a Constant Struggle TV show, September 5, 2008.

(NOTE: Kiilu regrets having to go solo, much preferring to have in studio guests. However, Richard was unable to make it to the studio on that date, so we opted for a phone interview since the interview was timely--immediately prior to a SF8 court hearing in 2008.)

Richard Brown is a former Panther and long-time community activist. He was employed for 20 years as a program coordinator at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center. For the past nine years, Richard has been a Community Court Judge Arbitrator working with the San Francisco District Attorney's office. Brown says: "We place a lot of emphasis on restorative justice, so most of the community service done will be done in our own community where the offender can give back to the community."

Brown is one of the San Francisco Eight. Since this show was filmed, the charges against him have been dismissed and Cisco Torres is the only one still facing charges. Torres has an evidentiary hearing on March 2, 2011, and an 8 AM rally prior to the hearing, where supporters are urged to attend. For the latest developments in the case and what you can do to help, please go to www.freethesf8.org.

RELATED EPISODES: Charles Bourdon: The San Francisco Eight (Feb. 8, 2008), Harold Taylor: The San Francisco Eight (April 25, 2008), Ray Boudreaux and Richard Brown: Free The SF8! (July 3, 2008), Dylcia and Cisco on Panthers and Independistas (Feb. 26, 2011), Francisco Torres: The San Francisco 8 (Oct. 2, 2009)

The People Have Won!

I’m so glad to be alive! This people’s victory in North Africa, first in Tunisia and now in Egypt, is OUR VICTORY TOO. We are all North Africans, i.e., human beings struggling to be free.

Clearly, the Egyptian people have been engaged in a decades-long struggle for liberation from an extremely oppressive regime backed up by the U.S. and Israeli imperialists – to the tune of billions in support of the military machine. This victory didn’t fall out of the sky or just up and happen one fine day. It’s the culmination of hard struggle, countless martyrs and political prisoners, strikes and demonstrations previously defeated, an unwillingness to give up and faith in the power of the people...

This people’s victory in North Africa, first in Tunisia and now in Egypt, is OUR VICTORY TOO. We, the people of the world, must move forward toward global revolution that will liberate the entire global community....

-Read the full article, published Feb. 11 by the SF Bay View Newspaper, here.

-See also the previous, Jan. 31 SF Bay View article entitled Revolution Has Come!

Sbu Zikode of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Shack Dweller's Movement of South Africa

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Sbu Zikode of Abahlali baseMjondolo from Oriana Bolden on Vimeo.

In this segment of Freedom Is A Constant Struggle, Kiilu’s guest is S’bu Zikode, leader of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the shack dwellers’ movement of South Africa, who visited the Bay Area last November (2010).

Thanks to Raj Patel and Oriana Bolden, Kiilu got to have S’bu visit her to discuss on camera the disastrous living conditions and economic disparities that currently exist in the post-Apartheid nation governed by the African National Congress (ANC).

S’bu comes from the shanty town of Kennedy Road in Durban, South Africa, where Abahlali was formed in 2005 in protest of the ANC policies denying land and housing to the poor. Life threatening conditions (no water, electricity, security) pushed the people to demand the Government abide by its new Constitution, stop evictions and brutal attacks by the police, and make good on its promises.

Abahlali has grown to include some 30,000 people, and a coalition with other organizations has formed a Poor Peoples Alliance of at least 50,000 activists. A slogan adopted by Abahlali is NO LAND, NO HOUSE, NO JOB, NO VOTE!

Abolition Key To New Justice System

(PHOTO: Kiilu with author Raj Patel)

Abolition Key To New Justice System

By Kiilu Nyasha

December 9, 2010

Everyone knows the U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, higher than China’s with 4 – 5 times our population, and it continues to spiral. One in 100 adults is locked up in this police state (now totaling 2.4 million), while 1 in 31 is under some other form of penal control (over 7 million).

Few people in America, especially the underfunded, don’t have a friend, relative, classmate or colleague in prison. We also know that most prisoners are there for non-violent, often drug related issues. Yet we keep silent.

“Your silence becomes approval,” wrote our brilliant journalist and revolutionary, Mumia Abu-Jamal, held under threat of death 29 years to this date for a crime he didn’t commit.

Just as chattel slavery produced abolitionists, this new form of slavery must generate prison abolitionists.

Studies have long proven that punishment (not to be confused with consequences) produces negative results more often than not. While rehabilitation and/or appropriate therapy/treatment usually works. “Cure the sickness to save the patient.”

Ancestral societies had no prisons. Offensive behavior brought social consequences, ostracizing, or banishment from the community. Often the offender was made to serve the people (the community) in a menial job.

Raj Patel recently investigated the justice system of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mex. and learned they had devised a system much like the one described above.

Please bear in mind that the worst of the worst criminals in this nation are in the White House, Wall Street, and the Pentagon. The solution to a corrupt, fascist government has to be revolution. The 1% replaced by the 99%.

Today’s news reported still more draconian sentencing for California prisoners has been proposed. Up to 15 years can be added to a person’s sentence between parole hearings that used to be annual before being raised to a maximum of five years. Now parole board hearings will in fact be resentencing courts in many cases. E.g., Hugo Pinell (Yogi) has been in supermax solitary for most of 46 years. If he goes to Board next month, he could be told his next hearing for parole would be 2026! At which time he’d be 80 years old. Sundiata Acoli was just denied 10 years after 37, and he’ll be 83 at his next hearing. Cruel and unusual?

U.S. prisons are grossly overcrowded with prisoners living in deplorable conditions suffering inadequate or no medical care, bad food, no access to education or skills training, endemic guard brutality, torture, and provocation of prisoner conflicts for their sadistic amusement, sexual assaults, excessive use of lockup (solitary), and generally inhumane treatment.

“The latest edition of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund’s “Death Row USA,” shows that the number of people on death row in the United States is continuing to slowly decline, falling to 3,261 as of January 1, 2010…. California (697) continues to have the largest death row population, followed by Florida (398) and Texas (337). Pennsylvania (222) and Alabama (201) complete the list of the five largest death rows in the nation.”

The U.S. is the only Western nation that still imposes capital punishment that is blatantly racist in its execution.

Georgia Prison Strike

In protest of the inhumane living and working conditions in Georgia’s prison system (the nation’s 4th largest) staged a one-day strike on December 9, 2010.

Bruce Dixon reported, “In an action which is unprecedented on several levels, black, brown and white inmates of Georgia’s notorious state prison system are standing together for a historic one day peaceful strike today, during which they are remaining in their cells, refusing work and other assignments and activities. This is a groundbreaking event not only because inmates are standing up for themselves and their own human rights, but because prisoners are setting an example by reaching across racial boundaries which, in prisons, have historically been used to pit oppressed communities against each other.”

According to the Black Agenda Report, Prisoners are refusing to come out of their cells or do work. One in every thirteen adults in the state of Georgia is in prison, on parole or probation or some form of court or correctional supervision. According to reports, the state is dispatching special units and the BAR recommends calls to facilities the next few days to ensure the safety of the prisoners. Here are some numbers:

Macon State Prison is 978-472-3900.
Hays State Prison is at (706) 857-0400
Telfair State prison is 229-868-7721
Baldwin State Prison is at (478) 445- 5218
Valdosta State Prison is 229-333-7900
Smith State Prison is at (912) 654-5000

Pacific Radio just reported that Georgia’s prisons are under lockdown and guards are forcing prisoners out of their cells and beating them.

I salute the courage and international solidarity of the Georgia prison strikers.

We should act promptly to prevent another Attica!

The struggle continues!

Long live the spirit of George and Jonathan Jackson!

Political Education With SOUL

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Kiilu Nyasha from Oriana Bolden on Vimeo.

In this installment of Freedom is a Constant Struggle, interns from SOUL (School of Unity and Liberation) have the opportunity to pose questions and get Political Education from Kiilu directly.

They ask about solutions to today's problems as well as the truth about many things related to social justice and movement politics of the 60s and 70s, as well as Kiilu's personal history.

We all also took a moment of silence for Marilyn Buck as we learned of her passing just moments before the interns arrived.

(See marilynbuck.com/ ​ and marilynbuckpresente.org/​)

RT: 54 minutes