Make It Plain: Marshall Eddie Conway - Political Prisoner of Action

Abdul Jabbar Caliph


Uhuru Comrades!

For the past four decades we have witness the noble courage of Marshall Eddie Conway, a political prisoner and victim of one of Americas’ most inhuman, anti-black counterinsurgency programs every developed. A program better known to us under the acronym of the "COINTELPRO", or COunter-INTelligence PROgram, the U.S. government run action that was responsible the imprisonment, death and exile of many of our comrades during the 1960’s and 70’s.

Eddies’ case, like many of our fallen comrades, highlights the vicious tactics that the federal government used to destroy a movement that was established for the betterment of humanity. A movement that worked to end the political oppression and economical exploitation of the working class in this capitalist-colonialist country. Eddie is one of literally thousands who worked to establish a socialist agenda for the betterment of society as a whole, and his case is significant for numerous reasons, the most important of which we should understand:

1. Comrade Conway's was associated with  the Pan-African Liberation Movement(PALM) and was an active member of the Black Panther Party(BPP) that was established during the Civil Rights/Black Power era of this country;
2. Comrade Conway’s very existence in this country was that of a colonized subject, therefore he realized that his people suffered from political oppression and economical exploitation more than any other race of people. Eddie was clear then and still is clear that black people exist in this country as colonized people;
3. Comrade Conway’s ideology and political affiliation like many other is why he is still considered a political prisoner/prisoner of war and remains trapped inside Maryland prison system.

We need to understand the legacy of the Black Panther Party (BPP)/Black Liberation Army (BLA) and its effects on the political movement for the liberation of the African working class; along with its relationship to the struggle for the betterment of humanity. Through hard work, they were able build a serious international movement to address the plight of the African working class in this country and throughout the world. They were able to form alliances with other progressive and revolutionary organizations that represented various racial/ethnic fractions that existed at the time. Political coalitions were formed with various labor and student unions, as well as with organizations such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Brown Berets. They were also able to establish survival programs for the people that addressed their needs such as the sickle anemia program and the free breakfast program for children before they went to school - two programs the U.S. government has appropriated for its own use.

Comrades, this is the legacy of the Black Panther Party, the work that Eddie was involved in and this is the reason that Marshall Eddie Conway remains in prison to this very day, characterized by the Criminal (In)Justice System as a security threat to this nation. Despite being framed for the alleged murder and assault of a Baltimore City Police Officer, Comrade Conway has refused to give up his fight on the behalf of the people. Despite the fact that we have seen two city resolutions passed on the behalf of this comrade, caling for his freedom, one of which was signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley, this man still remains in prison as a political prisoner! 

Comrade Dhoruba bin Wahad (Richard Moore), former political prisoner of war and member of the Black Panther Party, summed it up correctly when he stated the following about the BPP:

“In fact, the BPP never posted a serious military threat to the U.S. government, it was the popularity of Ten-Point Program, our beliefs in the guaranteed rights of everyone to food, clothing, decent housing, free health care, education, etc., that terrified the government and motivated them to launch an all-out attack against us.”

This was confirmed despite the fact that J. Edger Hoover, the former head of the FBI, declaring the Black Panther Party to be “the greatest threat to security of this country”. Eddie goes on to point out the following in his book The Greatest Threat about the attack on the Black Panther Party when he stated:

“The opposition that the BPP faced presented to the U.S. world image could have been crushed. That would have been easy enough militarily, but the real problem of ideas would remain. It was necessary to not just destroy the BPP but also to demonize and criminalize its actions to dissuade future generations from its course.”

Nearly four decades later we see that COINTELPRO was successful in it goal of destroying a movement and leaving its victims to languish in prison or in exile, labeled as criminals. These comrades have paid the ultimate price and have sacrificed and suffered on the behalf of the people! Many of them are suffering from psychological and physical trauma that no human being deserves to be subjected to and yet they still refuse to give up on the movement - even through the movement, and in many cases, have given up on them and has failed to build a successful political prisoners/ prisoners of war movement. Many of these comrades are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to the constant threat of death along with being the subjects of low-intensisty-warfare. These were the goals and objectives of this government’s cowardly program:

1. The prevention of the coalition of any Black Nationalist organization, for in unity there is strength. They realized that this might be step towards a real “Mau Mau” in America, the beginning of a true black revolution;
2. The prevention and development and raise of a “Messiah” figure that could have the ability and desire to direct a unified black nationalist movement;
3. The prevention of violence on the part of Black Militants Nationalist organizations, this was of primary importance of this program.
4. The identification and neutralization of any potential threats to the internal security of this nation and overseas interest;
5. The prevention of any Black Militant Nationalist from gaining any type of respectability;
6. The prevention of long-range growth of black militant organizations, especially among the youth.

It is important that we understand what a political prisoner/prisoner of war is. Comrade Eddie's book “The Greatest Threat” defines the two:

1. A political prisoner is a person, sanctioned by the movement, involved in character and deeds, who is held in confinement for support of, or identification with, a people struggling for the freedom from an oppressive government or against its oppressive policies.
2. A prisoner of war is a sanctioned national combatant or ally of an international armed conflict who is held in confinement for acts in support of people struggling for freedom, self-determination, or independence from oppressive, colonial, alien dominated, or racist government regime and its policies.

J. Soffiyah Elijah, a Harvard Law School Professor and leading attorney in the political prisoner/prisoner of war movement, is also quoted in Conway's book as giving the following description in her article, “The Reality of Political Prisoners in the United States: What September 11 Taught Us About Defending Them”:

“Political prisoners are men and women who have been incarcerated for their political views and actions. They have consciously fought against social injustice, colonialism and/or imperialism and have been incarcerated as a result of political commitments. Even while in prison, these men and women continue to adhere to their principles. This definition of the term “political prisoner” is accepted throughout the international community.”

Comrades, no matter what social, cultural, political or religious community you are apart of, you need to understand that these comrades, because of the path that they took and because of the racial and class structure they represent, are often given the harshest sentences possible! You also need to understand that while the United States does not recognize political prisoners (PP) or prisoners of war (POW) the rest of humanity does and no matter how you define these terms, political prisoners and prisoners of war do exist. 

Comrades I believe that we have chosen the correct path and have selected the correct campaign to develop and work on, the campaign to free Marshall Eddie Conway! The Liberate Baltimore Coalition has once again risen to the occasion and set the correct path that any progressive organization/revolutionary movement must take if it is to truly represent the people! No movement can represent the people if it does not or will not speak about the issue of political prisoners and prisoners of war!

In conclusion, I leave you with the following quote from Eddie’s book Marshall Law and may it endow you with the spirit to keep fighting on the behalf of those who have been wronged because of their race, class, religion or sexuality and beliefs.

“Resistance is a natural response to oppression and the story of African descent in the western hemisphere is one of rebellion and broken shackles. Women and men marching on; these rag tag armies of black, brown and yellow soldiers armed with farm tools, the occasional musket and a plan to kill the slave master. Rising up out of their bondage, the rebels intended to be free in this world, or the next. Get free, or die trying. Charles Deslondes. Makandal. Nat Turner. These names would produces a fear so strong in whites that the thought of an armed and angry black man would echo that fear for generations to come. The race (class) struggle of the late 1960’s called to mind the same fear and anger.”

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Occupy Death Row

By Kevin Cooper

It seems that many people are glad, and in some cases downright happy, that the Occupy movements have taken place across this country. Many people around the world are asking, “What took so long?” All of them want it to grow, and to include all of the people who are being affected by the one percent and their policies.
One cannot live on this planet and not know the bed capitalism lays here within this country. The roots from the tree of greed have spread to damn near every part of this world. They have had an impact, directly or indirectly, on every person in this world, to one degree or another.

Capitalism, and the capitalists who run and control it, need very important ingredients to make it work. They need “The Haves” and “The Have Nots!”

 These days, as it once was when this country was first formed, it is very easy to tell the difference between the two. Some of the people, who for most of their lives considered themselves the “Haves,” are finding out that they were living a lie. That now, they are part of the “Have Nots.” This reality is causing them, or at least some of them, to become part of this Occupy movement, and understandably so.

I have never considered myself to be a “Have”, nor has this country ever treated me as a “Have!” No man or woman on death row in this state, or any other state, is a “Have.” We are also the “Have Nots.” We are the bottom one percent, who damn near everyone shits on. We are scapegoated, ignored, humiliated, disowned, and ritually tortured and murdered by, and at the hands of, the top one percent, and some of the 99 percent as well!

Those people who are truly the “Haves” within this country have not made it to any death row. For the most part, they never have and they never will. America has a deep seeded philosophy in which it only allows for the execution of its poorest people. These seeds have taken root and have grown in such a way that no person who this system sees as a “Have Not” is safe from its death machine. Whether they are within this building, or on a BART platform.

It seems that the one percent are immune from the sentence of death, even when their policies in war, or peace, have killed untold numbers of people around the world. The bottom one percent is not immune, and seems to be used as part of entertainment, from the media to the politicians.

While these truths must be known to the 99 percent who are now saying that they are the “Have Nots,” these truths are not acknowledged by the majority of them. We who are the bottom one percent, the historical “Have Nots,” the ones who are paraded before the public and humiliated, strapped to a gurney, tortured and murdered by the powers that be; we ask “Why aren’t we included in this Occupy movement?”

While people are, and should be, occupying Wall Street and every other money street in the country, as well as occupying every city that they can, I ain’t hearing no one say,"Occupy death row!"

Nonetheless, I have been doing so since 1985. And death row itself has been occupying this country since even before this land became a country. Executions, and the various ways that poor people have been executed throughout the years proves that executions are part of this country’s DNA.

So, I now respectfully ask this to those of you who are part of this occupy movement: Will you please not make the same mistake that was made by previous movements seeking civil, or any other type of rights? That mistake was not to include the ending of capital punishment as part of the demands.

Our fight, and our plight from here on death row is just as important to us, as your fight and your plight is to you! We understand this and respect this. All we ask, and all we have the right to ask, is that you not leave us behind, and/or out of the conversation. Any house, even a house full of “Have Nots,” divided upon itself cannot, and will not stand. We must unite!

In Struggle and Solidarity
From Death Row at San Quentin Prison,
Kevin Cooper

Reprinted from "Dread Times"

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Reort On Mumia Abu-Jamal

From:  Sis. Johanna Fernandez!

Dear Friends:

I visited Mumia yesterday, December 15, in the new prison that houses him, SCI Mahanoy. Even though he has been released from death row, he remains in Administrative Custody while he awaits transfer to general population. Because he is still in Administrative Custody and not yet in general population,  visits still take place behind the plexiglass barrier characteristic of the no-contact visits to prisoners on death row.

Mumia boarded a vehicle to SCI- Mahanoy in the early morning hours of December 14th at 4AM. Despite the dehumanizing character of the heavily armored vehicle that transported him from SCI Greene to SCI Mahanoy, Mumia delighted in the opportunity to see cows, horses, and Pennsylvania's beautiful landscape during the 7 hour ride to Frackville, PA.

He described the last number of days as a "crazy whirlwind."  Last Friday alone, he spent 6 hours packing up books, letters, and other belongings in preparation for what he believed was a move into general population at  SCI Greene. But the Department of Corrections had other plans in mind. As you know, that same day, December 9, his call came through at the National Constitution Center.  At the prompting of Pam Africa, the last 30 seconds of that call turned into a rousing ovation to Mumia by the 1,100 people in attendance. This is was he wrote in a letter about his experience that very same night on December 9, "It's been minutes since I've hung up the phone, and I'm still buzzing from the loving vibes zapping through the phone. It's really electric!"

While in Administrative Custody at Mahanoy, Mumia is technically in  "the hole." This means that he has absolutely no human contact; absolutely no belongings in his cell other than a rubber pen,  8 sheets of paper and 8 envelopes  (4 of which he has used to write letters to family and friends);  he gets only one hour in the yard and one visitor a week; and at night the lights in his small cell are dimmed only slightly, and otherwise remain on all day.

Mumia noted that he missed the knock of his next door neighbor on the Row at SCI Greene, Sugarbear, who called for him through a knocked on the wall "at least 20 times a day."

Mumia noted that as he was being escorted to his cell at Mahanoy, the majority of prisoners he saw in "the hole" were black and he immediately thought of Michelle Alexander's evocative analysis and descriptions of mass black imprisonment nationwide.

Mumia is committed to remaining mindful of the challenges of this new period. He remains strong and hopeful about the possibilities of this next phase of struggle, both in his personal day-to-day life,  and in the movement. He welcomes and is prepared for the change.  Below please also note a special note he dictated to OWS.

Mumia reiterated that despite his isolation and the alienating character of his transfer to Mahanoy, he feels vibrations of love around him.

We await, impatiently, Mumia's transfer to general population and call on the DA's office to complete the transfer immediately. PLEASE NOTE: The DA's number and address below.

Let us remind the DA that Mumia should have been in general population since 2001 when Judge Yohn overturned the death penalty in his case; but the DA's office held him on death row for a decade while it filed losing appeals. By law, Mumia should be in general population, not in "the hole." We demand his immediate transfer.

With love and solidarity,

Johanna Fernandez


SETH WILLIAMS, Philadelphia DA

Three South Penn Square
Corner of Juniper and South Penn Square
Philadelphia, PA 19107-3499
215-686-8000


http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/contact.html

__________

Mumia's Message to OWS as dictated while in Administrative Custody at SCI Manahoy in Frackville, PA.


Thursday, December 15, 2011

My Friends of OWS,

My message will have to be brief. But let not this brevity take from it, its strength.

You are the central movement of the hour. You're raising questions that are in the hearts of millions. Your motto, "We are the 99%," has been heard, heeded, and responded to by millions. You can be certain that the 1% have heard you clearest of all.

Your work, however, is just beginning. You must deepen, strengthen, and further your work until it truly reaches the 99%, almost all of us: workers, black folk, Latinos and Latinas, LGBTs, immigrants, Asians, artists, all of us, for we are integral parts of the 99%. I salute you and hope fervently that you will grow beyond number.

Though I speak to you today by proxy, I'm confident that you will here my voice soon.

Love, fun and music,

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Reprinted from DREAD TIMES - Dedicated to the free flow of information

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The Occupy Wall Street Movement: Opportunity for Revolution or Opportunism Instead of Revolution?

In this period of the African struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism, internationally capitalism – military and economic white supremacy is in crisis; a crisis that has shaken the U.S. financial markets and promises to destabilize the European Union. It is a crisis reaching the scale of the depression era in the early 1930's in the U.S., Japan and many countries in Europe. 

For African people the economic ramifications of this current crisis has long been felt and has gotten worse for us than any other community of people in the U.S. Currently there is a listed unemployment rate of 16.5% for all Black people looking for work, there is a 22% unemployment rate for Black men and for Black youth 16 - 25 the unemployment rate is a staggering 45%. Again, this is for those looking for employment, it does not take into account those who have given up looking and those who are underemployed working part-time. 

Because of the U.S. banking system crisis in 2008, Black families have suffered the hardest in the lost of homes to foreclosures. Baltimore has the second highest number of foreclosures for African people in the whole U.S. One of the root causes of the banking system crisis the uncontrolled speculation and manipulation of the market by banks as they used predatory lending policies disproportionately against African families. African families were tricked into taking incredibly exploitative loans that would steal billions of dollars from our community on the initial promise of affordable home ownership.

In addition to the predatory lending policies, which extracted greater amounts of wealth from our community, discriminatory hiring practices in the labor market and the increased incarnation of African people cut into the overall economic stability of the African community. We are now in a situation where the wealth gap between Black and White families is reported to be the largest in the history of this country. White families are now on average 20 times wealthier than African families ($113,150 compared to $5,680) and some estimating it would take centuries for the gap to be closed.

The crisis in capitalism however is so deep that now the precious white middle class of America is feeling the effects. Once able to feel secure about their future and bribed by imperialism to be content with the exploitation and oppression of the African, Latino and other oppressed nations, the economic crisis now threatens white workers comfortable lives. Now the wealth gap between the average white person and the elite 1% ruling class has expanded into all time proportions. The national ratio for CEO-to-worker pay grew 20 percent from last year to hit a whopping 325 to 1.

In response to the crisis for finance capitalists and the military industrial complex, the U.S. government initiated a stated $700 billion bailout of banks. Many predict the actual amount spent to be in trillion-dollar range. The U.S. government also increased its spending of trillions of dollars to make war on Arab and African people abroad. All this was done at the expense of jobs, homes, and education for white people, a violation of the unwritten rules of class peace between the ruling class and the so-called white working class, pushing the white community to the edge.

Currently there is a national mobilization in various cities called the Occupy Wall Street movement. It obviously started in New York on Wall Street and has spread to Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Seattle, Detroit and Baltimore as well as others. It has allowed for white people to express their narrow petty disagreements with U.S. imperialism about how they have been treated and want to share more in the looting of the world's resources. 

In almost every case, attempts by African, Latino and Indigenous people to participate on behalf of the contradictions that exist in our own communities have been met with hostility and suspicion. In addition, issues with woman and the LGBT community have also sprung up, exposing the true nature of these demonstrations as not being progressive and revolutionary but instead opportunist, racist and sexist.

In Baltimore, a city with 65% African population, we have the opportunity to turn the Occupy Baltimore mobilization into a showcase for the issues of the African community. We are able to expose the opportunism, opportunism, classism, and racism of the white middle class and the so-called white left for the lack of unity with the plight of the majority of people in this city and the world. Instead of unity with the demands of African people for real social justice and economic justice, the participants in the Occupy Baltimore action have attempt to be as vague as possible about the goals and objectives of the demonstration and have attempted to minimize all attempts by non-white and oppressed people to get our interests on the platform.

Just days ago, members of the Ujima People’s Progress Party (UPP) went to a meeting in East Baltimore at community church to participate in a meeting between white leftist and oppressed community forces who were upset with the state of the mobilization in Baltimore to this time. There were about 30 people there with the ratio being about 12 Africans to 18 white people. However as the meeting had no agenda and no formal leadership, the UPP was able to seize the moment and take over the meeting.

Comrade Jabbar took charge by being the facilitator of the whole meeting, he was able to control the flow of the meeting and recognize speakers. I was able to set out many of the goals the African community needed addressed and struggled with opinions that attempted to minimize a platform that spoke directly to African people. Essentially everyone at the meeting had to interact with the UPP as though we called the meeting.

Given the crisis of leadership in the African community and the long track record of opportunism in the white left, it was the most correct action available to the UPP comrades to take control of the discussion on behalf of the interests of African workers and other oppressed people.

At the end of the meeting, we had Comrade Chris volunteer to help craft a preamble statement to the Occupy Baltimore organizers and to the community in general. This preamble was a criticism of the Occupy Baltimore mobilization and pointed to the correct stance that should be taken. We also worked to create goals that would be presented to the Occupy Baltimore movement to challenge the rudderless leadership and as well as to speak to our own community about why they should participate in the local mobilization.

We summarize our basic goals for participating in this mobilization as the following:

1. Use the Occupy Baltimore mobilization to get signatures for the UPP and to recruit young/new African activists into working with our organization to build the party.

2. Push the mobilization to acknowledge and address the contractions and interests of the African community as we make up the largest segment of people in the city.

3. To make contact with organizations that can have principled unity with us to help push the UPP work forward and to build work in the community in general.

In addition to the goals consolidated in the meeting, we also won support for not bringing in the emerging body as a “People of Color” committee. In several locations around the country, oppressed people have consolidated themselves as an auxiliary committee in the Occupy Wall Street mobilization.

We resist submitting ourselves to the opportunist, racist and sexist leadership of the Occupy Baltimore movement, instead we stand as a separate “Power to the People” committee who come to the mobilization in support of our goals. We also resist using the term “People of Color” to define ourselves, we are Africans, and many of the committee attendees are left forces looking for concrete goals and objectives. The term “people of color” is a term used by white society to define what they believe to be minority populations but as Africans, we understand we are billion strong!

The goals we were able to push for and win with the meeting of organizers were:

1. End Gentrification of the African community and to end foreclosures on people's homes

2. Demand for jobs and a living wage.

3. Ending Police Brutality and the occupation of Baltimore by Baltimore City Police

4. End the school to prison pipeline and stop the Prison Industrial complex

5. Healthcare for all and the ending of Food Deserts in the Black community

6. More funding to public education

7. More funding to Youth Programs

8. Ending of the war on drugs and the racist immigration policies

9. End the wars in the Middle East and Africa

Bcde. Nnamdi Lumuma,

State Organizer,

Ujima People's Progress Party

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Spirit of 66’: An Analysis of Our Political Prisoners and Prisoners Of War

Correction: This article was originally published with Bcde. Abdul Jabbar Caliph as the author, when it was written by Bcde. Akili Shakur. We apologize to the Bcde. Akili and to our readers for the mistake.

 

In October 1966, under the auspices of founders Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, the Black Panther Party was formed. Due to the conditions surrounding the time period; Police brutality, unsuitable housing, mass incarceration of the impoverished and the limited education provided to minorities (sound familiar?), there was and remains a necessity for change. The men and women of the African community began this struggle immediately following our capture and subsequent displacement at the hands of our European oppressors many years ago. Conditions continued to deteriorate despite the efforts of our ancestors. Yet, it was in their spirit that Marcus Garvey,  Malcolm X and other comrades picked up the mantle and moved forward  constantly reminding us that the struggle continues……..into this atmosphere came the likes of Marshall “Eddie” Conway and George Wright.

Eddie Conway, our comrade and brother has been unjustly incarcerated since 1970. I say “unjustly” because the fact remains that there is no legitimate evidence supporting his conviction. In 1971 he was convicted of the murder of a Baltimore city police officer. He was sentenced to life as a result of this conviction. The statement of his alleged accomplice was recanted, his alibi not even considered and the word of police officers with prior knowledge of Mr. Conway was tainted at best. The officers claim to have had no knowledge of Eddie Conway (except having seen him on their patrols) and identified him in a photo shoot. However, records indicate that there were Baltimore city police detectives listed as founders of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party (of which Eddie Conway had become Minister of Defense). Also, based on information obtained by these personnel, the FBI had launched an investigation into the activities of Comrade Eddie. These facts support the likelihood that not only was the police aware of who Eddie Conway was but in fact targeted him. Despite the confirmation from his boss that he was working when the shooting took place, he remains in the Jessup Correctional Institution (JCI) in Maryland.  There have been numerous requests to address this gross miscarriage of justice yet to no avail. The last major effort culminating in the Baltimore City council requesting a pardon from the governor in 2002.This invoked an outcry from Baltimore police officers. Why? One would ask. How could this happen and not be corrected? The answer would be what the FBI has termed “Seditious Conspiracy”.

During this time period, another young man by the name of George Wright had escaped from prison where he was serving 15-30yrs for a murder (that again could hardly be proven) in 1962. After he and others escaped, they went to Detroit and joined the Black Liberation Army, the military arm of the Black Panther Party. In 1972, he and 4 other comrades hijacked a plane and consequently embarrassed the FBI. They were forced to strip down and give the comrades 1million dollars in exchange for the passengers. Afterward, they had the crew take them to another airport where they picked up a navigation expert en route to their destination, Algeria, where Comrade Eldridge Cleaver was in hiding. It is important to note that none of the flight crew or the navigator was harmed during this event. Upon arrival in Algeria they were granted asylum, but were asked to give back the money by the Algerian government under pressure from the American government. Some of the BLA members eventually fled to France and were tried and convicted in a French court. However, the French declined to extradite them as this excerpt from the associated press reveals:

“The group eventually made their way to France, where Wright's associates were tracked down, arrested, tried and convicted in Paris in 1976. France refused to extradite them to the US where they would have faced much longer sentences. According to news reports at the time, the defense hailed the light sentences they were given as "a condemnation of American racism" after the jury found "extenuating circumstances" in their actions, apparently agreeing with the defense’s assertion that the hijacking had been motivated by "racial oppression in the United States"

Yes, extenuating circumstances motivated by racial oppression in the United States. A French jury acknowledged the issue of racial oppression in the United States in 1976. This issue has not subsided. In fact, despite the appearance of improvement, the condition has worsened. This depleted condition was instigated by the beefed up internal military of the government, the police, and its investigative espionage branch, the FBI. So, why do we continue to fight for justice? What gives us the right? Why is the government wrong for its treatment of these two men in particular? For the answers, let’s examine a time tested American document, The Declaration of Independence.

IN Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —

Let us examine, for a moment, the last statement in this portion of the declaration. “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” This statement is in bold print when listed in the 1966 Party Platform and Program as an explanation for the 10 programs’ last point;

10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the Black colony in which only Black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate for the purpose of determining the will of Black people as to their national destiny.

 The aforementioned statement, is the statement that legally entitles us, as a people of separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitles us, to the right of self-determination. A right long denied by the oppressive system established as a byproduct of Capitalism here in the United States. American is guilty of greater offenses against Africans here in these United States than any listed in the Declaration toward England! They have even gone as far as to subvert their own laws to quell what they deem “Seditious activity”. An example would be the current attempt to extradite George Wright. George Wright was granted political asylum by the government of Portugal. As a result, NO government should be entitled to request his extradition. This fact has not stopped American from pursuing its campaign to track down as many former BLA and BPP members as possible and subject them to incarceration or worse! If a government engages in a long train of abuses and usurpations, like abusing its power and forcing another government or institution to heed their demands, and pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, what should happen to such a Government? It is imperative that we never relent in our struggle to throw off the yoke of capitalism and its son, oppression. This country has murdered men in violation of its own laws, as in the case of Troy Davis, when the Supreme court acknowledged there was doubt, albeit “minimal doubt”. I’m quite certain that falls within the scope of “beyond a reasonable”. They have held Eddie Conway for over 40yrs with no valid evidence. They are now attempting to extradite George Wright, outside the scope of their authority. They have even gone as far as to attempt to open conversations with Cuba by requesting the return of Assata Shakur. They pursue our elder comrades that dared to struggle against them more diligently than they pursue the old German soldiers responsible for the atrocities against the Jews and WE are the victims! War with this system is necessary. It was then and continues to be now. The time for superfluous rhetoric is over the time for action is now!

During this month, the 45^th anniversary of the establishment of the Black Panther Party, let us not forget the comrades that fought for our liberation and died or are currently incarcerated. Although the list is long, I will be brief and mentioned just a few; George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael, Albert Nuh Washington, Kuwasi Balagoon, Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, W. L. Nolen, Cleveland Edwards, Alvin Miller, Khatari Gaulden, Billy Christmas, James McClain, Jonathan Jackson, little Bobby Hutton, Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, John Huggins and this year Donald Cox and Geronimo ji jaga Pratt have all passed. There a host of others and a salute them all with the fist of power. There are a host of comrades that remain incarcerated; Russell Maroon Shoats, Jalil Muntaqim, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Sundiata Acoli, Herman Bell, Ruchell Magee, H. rap Brown, Hugo Pinell, Mumia Abu Jamal, Eddie Conway and currently George Wright. Again there are many others and I salute them all with the fist of power. Let us not forget those exiled such as our sister Assata Shakur and the many that are still among us! Revolutionary love to you all!   

All Power To The People! Uhuru Sasa na Diama! Lasima Tushinde Mbilashaka!

 Bcde. Akili Shakur

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The Political Situation in Baltimore City - Rotten As Every

 

The political situation inside of Baltimore City is just like that of many domestically colonized communities, rotten as ever. Between the corruption in the mayor’s office and the corruption inside the police department everybody is losing, except for the rich and their neocolonialist agents. As members of the African Working Class grow poorer, we find ourselves more oppressed and exploited then every by the white capitalists-colonialist ventures of Maryland State.

Recent events in this city have proven the above statement to be true as every. Approximately one year ago we witnessed the previous mayor, Sheila Dixon, lose her position for petty theft; about $500 dollars worth of gift cards were stole from the poor. These gift cards were given to her by the capitalist vultures of this state as minor gifts to comfort the poor while they attempted steal from the poor, through trickery and lies the vermin infested housed that they lived within, adding to the displacement of thousands. Through a corrupted court hearing she was given two years probation and allowed to keep an $83,000.00 dollar a year pension, that should of went back to the people of this city. To add further insult to this illegal, betrayal of the people after her two year period of probation of community service she will have her record wiped clean! She has expressed interested in running for reelection in 2014 as the Mayor of his city once again. This happened once before in my lifetime when Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Berry was reelected after being convicted of smoking crack cocaine during a drug sting.

Upon the force removal of this petty bourgeois, neo-colonialist bootlicking agent of imperialism we saw yet another replacement of the same charter by the name of Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Under the current administration of Rawlings-Blake we have witnessed numerous police corruption cases. The first being the illegal murder of an innocent former marine by a ruthless, drunk PIG by the name of Gahiji Tshambar. This bitch ass motherfucker, punk shoots and murdered an unarmed civilian for talking to a woman that he was said to be interested in and only received 15 years and this was not the first time that he shoot a person in a dispute while being drunk. Next, we witnessed approximately 50 cops be criminally charged with being involved in an illegal towing operation. They allegedly received numerous kick backs for telling people to have their cars towed by a company that didn’t have a contract with the city. Finally we witnessed another cop with the mentality of a drug dealing government agent allegedly get caught on the phone while in the parking lot of Northwestern police station conducting a drug deal. This isn’t his first time that he was alleged to have been involved in an illegal operation such as this; he was just cleared after a three year investigation of similar charges!

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is attempting run for election as the second neo-colonialist female mayor in the history of Baltimore city. She is currently running on an anti-black ticket which calls for harsher sentences being imposed on various members of the African Working Class for who continuously get locked up for gun and drug violations. In a city of approximately 600,000 residents between 65 to 67% of it’s’ members being of the African working class it is hard to not participate in illegal activity. Many of the residents of this city are unemployed or underemployed due to the capitalist-colonialist education that they have received which has resulted in many of its African Working Class members going straight to prison! It should be noted and understood that Baltimore city, Prince George County and the Eastern Shore, Maryland represent the three largest concretion areas of African Working Class membership; they also represent the three largest area from which members of the African Working Class are send to prison. These three areas also have a history of African Working Class rebellion against the State!

And once again we see an ill attempted being made to entertain the masses in order to keep their minds diverted from focusing on the real problems at hand, the massive political and economical crises that plague the city residents. Problems such as unemployment and underemployment that has led to approximately about 135,000 people a year going through central booking for public nuisance crime and minor drug processions charges. At least two-thirds of those who are arrested have been lock up and charged at least once are twice before.  This is the nature of petty bourgeois politics; they never seek to solve the problems of the people they only seek to oppress and exploited the people by divert ding their attention in order to keep the masses from rebellion and overthrowing this rotten government.  

Over Labor Day weekend the city of Baltimore is sponsoring a Grand Prix Race that is coasting the residents’ million of dollars. Only a fraction of the money that is being spent is expected to be made back from such a wasteful event of the tax payer’s money. Similar events have been sponsored before in Washington, Detroit and in San Jose, California. They all have meet with dismally failure! The African Working Class and the rest of the residents of this city deserve better. They deserve to be represented and heard, they have a right to expect more from their elected officials. 

Comrades, Brothers and Sisters it doesn’t matter who runs for political office in this city or any city in the United Snakes of Amerikkka if they don’t have a platform that represents the people, particularly the African Working Class the most oppressed and exploited class in Amerikkka. As a Pan-African Internationalist it is important that we understand that in order to seize power from the state is only the first step in winning our people to participate in their own liberation. This can be accomplished by establishing liberated zones and setting up an alternative government structure to govern the people. By allowing the people to participate in such a structure we would be eliminating or limiting the problems that an African Working Class Community would be faced with day-to-day. 

Comrades by establish such an area we would be able to control police brutality, establish effective survival programs for the people and consolidating the power of the people in  that area. This would give the people some democratic living space to operate in and to better organize the people to wage an effective campaign for the liberation of African people trapped within the domestically colonized borders of these vermin infested neighborhoods. We could establish a dual- competing economy for the people that would enrich their lives.

Comrades this is what all progressive and revolutionary forces should be working for if they loved the people. It doesn’t matter if they live in the city or in rural areas, they must “cast down their bucket” and effectively organize the people, educate the people rising their political consciousness and start mobilizing the people towards their own liberation! This can be easily accomplished by establishing a unity front based on principal unity under the leadership of the African Working Class who understand the revolutionary ideology of Pan-African Internationalisms, the true path for the liberation of Africa and her people. This is the only way we can end government and police corruption that oppressed and exploited the people for years.

Join the revolution

Free Africa and her people

Follow the ideology of Pan-African Internationalisms

By Abdul Jabbar Caliph  & Cde. Obasi Camara

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African Community Refuses to Participate in Neo-Colonial Elections in Baltimore

Baltimore, MD – On Tuesday, September 13, 2011, voter turnout for the primary elections for Baltimore city local government officials hit an all-time historic low for the city. Only 17% of eligible voters in the city bothered to participate in the elections that would pick Democratic Party and Republican Party candidates for Mayor and 14 city council positions. Despite the attempts by the bourgeois media and pundits to cast the low participation numbers on voter apathy, the lack of participation in choosing between contending elements of the two ruling class parties represents a continuation of the breakdown in the people’s perception of the legitimacy of the state and its leadership.

Baltimore is a city of nearly 630,000 people with 64% of the population being Africans. the African working class is the largest sector of people in the city; but with 21% of all families living below the poverty level  African workers are also some of the poorest. Baltimore is a city with an overall unemployment rate of 11.4% which is higher than the 9.7% national average. Take into account that nationally 16.7% of African people, 19.4% of African men and a whopping 45% of African youth ages 16-24 are unemployed, the economic situation in the city of Baltimore for African people is critical.

The Democratic Party attempts to project itself as the liberal party in the United States and a friend of the African and other minority causes. Simultaneously, it has vilified the Republican Party as the party of the rich and the enemy of African people. However, in the face of all this, the Democratic Party has ruled the Baltimore city government for over 44 years and in that time, the economic, educational and health conditions of African people have steadily declined. It has not been the policies of the Republican Party which has failed the African community in Baltimore but the policies and leadership of the Democratic Party. The fact is both the Democratic and Republican parties are capitalist-imperialist parties that serve the interests of the white ruling class in the United States. Both parties are united in the philosophical and ideological belief in maintaining the domination of parasitic white power over all the oppressed peoples and nations of the world. Practically, they really only differ in the tactics and strategies they implement in order to achieve these goals.

Elections are non-violent contests between contending elements of the ruling class to determine which sector will have control of the state apparatus for a specific period of time. Once they have control of the state apparatus, they begin the work of implementing and maintaining policies that advance the economic and social agenda of their supporters. Elections legitimize the authority of these sectors of the ruling class even as they operate in opposition to the needs of the electorate.As a result of the large African population in Baltimore, there is also a large Black middle class that functions as gate keepers in the administration of resources and services. This Black middle class has proven itself to be visionless and traitorous to the interests of the general African population. Therefore it can only be recognized as performing a neo-colonial function in relationship to the masses of African and poor people in the struggle against the U.S. parasitic white ruling class.As a class, the Black petite-bourgeoisie can not be counted on as a social force to transform the poverty and disenfranchisement experienced by African people. As a class, it has attempted to consolidate its gains off the backs of African workers, the youth and other poor people.

The mayoral campaign was contested by 6 Africans and one white man. With the exception of one lone, under funded African worker in the campaign, all the other class elements were middle class African people who refuse to raise the issues the masses needed to have addressed.The mayoral election was won by the incumbent mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, an African woman with a long history of serving the Democratic Party machine and only ascended to the mayor position when her fellow Democratic Party crony, Shelia Dixon, was kicked out of office for a scandal in which she stole monies allotted for poor families and made backdoor deals with capitalist developers.

Other petite-bourgeoisie African forces in the race were Catherine Pugh, a current Democratic State Senator and former Baltimore City councilmember and former chief of state to the former mayor Dixon Otis Rolley. Despite being African, neither of these candidates dared to speak directly to the issues of the masses of African and poor people in this city. Neither was able to make a class distinction between themselves and the incumbent mayor. Many feared the lone white candidate, Jody Landers, a former city council member and local businessman would be able to steal the election with so many African candidates splitting the Black vote. However he finished a distant fourth in the election and could not inspire working class white voters to come out to support his campaign.

Ultimately, the refusal of the vast majority of people to participate in the local election is a key indictment of the current political process. The people when inspired have shown they will come out to vote and can be energized but when given the choice of one neo-colonialist agenda against another, they would rather stay home

Now is the time to put forward a party and candidates that take the issues of the people and make them primary to their campaigns. Now is time to build a political machine that is connected to the interests and needs of African workers and poor people in the region to expose the class orientation of the current crop of misleadership that rules local politics.

Brother-Comrade Nnamdi Lumumba, UPP State Organizer 

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From the Negro World to the African World Report: Picking Up the Legacy

Uhuru Sasa, and welcome to the first edition of the African World Report – News and Information from African People, for African People. The African World Report Online (AWRO) is a production of the Ujima People’s Media Group, a Pan-African Internationalist media organization that is part of the overall African independence movement. For those who are not familiar, if you check around the site you’ll find information that will explain Pan-African Internationalism, African independence, and other subjects.

As the Lead Coordinator of the UPMG and one of the editors for AWRO, I am personally proud as today marks the beginning of a new period of our work. For little more than a year now, the members of the UPMG have worked to establish the AWRO and after some significant struggle and a long time coming, the AWRO is finally a reality. On this day, August 17^th, 1918, almost one hundred years ago, another publication was launched that would forever change the way that African people struggle for our freedom and independence: the Negro World.

The Negro World was the main news organ of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, organized and lead by Marcus M. Garvey. After having struggled to establish an organization like no other in the U.S. and the Caribbean, the UNIA went on to begin publishing its newspaper, the first of a number of do-for-self projects that would separate the UNIA from other black organizations during that time. Engaged in the fight for African human rights, dignity, and independence, the Negro World, under Garvey’s leadership, would become a significant weapon to combat the ideology of racism and its destructive effects on the African community. It would go on to assist the UNIA in exposing white power and engaging it all over the globe. The Negro World was, at its height, a place where African artists, writers, and scholars were introduced to African people. It reached out to upwards of a half million people and helped to extend the UNIA’s abilities in the real world. The UNIA tool on the struggle to build factories, commercial businesses, and so on, it employed thousands of African people during the height of the “Great Depression”, and made the first steps towards an African Unity throughout the Diaspora. Every step of the way, the Negro World was there and at critical points, it was the deciding factor in the success of the UNIA programs. The Negro World would become one of the first institutions that would proclaim the beauty of being black, the dignity of being African, whether by birth or descent. And so, as the first organization to seriously organize and mobilize the African working class continued to make leaps towards ending the oppression and uniting the African world, it was the Negro World that was one of the weapons the UNIA used to achieve its success. It is this great legacy that the African World Report Online attempts to pickup and carry forward.

It is common knowledge that African people are still locked in a fight for our dignity, for our freedom, and for our independence. We have been struggling for this for centuries, and until we reach the objective of true justice, we will continue. A big part of this struggle is the struggle for the hearts and minds of African people, and the African working class in general. Daily, our people are bombarded with the ideas of white supremacy and capitalist imperialism. We are, every moment of our lives, overwhelmed with the ideas of the forces that are responsible for creating the current situation we find ourselves in. Throughout our struggle we have fought these ideas and developed better ideas that have served our interests and helped us to move forward. A main battleground in this war of ideas has been the news media.

Since the inception of corporate media, the news has been used to undermine African people while winning us to unite with our oppressors. The task of the AWRO is to reverse that trend. We don’t pretend to be unbiased or without slant. In fact, we are clear from the very beginning that reporting the news is never done without some kind of bias. Every news outlet answers to someone and the people that the media answers to dictate the agenda for the news media it controls. We answer only to African people, and so we take it as our job to tell the truth about what is happening in the world and to show how current events affect the lives of African people. The AWRO joins the ranks of the information warriors who battle daily to defeat the ideas and practices of white supremacy, exploitation and oppression. We salute those who have been carrying this struggle forward and look to add to the impact they are making.

So, in celebration of the founding of the Negro World, we are proud to bring you the African World Report. We hope our contributions are helpful.

Uhuru Sasa!

(Freedom Now!)

Brother-Comrade Abasi ShomariBaruti, UPMG Lead Coordinator

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Is There Room for African Working Class Leadership in the Black Community?

If the African community is to have self-determination, economic and social justice, now is the time for the African working class to struggle for leadership of our community on all of its various fronts. Now is the time to put forward solutions for genuine progress and change in the areas of economic development, institution building, public policy, education and electoral politics.

The defeat of the Black Power movement in the late1960’s dispersed and disrupted the development of working class, militant leadership for the African community. Unchallenged, the Black middle class was able to consolidate its ideological, economic, political and social subordination to the liberal sector of the white ruling class for its own interests and at the expense of the masses of African people.

Increasingly, the democratic space, hard-fought for by African people, has begun to be rolled back. Not only have the democratic gains been rolled back but, with the assistance of liberal black middle class leadership, nearly all forms of democratic participation except elections have become stigmatized. African revolutionary and progressive forces have been driven to the margins of influence and as a result, the condition of the masses of the African community has worsened.

Beginning in the mid-1970’s, the most dominant and consistent form of political activity the African community has participated in is the electoral process, by voting, running as candidates or participating in electoral campaigns. Voting has become synonymous with politics, and to the disadvantage of the majority of the African community, has marginalized other forms of democratic struggle.

Representatives of the African middle class, who are now entrenched in the status quo of electoral politics, almost completely spurn the use of direct-action politics and, because they are government officials, increasingly are the targets of such political tactics in urban centers.

Thirty plus years of voting by the African community for Black political leaders and liberals in the Democratic Party have not translated into economic or political wealth for the general African community. Because of this, many elements of the African community have become apathetic to the elections. In the 2007 Baltimore City mayoral race, an African woman was able to win the election with a total voter turnout of 29% of eligible voters. Despite not having anywhere near a mandate to run the city, there is no consolidated opposition to challenge her anti-African and anti-working class agenda. The relative weakness of her neo-colonial administration in Baltimore has not translated into power for the African working class or its allies.

We believe that the masses want genuine progress; not empty promises, worthless trinkets, or opportunities to sell out. We want to improve our community and we believe this progress should not come at the cost of us abandoning our principles. We believe now is the time for African workers – regular everyday people – to find the solutions to our problems and struggle to retain the benefits of our work instead of allowing it to fall in to the hands of the few. Under the leadership of the African working class, we believe it is possible to forge a principled unity that serves the masses of our people and moves us closer to self-determination.

Brother-Comrade Nnamdi Lumumba, UPP State Organizer

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