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Stop the Extradition! Free Julian Assange!
Julian Assange is an innocent political prisoner. He is a journalist and publisher. His work with Wikileaks has provided vital information about what is being done behind our backs by the US government, information that we need to know. His upcoming trial on the 25th of February in London threatens him with likely imprisonment for life.
See article, below.
Upcoming events in defense of Assange:
Saturday, 2 pm 15 February:
The Prosecution of Julian Assange: His Right to Publish is Our Right to Know
Speakers: Jim Goodale, former New York Times General Counsel; Renata Avila, international lawyer, public and legal advocate for Assange; Max Blumenthal, journalist, The Grayzone; Glen Ford, executive editor, Black Agenda Report.
- at 2 Ct Square West, Long Island City, NY, 11101.
Monday, 24 February:
Global Protests: First Day of Julian Assange's extradition hearing
- New York City: 11 am: UK Consulate, 2nd Ave & E 48th St., New York City.
- San Francisco: 12 pm: British Consulate General, 1 Sansome St, San Francisco
Also:
- Bay Area: Every Friday 4 pm: Basta! Free Chelsea and Julian, Fruitvale and MacArthur, Oakland
And see: Courage Foundation at couragefound.org
Tuesday, 25 February: Extradition trial begins in Belmarsh Prison, London.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
This Article is from Socialist Viewpoint, Jan-Feb, 2020. socialistviewpoint.org:
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Stop the Extradition! Free Julian Assange!
Julian Assange is an innocent political prisoner. He is a journalist and publisher. His work with Wikileaks has provided vital information about what is being done behind our backs by the US government, information that we need to know. His upcoming trial on the 25th of February in London threatens him with likely imprisonment for life.
See article, below.
Upcoming events in defense of Assange:
Saturday, 2 pm 15 February:
The Prosecution of Julian Assange: His Right to Publish is Our Right to Know
Speakers: Jim Goodale, former New York Times General Counsel; Renata Avila, international lawyer, public and legal advocate for Assange; Max Blumenthal, journalist, The Grayzone; Glen Ford, executive editor, Black Agenda Report.
- at 2 Ct Square West, Long Island City, NY, 11101.
Monday, 24 February:
Global Protests: First Day of Julian Assange's extradition hearing
- New York City: 11 am: UK Consulate, 2nd Ave & E 48th St., New York City.
- San Francisco: 12 pm: British Consulate General, 1 Sansome St, San Francisco
Also:
- Bay Area: Every Friday 4 pm: Basta! Free Chelsea and Julian, Fruitvale and MacArthur, Oakland
And see: Courage Foundation at couragefound.org
Tuesday, 25 February: Extradition trial begins in Belmarsh Prison, London.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
This Article is from Socialist Viewpoint, Jan-Feb, 2020. socialistviewpoint.org:
Socialist Viewpoint ... news and analysis for working people
The Torture of Julian Assange:
US Takes One More Step Towards Fascism
By Chris Kinder
Julian Assange is a journalist who has committed no crime. He is only "guilty" of publishing information revealing the war crimes and other deceits of US imperialism, ie, things we the public should all know. Yet he--the truth teller and publisher of Wikileaks--is treated by the US as if he was the worst criminal the world has ever seen. This is all done to intimidate the media, and cover up the crimes of the imperialist ruling class of the US.
The crimes of the US include the murder of innocent civilians, including children and journalists. The now famous video "Collateral Murder" showing one such incident in brutal detail, had been provided by Chelsea Manning, formerly (as Bradley Manning) of the US military in Iraq. Manning is a heroine truth-teller who was jailed once for releasing documents, and is now locked up for a second time by the US for refusing to testify against Julian Assange in a kangaroo-court grand jury set up to frame Assange.
Manning is not the only one jailed for refusing to testify against Assange before this secretive grand jury. Jeremy Hammond, a member of the hacktivist network Anonymous, is serving a decade in prison for allegedly disclosing information about the private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor), revealing that they had been spying on human rights defenders at the behest of corporations and governments; documents which were published by Wikileaks.
Assange Faces Bogus Charge of Espionage
Assange is accused by the US, under the World War I-era Espionage Act, of conspiring with Manning to obtain secret documents. There is no evidence for this alleged conspiracy whatsoever. Assange is a journalist/publisher, not a whistle-blower. He receives documents from whistle-blowers and publishes them. No one has ever accused him of illegal activity, nor shown his revelations to be inaccurate in any way. Furthermore, all the major US media, the NY Times, Washington Post and many others, have published the same material, straight from Wikileaks!
That is what the US ruling class wants to never happen again.. But they can't treat the US media as they are treating Assange! After all the US media is already about as subservient as it can be, and is owned by big corporations, for whom the US government is the lap-dog. But what they can do is the modern-day equivalent of putting Assange's head on a spike, displayed for all to see.. The message to both journalists and publishers is: first amendment rights be damned, don't publish leaked material ever again! The threat to freedom of speech is blatant.(1)
UK-US Extradition Is Not For Political Offenses
This is why the US is determined to extradite Assange from Britain--even though he is not a US citizen (he's Australian) and his work with Wikileaks is based in Britain, not the US. They want to give him a life sentence--likely in solitary confinement--to shut him away in some US dungeon until he dies. And that's if they don't manage to kill him while he is in Belmarsh. All this is to intimidate any journalist or any publisher from repeating Assange's exposure of US war crimes..
Assange is falsely accused under the Espionage Act, but his actual "crime" was in exposing US war crimes for all to see. He didn't steal this evidence, he just published it, after it was already revealed. Clearly, this was a political act, not a criminal one.. If the law actually played any role in this, which obviously it does not for the US and UK officials, it would prevent Assange's extradition from the UK to the US, because extradition for political offenses is illegal under the treaty governing extradition between the US and the UK.. The treaty is clear: "Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense." (2)
Assange had Asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy, Until...
Assange now awaits an extradition hearing set for February 2020. He is currently confined in Belmarsh, the top-security prison in Britain, a hell-hole on the outskirts of London where accused "terrorists" are sent to be tortured, rot away and/or die. Assange is kept there in isolation for 23 hours per day. Assange is no terrorist, and indeed no criminal whatsoever.. He was sent there after police, at the behest of the US, invaded the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, and dragged him out. He was then locked up in Belmarsh for the crime of... skipping bail! Normally there would be no jail time for this at all, and certainly not in Belmarsh. But not so with Julian Assange.
Assange's earlier political asylum, granted by Ecuador under Rafael Correa had been withdrawn by the new right-wing president Lenin Moreno. Moreno has allowed the US to use the Galapagos Islands--a precious natural site explored by Darwin--as a military airfield, signed an agreement with the IMF, and agreed to hand over Assange to the US and its CIA vultures.(3)
Police were allowed to come into the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where Assange had found refuge from the threat of extradition to the US for years. The US now had Assange where they wanted him: imprisoned, and on a fast-track to extradition to the US, under a trumped-up charge of "espionage." But that is just the beginning.
US/CIA Interference Against Assange In UK Court
In order to cater to the support of the US on the eve of Britain's separation from the European Union, British authorities have bent over backward to do whatever the US wants. That was shown in the Westminster Magistrates Court on 21 October 2019 in which Assange appeared for a hearing on the management and timing of the extradition proceedings. Assange's lawyers wanted to allow more time for Assange to prepare his defense before the extradition hearing. All of Assange's records and documents had been seized when he was arrested and forced out of the Ecuadorean Embassy, and he has been allowed only very limited contact with his lawyers while in Belmarsh prison.
As if to add insult to injury, officials from the US embassy were seen to be openly conferring with the prosecution in the Magistrates Court during the hearing.. And the magistrate (judge), Vanessa Baraitser, completely ignored all the defense arguments and denied their claims for delay at the end of the hearing, without any further consideration. This was the same magistrate who a month earlier had ruled that Assange will remain in prison, despite the fact that his sentence for "absconding" bail expired on September 22. The extradition trial stays set for February, but in addition, it will now be held, not in the Westminster Magistrates Court, but in the much more restricted court in Belmarsh prison, which is hard to get to and has only 3 seats for public observers of the proceedings!
The CIA Spied on Assange's Privileged Contact With His Lawyers!
Even more importantly, a case now proceeding in a Spanish court shows that the CIA had contracted with a Spanish company to spy on Assange while in the Embassy, including recording privileged conversations between Assange and his lawyers, in which his defense against the up-coming extradition proceedings was discussed. Such a charge would normally be grounds for the immediate dismissal of the case for extradition. Assange's lawyers sought a delay to the extradition trial in order to allow time for the Spanish court to submit its findings, so that they could be heard at the upcoming extradition hearing. But Magistrate Baraitser ignored this.
All this was reported by a former British ambassador and friend of Assange, Craig Murray, who attended the hearing, and who said, "The charade might as well have been cut and the US government simply sat on the bench to control the whole process." (4)
Did the CIA Torture Assange in a British Prison?
Murray also said that from his appearance at the hearing, Assange appears to have been viciously tortured while in Belmarsh Prison. Murray reported: "I was badly shocked by just how much weight my friend has lost, by the speed his hair has receded and by the appearance of premature and vastly accelerated aging. He has a pronounced limp I have never seen before.. Since his arrest he has lost over 15 kg in weight." Murray goes on, "But his physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration. When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both... it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought."
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer, who found earlier in 2019 that Assange was the victim of a protracted campaign of "psychological torture," has repeatedly condemned the British authorities for jailing him in a maximum-security prison. In a letter to the British government in May, Melzer stated that the conditions of Assange's detention had resulted in his "continued exposure to progressively severe psychological suffering and the ongoing exacerbation of his pre-existing trauma."(5)
Assange's Health--and Life--is at Stake
On 25 November 2019 the New York Times reported that "The mental and physical condition of Julian Assange has so deteriorated that he could die in a British jail before his February hearing on extradition to the United States, a group of international doctors has warned." In an open letter to the UK Home Secretary, the doctors called for Mr. Assange to be transferred from the high-security Belmarsh prison in London to a university teaching hospital to receive an expert medical assessment.(6)
These alarming reports about Assange, who was coherent and relatively healthy when arrested, combined with the US Embassy officials directing the prosecution with British officials at the October hearing, which signifies their deep and direct involvement, leads to only one conclusion: the CIA is torturing Assange in Belmarsh Prison to the point of incapacity to deal with his own case. This severe treatment could be destroying his mind, and even threatening him with death.
The CIA MK-Ultra Program
Death was a frequent occurrence for the victims of the CIA's secret MK-Ultra program, run for 20 years in the 1950s through early 1970s. This CIA "mind control" program involved giving huge doses of LSD and other drugs to various experimental victims who were often not informed that experiments were being performed on them.. Besides LSD, MK-Ultra used other chemicals, electroshocks, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, solitary confinement, and verbal and sexual abuse, all amounting to torture.
A new book by Stephen Kinzer reports on this in a description of how one man, Sidney Gottlieb, conducted this "work" in secret--even in secret within the CIA. CIA tops ordered it, but didn't want to know about the gruesome details. The original purpose was to both destroy a person's mind completely, and then recreate it in accordance with the desires of the perpetrators. As reported by Kinzer, this CIA project "was a continuation of the work begun in World War II-era Japanese facilities and Nazi concentration camps on subduing and controlling human minds." Kinzer cites evidence that this was a continuation of a Nazi agenda, pursued at the Dachau concentration camp, and facilitated through the CIA's secret recruitment of Nazi torturers and vivisectionists at the end of the war.(7)
The MK-Ultra program was terminated in 1973, but anyone who thinks that the CIA would not now use these techniques to attempt to destroy the mind of a perceived enemy such as Assange is delusional.
Torture, a Long CIA Record
The MK-Ultra project headed by Gottlieb began on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles; it was a part of the Cold War against the Soviet Union. The conclusion of this particular program was that while it was possible to destroy a person's mind, it was not possible to recreate a new mind in it's place. But that was not the end of the story.
"Rendition" proved that the US was not done with torture, far from it. Ronald Reagan authorized a rendition in 1987, and Clinton authorized rendition to nations known to practice interrogation, which was dubbed "torture by proxy." George W Bush rendered hundreds for detention in foreign sites, and "extraordinary rendition" was continued under Obama. The UK authorities, specifically MI5 and MI6 (British security units), were complicit in renditions done by the US. "The Report," a new documentary film on CIA torture in rendition sites, displays CIA "enhanced interrogation" techniques, including use of graphic images, and shows that the real extent of this torture has been underestimated and hidden from the world.(8)
Belmarsh prison is the latest "rendition" torture site, with Assange in the CIA's cross hairs.
Did Assange Commit Rape?
Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of this case for some leftists to understand is the "charge" of the rape of two women in Sweden which was leveled against Assange in the press. In general, believing the woman in a rape charge is important for many reasons: women are often afraid to come forward after the fact, the police are highly disrespectful and don't bother to process "rape kits," and while DNA evidence may be available, often the lack of con-sensuality in the act is difficult to prove.. And while Assange has always maintained his innocence in this, and offered to be interrogated by Swedish officials, the charge still leaves a question as to his character.
But unlike most rape cases, this one is vastly different: it has the footprints of the CIA all over it!
First of all, this alleged "rape" came up just months after Assange enraged the US war makers with the release of the "Collateral Murder" video, which showed the blatant killing of civilians in Iraq by US troops from a helicopter.
Secondly, no official charge of rape has ever been leveled against Assange! The two women involved did not allege rape, and would not sign onto a charge of rape. A Swedish tabloid went public with the story of an alleged rape, which is how Assange found out about it.
It Was All About Assange's Extradition to the US
After a senior Swedish prosecutor cancelled an arrest warrant for Assange, saying the evidence "disclosed no crime at all," another prosecutor mysteriously re-started the case. Assange went to the police to make a statement, and waited for 5 weeks to be questioned. He left Sweden only after being told by a prosecutor that he was not wanted for questioning.
After Assange left Sweden, Interpol strangely issued a Red Notice for Assange, something usually used for dangerous criminals and terrorists. At the same time--as we now know--a grand Jury in Eastern Virginia (which is notoriously in the home turf of the CIA-US Intelligence community) had begun proceedings to find a way to put Assange to death or jail him for life.
As grand juries often are, this was a set-up. For us to not add 2 and 2 to make four...
"You Would Have To Be Out of Your Mind"
We should have no doubt: the "rape" charge against Assange was a CIA construct from day one. Since when does the US or UK governments concern themselves with rape charges abroad (or even at home)? Yet the UK Supreme Court ruled that Assange should be extradited to Sweden for something he was not even charged with; and the Swedish government refused to give any assurance that Assange would not be extradited from there to the US! This--in 2012--is when Assange sought and received asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Caitlin Johnstone, who defines herself as a 100% reader funded "rogue journalist" believes that, "rape culture is a ubiquitous societal illness that needs to be rolled back far beyond the conventional understanding of rape as a stranger in a dark alley forcibly penetrating some man's wife or daughter at knife point."
And about Assange? Johnstone said, "...you'd have to be out of your mind to believe a completely unproven allegation about a known target of US intelligence agencies. It's just as stupid as believing unproven claims about governments targeted for US regime change, like believing Saddam had WMD." (my emphasis) And: "...the fact remains that even if Assange were somehow to be proven guilty of rape, the argument 'he's a rapist' is not a legitimate reason to support a US extradition and prosecution which would set a precedent that poses a threat to press freedom everywhere." (9)
The Official Swedish Report
A piece in the Observer, a London-based weekly newspaper, revealed facts as laid out in the official Swedish report on the Assange alleged rape case.. Published in 2016, this report confirms that 1. neither woman charged Assange with rape; 2. both women kept him in their respective abodes for days after the sexual incidents concerned; 3. The two women "make it clear that their negative feelings after their sexual adventures with Mr. Assange were entirely due to the broken condoms and their fear of HIV"; 4. Assange remained in Stockholm for 5 weeks in mid-August 2010 in which he was wanted for questioning, and left only after the Swedish prosecutors dropped the case. (10)
The investigation was immediately reopened by another prosecutor, but after Assange was safely locked up and expected to be railroaded into US clutches for extradition, the case was closed for a final time in November 2019.
Women Against Rape Oppose Extradition of Assange
We do not tolerate any phony defense arguments against a rape charge, such as "how was she dressed" or "she was asking for it," or "having unprotected sex without the woman's permission shouldn't qualify as sexual assault." That is not what this is about!
As Women Against Rape spokespersons Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff put it in a Guardian article, "When Julian Assange was first arrested, we were struck by the unusual zeal with which he was being pursued for rape allegations. It seems even clearer now, that the allegations against him are a smokescreen behind which a number of governments are trying to clamp down on Wikileaks for having audaciously revealed to the public their secret planning of wars and occupations with their attendant rape, murder and destruction."
Axelsson and Longstaff also point out that the two women involved have been mistreated as well, both by the system and the public. This not withstanding, they oppose extradition for Assange.(11)
Socialists Must Defend Julian Assange
This a no-brainer: No extradition! Free Julian Assange immediately! And, freedom for Chelsea Manning and Jeremy Hammond now!
Assange falls in the category of muckraker, or in modern usage, investigative reporter. But journalists like Assange have played an important part in exposing the crimes of capitalism and imperialism throughout history. Consider, Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) who wrote The Jungle (1906), which exposed the US meat-packing industry; John Spargo (1876–1966), who was an early biographer of Karl Marx, a reformer and author of The Bitter Cry of Children about child labor; and Lincoln Steffens (1866–1936), who produced The Shame of the Cities (1904), which uncovered the corruption of several political machines in major cities.
Also, Ida M. Tarbell (1857–1944). She was one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive era, and an early pioneer of investigative journalism. She wrote the exposé, The History of the Standard Oil Company.
The Torture of Julian Assange:
US Takes One More Step Towards Fascism
By Chris Kinder
Julian Assange is a journalist who has committed no crime. He is only "guilty" of publishing information revealing the war crimes and other deceits of US imperialism, ie, things we the public should all know. Yet he--the truth teller and publisher of Wikileaks--is treated by the US as if he was the worst criminal the world has ever seen. This is all done to intimidate the media, and cover up the crimes of the imperialist ruling class of the US.
The crimes of the US include the murder of innocent civilians, including children and journalists. The now famous video "Collateral Murder" showing one such incident in brutal detail, had been provided by Chelsea Manning, formerly (as Bradley Manning) of the US military in Iraq. Manning is a heroine truth-teller who was jailed once for releasing documents, and is now locked up for a second time by the US for refusing to testify against Julian Assange in a kangaroo-court grand jury set up to frame Assange.
Manning is not the only one jailed for refusing to testify against Assange before this secretive grand jury. Jeremy Hammond, a member of the hacktivist network Anonymous, is serving a decade in prison for allegedly disclosing information about the private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor), revealing that they had been spying on human rights defenders at the behest of corporations and governments; documents which were published by Wikileaks.
Assange Faces Bogus Charge of Espionage
Assange is accused by the US, under the World War I-era Espionage Act, of conspiring with Manning to obtain secret documents. There is no evidence for this alleged conspiracy whatsoever. Assange is a journalist/publisher, not a whistle-blower. He receives documents from whistle-blowers and publishes them. No one has ever accused him of illegal activity, nor shown his revelations to be inaccurate in any way. Furthermore, all the major US media, the NY Times, Washington Post and many others, have published the same material, straight from Wikileaks!
That is what the US ruling class wants to never happen again.. But they can't treat the US media as they are treating Assange! After all the US media is already about as subservient as it can be, and is owned by big corporations, for whom the US government is the lap-dog. But what they can do is the modern-day equivalent of putting Assange's head on a spike, displayed for all to see.. The message to both journalists and publishers is: first amendment rights be damned, don't publish leaked material ever again! The threat to freedom of speech is blatant.(1)
UK-US Extradition Is Not For Political Offenses
This is why the US is determined to extradite Assange from Britain--even though he is not a US citizen (he's Australian) and his work with Wikileaks is based in Britain, not the US. They want to give him a life sentence--likely in solitary confinement--to shut him away in some US dungeon until he dies. And that's if they don't manage to kill him while he is in Belmarsh. All this is to intimidate any journalist or any publisher from repeating Assange's exposure of US war crimes..
Assange is falsely accused under the Espionage Act, but his actual "crime" was in exposing US war crimes for all to see. He didn't steal this evidence, he just published it, after it was already revealed. Clearly, this was a political act, not a criminal one.. If the law actually played any role in this, which obviously it does not for the US and UK officials, it would prevent Assange's extradition from the UK to the US, because extradition for political offenses is illegal under the treaty governing extradition between the US and the UK.. The treaty is clear: "Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense." (2)
Assange had Asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy, Until...
Assange now awaits an extradition hearing set for February 2020. He is currently confined in Belmarsh, the top-security prison in Britain, a hell-hole on the outskirts of London where accused "terrorists" are sent to be tortured, rot away and/or die. Assange is kept there in isolation for 23 hours per day. Assange is no terrorist, and indeed no criminal whatsoever.. He was sent there after police, at the behest of the US, invaded the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, and dragged him out. He was then locked up in Belmarsh for the crime of... skipping bail! Normally there would be no jail time for this at all, and certainly not in Belmarsh. But not so with Julian Assange.
Assange's earlier political asylum, granted by Ecuador under Rafael Correa had been withdrawn by the new right-wing president Lenin Moreno. Moreno has allowed the US to use the Galapagos Islands--a precious natural site explored by Darwin--as a military airfield, signed an agreement with the IMF, and agreed to hand over Assange to the US and its CIA vultures.(3)
Police were allowed to come into the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where Assange had found refuge from the threat of extradition to the US for years. The US now had Assange where they wanted him: imprisoned, and on a fast-track to extradition to the US, under a trumped-up charge of "espionage." But that is just the beginning.
US/CIA Interference Against Assange In UK Court
In order to cater to the support of the US on the eve of Britain's separation from the European Union, British authorities have bent over backward to do whatever the US wants. That was shown in the Westminster Magistrates Court on 21 October 2019 in which Assange appeared for a hearing on the management and timing of the extradition proceedings. Assange's lawyers wanted to allow more time for Assange to prepare his defense before the extradition hearing. All of Assange's records and documents had been seized when he was arrested and forced out of the Ecuadorean Embassy, and he has been allowed only very limited contact with his lawyers while in Belmarsh prison.
As if to add insult to injury, officials from the US embassy were seen to be openly conferring with the prosecution in the Magistrates Court during the hearing.. And the magistrate (judge), Vanessa Baraitser, completely ignored all the defense arguments and denied their claims for delay at the end of the hearing, without any further consideration. This was the same magistrate who a month earlier had ruled that Assange will remain in prison, despite the fact that his sentence for "absconding" bail expired on September 22. The extradition trial stays set for February, but in addition, it will now be held, not in the Westminster Magistrates Court, but in the much more restricted court in Belmarsh prison, which is hard to get to and has only 3 seats for public observers of the proceedings!
The CIA Spied on Assange's Privileged Contact With His Lawyers!
Even more importantly, a case now proceeding in a Spanish court shows that the CIA had contracted with a Spanish company to spy on Assange while in the Embassy, including recording privileged conversations between Assange and his lawyers, in which his defense against the up-coming extradition proceedings was discussed. Such a charge would normally be grounds for the immediate dismissal of the case for extradition. Assange's lawyers sought a delay to the extradition trial in order to allow time for the Spanish court to submit its findings, so that they could be heard at the upcoming extradition hearing. But Magistrate Baraitser ignored this.
All this was reported by a former British ambassador and friend of Assange, Craig Murray, who attended the hearing, and who said, "The charade might as well have been cut and the US government simply sat on the bench to control the whole process." (4)
Did the CIA Torture Assange in a British Prison?
Murray also said that from his appearance at the hearing, Assange appears to have been viciously tortured while in Belmarsh Prison. Murray reported: "I was badly shocked by just how much weight my friend has lost, by the speed his hair has receded and by the appearance of premature and vastly accelerated aging. He has a pronounced limp I have never seen before.. Since his arrest he has lost over 15 kg in weight." Murray goes on, "But his physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration. When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both... it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought."
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer, who found earlier in 2019 that Assange was the victim of a protracted campaign of "psychological torture," has repeatedly condemned the British authorities for jailing him in a maximum-security prison. In a letter to the British government in May, Melzer stated that the conditions of Assange's detention had resulted in his "continued exposure to progressively severe psychological suffering and the ongoing exacerbation of his pre-existing trauma."(5)
Assange's Health--and Life--is at Stake
On 25 November 2019 the New York Times reported that "The mental and physical condition of Julian Assange has so deteriorated that he could die in a British jail before his February hearing on extradition to the United States, a group of international doctors has warned." In an open letter to the UK Home Secretary, the doctors called for Mr. Assange to be transferred from the high-security Belmarsh prison in London to a university teaching hospital to receive an expert medical assessment.(6)
These alarming reports about Assange, who was coherent and relatively healthy when arrested, combined with the US Embassy officials directing the prosecution with British officials at the October hearing, which signifies their deep and direct involvement, leads to only one conclusion: the CIA is torturing Assange in Belmarsh Prison to the point of incapacity to deal with his own case. This severe treatment could be destroying his mind, and even threatening him with death.
The CIA MK-Ultra Program
Death was a frequent occurrence for the victims of the CIA's secret MK-Ultra program, run for 20 years in the 1950s through early 1970s. This CIA "mind control" program involved giving huge doses of LSD and other drugs to various experimental victims who were often not informed that experiments were being performed on them.. Besides LSD, MK-Ultra used other chemicals, electroshocks, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, solitary confinement, and verbal and sexual abuse, all amounting to torture.
A new book by Stephen Kinzer reports on this in a description of how one man, Sidney Gottlieb, conducted this "work" in secret--even in secret within the CIA. CIA tops ordered it, but didn't want to know about the gruesome details. The original purpose was to both destroy a person's mind completely, and then recreate it in accordance with the desires of the perpetrators. As reported by Kinzer, this CIA project "was a continuation of the work begun in World War II-era Japanese facilities and Nazi concentration camps on subduing and controlling human minds." Kinzer cites evidence that this was a continuation of a Nazi agenda, pursued at the Dachau concentration camp, and facilitated through the CIA's secret recruitment of Nazi torturers and vivisectionists at the end of the war.(7)
The MK-Ultra program was terminated in 1973, but anyone who thinks that the CIA would not now use these techniques to attempt to destroy the mind of a perceived enemy such as Assange is delusional.
Torture, a Long CIA Record
The MK-Ultra project headed by Gottlieb began on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles; it was a part of the Cold War against the Soviet Union. The conclusion of this particular program was that while it was possible to destroy a person's mind, it was not possible to recreate a new mind in it's place. But that was not the end of the story.
"Rendition" proved that the US was not done with torture, far from it. Ronald Reagan authorized a rendition in 1987, and Clinton authorized rendition to nations known to practice interrogation, which was dubbed "torture by proxy." George W Bush rendered hundreds for detention in foreign sites, and "extraordinary rendition" was continued under Obama. The UK authorities, specifically MI5 and MI6 (British security units), were complicit in renditions done by the US. "The Report," a new documentary film on CIA torture in rendition sites, displays CIA "enhanced interrogation" techniques, including use of graphic images, and shows that the real extent of this torture has been underestimated and hidden from the world.(8)
Belmarsh prison is the latest "rendition" torture site, with Assange in the CIA's cross hairs.
Did Assange Commit Rape?
Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of this case for some leftists to understand is the "charge" of the rape of two women in Sweden which was leveled against Assange in the press. In general, believing the woman in a rape charge is important for many reasons: women are often afraid to come forward after the fact, the police are highly disrespectful and don't bother to process "rape kits," and while DNA evidence may be available, often the lack of con-sensuality in the act is difficult to prove.. And while Assange has always maintained his innocence in this, and offered to be interrogated by Swedish officials, the charge still leaves a question as to his character.
But unlike most rape cases, this one is vastly different: it has the footprints of the CIA all over it!
First of all, this alleged "rape" came up just months after Assange enraged the US war makers with the release of the "Collateral Murder" video, which showed the blatant killing of civilians in Iraq by US troops from a helicopter.
Secondly, no official charge of rape has ever been leveled against Assange! The two women involved did not allege rape, and would not sign onto a charge of rape. A Swedish tabloid went public with the story of an alleged rape, which is how Assange found out about it.
It Was All About Assange's Extradition to the US
After a senior Swedish prosecutor cancelled an arrest warrant for Assange, saying the evidence "disclosed no crime at all," another prosecutor mysteriously re-started the case. Assange went to the police to make a statement, and waited for 5 weeks to be questioned. He left Sweden only after being told by a prosecutor that he was not wanted for questioning.
After Assange left Sweden, Interpol strangely issued a Red Notice for Assange, something usually used for dangerous criminals and terrorists. At the same time--as we now know--a grand Jury in Eastern Virginia (which is notoriously in the home turf of the CIA-US Intelligence community) had begun proceedings to find a way to put Assange to death or jail him for life.
As grand juries often are, this was a set-up. For us to not add 2 and 2 to make four...
"You Would Have To Be Out of Your Mind"
We should have no doubt: the "rape" charge against Assange was a CIA construct from day one. Since when does the US or UK governments concern themselves with rape charges abroad (or even at home)? Yet the UK Supreme Court ruled that Assange should be extradited to Sweden for something he was not even charged with; and the Swedish government refused to give any assurance that Assange would not be extradited from there to the US! This--in 2012--is when Assange sought and received asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Caitlin Johnstone, who defines herself as a 100% reader funded "rogue journalist" believes that, "rape culture is a ubiquitous societal illness that needs to be rolled back far beyond the conventional understanding of rape as a stranger in a dark alley forcibly penetrating some man's wife or daughter at knife point."
And about Assange? Johnstone said, "...you'd have to be out of your mind to believe a completely unproven allegation about a known target of US intelligence agencies. It's just as stupid as believing unproven claims about governments targeted for US regime change, like believing Saddam had WMD." (my emphasis) And: "...the fact remains that even if Assange were somehow to be proven guilty of rape, the argument 'he's a rapist' is not a legitimate reason to support a US extradition and prosecution which would set a precedent that poses a threat to press freedom everywhere." (9)
The Official Swedish Report
A piece in the Observer, a London-based weekly newspaper, revealed facts as laid out in the official Swedish report on the Assange alleged rape case.. Published in 2016, this report confirms that 1. neither woman charged Assange with rape; 2. both women kept him in their respective abodes for days after the sexual incidents concerned; 3. The two women "make it clear that their negative feelings after their sexual adventures with Mr. Assange were entirely due to the broken condoms and their fear of HIV"; 4. Assange remained in Stockholm for 5 weeks in mid-August 2010 in which he was wanted for questioning, and left only after the Swedish prosecutors dropped the case. (10)
The investigation was immediately reopened by another prosecutor, but after Assange was safely locked up and expected to be railroaded into US clutches for extradition, the case was closed for a final time in November 2019.
Women Against Rape Oppose Extradition of Assange
We do not tolerate any phony defense arguments against a rape charge, such as "how was she dressed" or "she was asking for it," or "having unprotected sex without the woman's permission shouldn't qualify as sexual assault." That is not what this is about!
As Women Against Rape spokespersons Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff put it in a Guardian article, "When Julian Assange was first arrested, we were struck by the unusual zeal with which he was being pursued for rape allegations. It seems even clearer now, that the allegations against him are a smokescreen behind which a number of governments are trying to clamp down on Wikileaks for having audaciously revealed to the public their secret planning of wars and occupations with their attendant rape, murder and destruction."
Axelsson and Longstaff also point out that the two women involved have been mistreated as well, both by the system and the public. This not withstanding, they oppose extradition for Assange.(11)
Socialists Must Defend Julian Assange
This a no-brainer: No extradition! Free Julian Assange immediately! And, freedom for Chelsea Manning and Jeremy Hammond now!
Assange falls in the category of muckraker, or in modern usage, investigative reporter. But journalists like Assange have played an important part in exposing the crimes of capitalism and imperialism throughout history. Consider, Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) who wrote The Jungle (1906), which exposed the US meat-packing industry; John Spargo (1876–1966), who was an early biographer of Karl Marx, a reformer and author of The Bitter Cry of Children about child labor; and Lincoln Steffens (1866–1936), who produced The Shame of the Cities (1904), which uncovered the corruption of several political machines in major cities.
Also, Ida M. Tarbell (1857–1944). She was one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive era, and an early pioneer of investigative journalism. She wrote the exposé, The History of the Standard Oil Company.
The History of the Standard Oil Company
The History of the Standard Oil Company is credited with hastening the breakup of Standard Oil, which came about...
And Ida B.. Wells (1862-1931), an African American investigative journalist who was born in slavery. Wells came to co-own and write for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and was one of the founders of the NAACP. She condemned the flaws in the United States justice system that allowed lynching to happen, and supported the women's suffrage movement, among many other things.
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And Ida B.. Wells (1862-1931), an African American investigative journalist who was born in slavery. Wells came to co-own and write for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and was one of the founders of the NAACP. She condemned the flaws in the United States justice system that allowed lynching to happen, and supported the women's suffrage movement, among many other things.
Ida B. Wells
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an African-American investigative journalist, educat...
Working people need these important truth-tellers.
The harsh treatment of many of these Progressive Era journalists and investigators was severe.. But what Assange is going through today? The treatment of Assange shows how the US imperialist ruling class has used modern control of information and advanced torture techniques to tighten the screws on opposition, wherever it arises. This is not fascism yet. But the essential ground work needed to solidify the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in a fascist fashion is being built.. The torture of Julian Assange is one important tentacle of this capitalist octopus.
Julian Assange is a libertarian, not a socialist, but his cause is critical to the class struggle against imperialist capitalism: we must know the truth of ruling class crimes.
The working class needs to mobilize behind a program which includes defense of muckrakers and whistle-blowers such as Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Jeremy Hammond. This is an important part of revolutionary solution to the increasingly corrupt and oppressive bourgeois society that confines us all.
Notes:
(1) Displaying heads on a pike after the crushing of a revolt, and posting them on the roads leading into town, is an ancient tyrannical practice which was widely used by slaveocracy rulers in the US after crushing slave revolts.
(2) See the US-UK Extradition Treaty, at: https://fas.org/irp/world/uk/extradite.pdf
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Working people need these important truth-tellers.
The harsh treatment of many of these Progressive Era journalists and investigators was severe.. But what Assange is going through today? The treatment of Assange shows how the US imperialist ruling class has used modern control of information and advanced torture techniques to tighten the screws on opposition, wherever it arises. This is not fascism yet. But the essential ground work needed to solidify the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in a fascist fashion is being built.. The torture of Julian Assange is one important tentacle of this capitalist octopus.
Julian Assange is a libertarian, not a socialist, but his cause is critical to the class struggle against imperialist capitalism: we must know the truth of ruling class crimes.
The working class needs to mobilize behind a program which includes defense of muckrakers and whistle-blowers such as Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Jeremy Hammond. This is an important part of revolutionary solution to the increasingly corrupt and oppressive bourgeois society that confines us all.
Notes:
(1) Displaying heads on a pike after the crushing of a revolt, and posting them on the roads leading into town, is an ancient tyrannical practice which was widely used by slaveocracy rulers in the US after crushing slave revolts.
(2) See the US-UK Extradition Treaty, at: https://fas.org/irp/world/uk/extradite.pdf
The Long Coup in Ecuador
Elected on a progressive platform, the Moreno government has resorted to the politicization of justice and the m....
(4) Craig Murray, "Assange In Court," 22 October 2019. www.craigmurray.org.uk..
(5) "British Judge Jails Assange Indefinitely, Despite End of Prison Sentence..." https://williambowles.info/2019/09/14/british-judge-jails-assange-indefinitely-despite-end-of-prison-sentence-by-oscar-grenfell/
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(4) Craig Murray, "Assange In Court," 22 October 2019. www.craigmurray.org.uk..
(5) "British Judge Jails Assange Indefinitely, Despite End of Prison Sentence..." https://williambowles.info/2019/09/14/british-judge-jails-assange-indefinitely-despite-end-of-prison-sentence-by-oscar-grenfell/
MERIP: PAKISTAN UNDER PRESSURE
To outside observers, Pakistan has been "a problem" since its inception in 1947 — because its generals are enemi...
(6) New York Times, Julian Assange 'Could Die' in U.K. Jail, Doctors Warn. And see the Open Letter at: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b8b7715550074d7bd8f284baa/files/9a2a226f-067a-4b4c-86c9-100edf4e3681/Letter_from_medical_doctors_re_Mr_Julian_Assange_22_Nov_2019_EMBARGO_TILL_MIDNIGHT_NOVEMBER_24.pdf.
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(6) New York Times, Julian Assange 'Could Die' in U.K. Jail, Doctors Warn. And see the Open Letter at: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b8b7715550074d7bd8f284baa/files/9a2a226f-067a-4b4c-86c9-100edf4e3681/Letter_from_medical_doctors_re_Mr_Julian_Assange_22_Nov_2019_EMBARGO_TILL_MIDNIGHT_NOVEMBER_24.pdf.
Julian Assange 'Could Die' in U.K. Jail, Doctors Warn
More than 60 physicians signed a letter saying that the WikiLeaks founder might not survive until February unles...
(7) Stephen Kinzer, Poisoner In Chief, Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control, New York 2019.
(8) "The Report review – gripping, fiery drama on CIA torture investigation," The Report review – gripping, fiery drama on CIA torture investigation. "The Report" is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
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(7) Stephen Kinzer, Poisoner In Chief, Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control, New York 2019.
(8) "The Report review – gripping, fiery drama on CIA torture investigation," The Report review – gripping, fiery drama on CIA torture investigation. "The Report" is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
The Report review – gripping, fiery drama on CIA torture investigation
Benjamin Lee
Adam Driver and Annette Bening give excellent performances in an utterly absorbing film indicting post-9/11 inte...
(9) Caitlin Johnstone, "Responding To Assange's Critics 1-3," in Tariq Ali and Margaret Kunstler, editors, In Defense of Julian Assange, OR Books, 2019. Find the complete original Johnstone article, "Debunking All the Assange Smears," (29 total) at The Medium: Debunking All The Assange Smears
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(9) Caitlin Johnstone, "Responding To Assange's Critics 1-3," in Tariq Ali and Margaret Kunstler, editors, In Defense of Julian Assange, OR Books, 2019. Find the complete original Johnstone article, "Debunking All the Assange Smears," (29 total) at The Medium: Debunking All The Assange Smears
Debunking All The Assange Smears
Caitlin Johnstone
Have you ever noticed how whenever someone inconveniences the dominant western power structure, the entire polit...
(10) Celia Farber, "Exclusive New Docs Throw Doubt on Julian Assange Rape Charges in Stockholm," Observer, 05 February 2016. Exclusive: Best Western Rides Off Into the Sunset With J Public Relationsnew-docs-throw-doubt-on-julian-assange-rape-charges-in-stockholm/.
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(10) Celia Farber, "Exclusive New Docs Throw Doubt on Julian Assange Rape Charges in Stockholm," Observer, 05 February 2016. Exclusive: Best Western Rides Off Into the Sunset With J Public Relationsnew-docs-throw-doubt-on-julian-assange-rape-charges-in-stockholm/.
Exclusive: Best Western Rides Off Into the Sunset With J Public Relations
Michael Kaminer
After a dozen years, Best Western Hotels & Resorts has checked out of Allison + Partners, its longtime agency of....
(11) Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff, We are Women Against Rape but we do not want Julian Assange extradited, the Guardian, 23 August 2012. We are Women Against Rape but we do not want Julian Assange extradited | Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff
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(11) Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff, We are Women Against Rape but we do not want Julian Assange extradited, the Guardian, 23 August 2012. We are Women Against Rape but we do not want Julian Assange extradited | Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff
We are Women Against Rape but we do not want Julian Assange extradited |...
Katrin Axelsson
Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff: For decades we have campaigned to get rapists caught, charged and convicted....
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Join the International Days of Action against Sanctions and Economic War March 13-15, 2020
Sanctions Kill!
Sanctions are War!
End Sanctions Now!
Organize an event in your area against U.S. imposed sanctions! Help build a Global Movement with hundreds of actions around the world March 13-15
US imposed sanctions impacts a third of humanity in 39 countries... Join a mobilization against this dire form of economic warfare.. Imposing starvation and disease on millions of defenseless civilians is a violation of international law and a crime against humanity. This intentional economic destabilization has awakened a growing movement of opposition.
Within a week over 1,000 organizations and individuals added their support to the International Call to Action. Volunteers translated the Call to Action into 10 languages..
Endorse the campaign as an organization or individual at: sanctionskill...org
Organize an action in your area! Send details to: info@SanctionsKill.org
Groups are discussing plans for local actions. Activists are reaching out to their networks. Each action encourages others to act.
Many organizations have been mobilizing against Sanctions and Economic War on individual countries.. NOW is an opportunity to combine efforts to raise consciousness on this crucial issue.
This broad campaign will include protests and demonstrations, lobbying, petition drives and all forms of educational efforts..
As an initial step for this campaign we encourage mobilizations and educational efforts during the March 13-15 International Days of Action against US imposed Sanctions and Economic War. Send details of action in your area to: info@SanctionsKill......org
Sanctions and economic blockades against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Russia and China are well known............. But the devastating impacts of U.S.. sanctions on occupied Palestine — or on already impoverished countries such as Mali, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Fiji, Nicaragua and Laos — are not even on the radar screen of human rights groups..
Most U.S. imposed sanctions are intentionally hidden; they don't generate even a line of news..
Countries around the world have had all their assets and bank accounts seized by Wall Street banks. Suddenly even imports of food, essential medicines and basic spare parts are blocked..... Calculated U...S.. government efforts undermine development of social programs in order to impose economic restructuring that benefits U.S. corporate power.
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Help expose this war crime against people of the world.
Add your endorsement at: https://sanctionskill..org/
List events and contact info at: info@SanctionsKill...org
Sanctions Kill!
Sanctions are War!
End Sanctions Now!
Please add your endorsement and help spread the word
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Presidential candidate Gloria La Riva denounces Trump's new Iran sanctions
Campaign tweet of La Riva at anti-war protest speaking on the human impact of U..S. sanctions
"Sanctions are a silent killer that have already had devastating effects in Iraq and Iran. I denounce Mike Pompeo's and Steven Mnuchin's announcement of more sanctions on Iran, which are solely intended to create suffering on the Iranian people," said Gloria La Riva, 2020 presidential candidate and longtime anti-war activist.
"It is clear that the Trump administration is not backing down from its belligerence. In fact, Trump is forcefully pursuing further confrontation, and is all the more reason for us to remain mobilized against a new war on Iran."
Join the Sat. Jan. 25 – Global Day of Protest – No War On Iran!
"Sanctions are an act of war," she continued, "I traveled three times to Iraq during the 1990's when the United States government imposed a total blockade of the country for more than 12 years. I witnessed the human toll, thousands of people dying every month from the blocking of food, medicine, and infrastructure materials after the 78-day U.S.. military bombing of 1991."
La Riva produced the 1998 award-winning documentary, Genocide by Sanctions: The Case of Iraq, based on her investigative work there...
"And now President Trump, via executive order, is virtually tightening a noose on Iran." In the Friday address Treasury Secretary Mnuchin announced that Trump's sanctions included penalties that would be applied to any individual or governments trading with or involved with Iranian construction, manufacturing, textiles or mining industries.
"Sanctions are designed to destabilize a country's society, they are part of a larger war drive," La Riva said. "They hit the most vulnerable people first, the sick, young children, elderly and the poor because they lose access to necessary items. In Iran the prices of potatoes have already increased over 300% from previous sanctions. The costs of rice and chicken and many other goods have gone up..... The point of sanctions is to create suffering—with these kinds of acts it is no wonder Iran and the Iraqi Parliament have called for the expulsion of the U.S. military from the region.
"There is no justification for these sanctions. In fact United Nations resolutions state that there is no justification for policies that target a whole population.. Such an act of aggression is recognized as genocide."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was behind imminent threats to Americans but when asked for specifics, he only cited the death of a U.S.. contractor killed in Iraq. However, that was weeks prior to the killing of Soleimani.
La Riva said, "by logic and definition a past occurrence does not constitute not an imminent threat. What we know instead is that with Trump's abrogation of the JCPOA, he embarked a while ago on an offensive that the people of the United States and worldwide are extremely worried about.."
La Riva has been in the streets of San Francisco with thousands of other people demanding No New War on Iran....
She is running nationally for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and in California she is seeking the Peace and Freedom Party nomination. Her vice-presidential candidate is Leonard Peltier, Native political prisoner unjustly held in federal prison now for 43 years.
Point five of La Riva's Presidential 10 Point Program reads, "Shut down all U.S. military bases around the world—bring all the troops, planes & ships home... U.S. foreign policy uses the pretext of national security to enforce the imperialist interests of the biggest banks and corporations.. That is what is behind the endless wars and occupations. Use the $1 trillion military budget instead to provide for people's needs here and worldwide. Abolish nuclear weapons... Stop U.S. aid to Israel. Self-determination for the Palestinian people, including the right of return. End the U.S.. blockade of Cuba and sanctions against Venezuela, Iran and all countries...... Independence for Puerto Rico and cancel its debt!"
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This email was sent to caroleseligman@sbcglobal.net. To stop receiving emails, click here.
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Presidential candidate Gloria La Riva denounces Trump's new Iran sanctions
Campaign tweet of La Riva at anti-war protest speaking on the human impact of U..S. sanctions
"Sanctions are a silent killer that have already had devastating effects in Iraq and Iran. I denounce Mike Pompeo's and Steven Mnuchin's announcement of more sanctions on Iran, which are solely intended to create suffering on the Iranian people," said Gloria La Riva, 2020 presidential candidate and longtime anti-war activist.
"It is clear that the Trump administration is not backing down from its belligerence. In fact, Trump is forcefully pursuing further confrontation, and is all the more reason for us to remain mobilized against a new war on Iran."
Join the Sat. Jan. 25 – Global Day of Protest – No War On Iran!
"Sanctions are an act of war," she continued, "I traveled three times to Iraq during the 1990's when the United States government imposed a total blockade of the country for more than 12 years. I witnessed the human toll, thousands of people dying every month from the blocking of food, medicine, and infrastructure materials after the 78-day U.S.. military bombing of 1991."
La Riva produced the 1998 award-winning documentary, Genocide by Sanctions: The Case of Iraq, based on her investigative work there...
"And now President Trump, via executive order, is virtually tightening a noose on Iran." In the Friday address Treasury Secretary Mnuchin announced that Trump's sanctions included penalties that would be applied to any individual or governments trading with or involved with Iranian construction, manufacturing, textiles or mining industries.
"Sanctions are designed to destabilize a country's society, they are part of a larger war drive," La Riva said. "They hit the most vulnerable people first, the sick, young children, elderly and the poor because they lose access to necessary items. In Iran the prices of potatoes have already increased over 300% from previous sanctions. The costs of rice and chicken and many other goods have gone up..... The point of sanctions is to create suffering—with these kinds of acts it is no wonder Iran and the Iraqi Parliament have called for the expulsion of the U.S. military from the region.
"There is no justification for these sanctions. In fact United Nations resolutions state that there is no justification for policies that target a whole population.. Such an act of aggression is recognized as genocide."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was behind imminent threats to Americans but when asked for specifics, he only cited the death of a U.S.. contractor killed in Iraq. However, that was weeks prior to the killing of Soleimani.
La Riva said, "by logic and definition a past occurrence does not constitute not an imminent threat. What we know instead is that with Trump's abrogation of the JCPOA, he embarked a while ago on an offensive that the people of the United States and worldwide are extremely worried about.."
La Riva has been in the streets of San Francisco with thousands of other people demanding No New War on Iran....
She is running nationally for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and in California she is seeking the Peace and Freedom Party nomination. Her vice-presidential candidate is Leonard Peltier, Native political prisoner unjustly held in federal prison now for 43 years.
Point five of La Riva's Presidential 10 Point Program reads, "Shut down all U.S. military bases around the world—bring all the troops, planes & ships home... U.S. foreign policy uses the pretext of national security to enforce the imperialist interests of the biggest banks and corporations.. That is what is behind the endless wars and occupations. Use the $1 trillion military budget instead to provide for people's needs here and worldwide. Abolish nuclear weapons... Stop U.S. aid to Israel. Self-determination for the Palestinian people, including the right of return. End the U.S.. blockade of Cuba and sanctions against Venezuela, Iran and all countries...... Independence for Puerto Rico and cancel its debt!"
Questions? Comments? Contact us.
This email was sent to caroleseligman@sbcglobal.net. To stop receiving emails, click here.
Created with NationBuilder, the essential toolkit for leaders.
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La Riva / Peltier 2020 Campaign
10-Point Program
The 10-Point Program of the La Riva/Peltier 2020 Campaign is a fighting program that represents the interests and needs of the vast majority of people of the United States and extends international solidarity to the peoples of the world. Our campaign will reach to every corner of the U.S. with the message that only socialism can solve the crises of climate change, racism, poverty and war. It will take a people's movement for real, lasting and sustainable change. We hope you will join us!
★ 1 | Make the essentials of life constitutional rights
The U.....S. has more than enough so that all the essentials of life — food, housing, water, education, health care and a job or basic income can be guaranteed rights — rather than distributed only for profit. Create a completely free and public healthcare system.. Make education free—cancel all student debt. Fully fund rebuilding of the infrastructure in transport, water and utility systems. Stop all foreclosures and evictions. End all discrimination based on ability/disability.
★ 2 | For the Earth to live, capitalism must be replaced by a socialist system
Global warming, pollution, acidified and depleted oceans, fracking, critical drought, plastics choking the seas, nuclear weapons and waste — it is clear that capitalism and production for profit are destroying the planet and threatening all life. The crisis is already here, with the most vulnerable and oppressed areas of the U.S.. and Global South bearing the brunt. Using truly sustainable energy and seizing the oil and coal companies to stop fossil fuel pollution, are urgent steps needed to reverse climate change. Ultimately, only the socialist reorganization of society can assure the future of the people and the planet.
★ 3 | End racism, police brutality, mass incarceration. Pay reparations to the African American community
Mass incarceration and racist policing are symptomatic of the 400 years of brutal repression meted out to African-descended peoples in the U.S. Reparations must be paid! More than 2.2 million people are behind bars in the largest prison complex in the world. End mass incarceration of all oppressed and working-class people. Fully prosecute all acts of police brutality and violence. Free Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners!
★ 4 | Full rights for all immigrants
Abolish all anti-immigrant laws. Stop the raids and deportations and demonization of immigrants........ Shut down ICE and the concentration camps and reunite families. The government's war on immigrants must end. The border wall must be dismantled. Amnesty and citizenship for those without documents... Full rights for all!
★ 5 | Shut down all U.S.. military bases around the world—bring all the troops, planes & ships home
U.S. foreign policy uses the pretext of national security to enforce the imperialist interests of the biggest banks and corporations.. That is what is behind the endless wars and occupations. Use the $1 trillion military budget instead to provide for people's needs here and worldwide. Abolish nuclear weapons... Stop U....S... aid to Israel.. Self-determination for the Palestinian people, including the right of return. End the U.S. blockade of Cuba and sanctions against Venezuela, Iran and all countries. Independence for Puerto Rico and cancel its debt!
★ 6 | Honor Native treaties.. Free Leonard Peltier now
Both major parties have continued to allow the destruction and theft of Native lands by mining and corporate agricultural interests in blatant disregard of indigenous sovereign rights. 33% of Native children live in poverty and many of the poorest U..S... counties are reservations.... The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and the over-incarceration of Native peoples shows the bankruptcy of capitalism from its earliest inception in the Americas until today..
★ 7 | Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people
Fight back against anti-LGBTQ discrimination and violence... Defend marriage equality. Full equality in all matters governed by civil law, including employment, housing, healthcare and education. No to "religious exemption" laws that allow discrimination against LGBTQ people!
★ 8 | Equality for women and free, safe, legal abortion on demand
Stop the attack on women's reproductive rights and defend Roe v. Wade... Women must have the fundamental right to choose and to control their own bodies. Women still earn 22 percent less than men, and the gap is even more severe for Black and Latina women. Close the wage gap and end the gender division of labor....
★ 9 | Defend and expand our unions
Support the right of all workers to have a union. Fight back against the attacks on collective bargaining.... Require employers to recognize card check union votes. Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act. Focusing on low-wage worker organizing, rebuild a fighting labor movement.
★ 10 | Take over the stolen wealth of the giant banks and corporations – Jail Wall St.. criminals
The vast wealth of the giant banks and corporations is created by workers labor and the exploitation of the world's diminishing natural resources. The billionaires looted and destroyed the economy. It is time to seize their assets and use those resources in the interests of the vast majority. Power must be taken out of the hands of the super rich, and Wall Street criminals must be jailed.
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La Riva / Peltier 2020 Campaign
10-Point Program
The 10-Point Program of the La Riva/Peltier 2020 Campaign is a fighting program that represents the interests and needs of the vast majority of people of the United States and extends international solidarity to the peoples of the world. Our campaign will reach to every corner of the U.S. with the message that only socialism can solve the crises of climate change, racism, poverty and war. It will take a people's movement for real, lasting and sustainable change. We hope you will join us!
★ 1 | Make the essentials of life constitutional rights
The U.....S. has more than enough so that all the essentials of life — food, housing, water, education, health care and a job or basic income can be guaranteed rights — rather than distributed only for profit. Create a completely free and public healthcare system.. Make education free—cancel all student debt. Fully fund rebuilding of the infrastructure in transport, water and utility systems. Stop all foreclosures and evictions. End all discrimination based on ability/disability.
★ 2 | For the Earth to live, capitalism must be replaced by a socialist system
Global warming, pollution, acidified and depleted oceans, fracking, critical drought, plastics choking the seas, nuclear weapons and waste — it is clear that capitalism and production for profit are destroying the planet and threatening all life. The crisis is already here, with the most vulnerable and oppressed areas of the U.S.. and Global South bearing the brunt. Using truly sustainable energy and seizing the oil and coal companies to stop fossil fuel pollution, are urgent steps needed to reverse climate change. Ultimately, only the socialist reorganization of society can assure the future of the people and the planet.
★ 3 | End racism, police brutality, mass incarceration. Pay reparations to the African American community
Mass incarceration and racist policing are symptomatic of the 400 years of brutal repression meted out to African-descended peoples in the U.S. Reparations must be paid! More than 2.2 million people are behind bars in the largest prison complex in the world. End mass incarceration of all oppressed and working-class people. Fully prosecute all acts of police brutality and violence. Free Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners!
★ 4 | Full rights for all immigrants
Abolish all anti-immigrant laws. Stop the raids and deportations and demonization of immigrants........ Shut down ICE and the concentration camps and reunite families. The government's war on immigrants must end. The border wall must be dismantled. Amnesty and citizenship for those without documents... Full rights for all!
★ 5 | Shut down all U.S.. military bases around the world—bring all the troops, planes & ships home
U.S. foreign policy uses the pretext of national security to enforce the imperialist interests of the biggest banks and corporations.. That is what is behind the endless wars and occupations. Use the $1 trillion military budget instead to provide for people's needs here and worldwide. Abolish nuclear weapons... Stop U....S... aid to Israel.. Self-determination for the Palestinian people, including the right of return. End the U.S. blockade of Cuba and sanctions against Venezuela, Iran and all countries. Independence for Puerto Rico and cancel its debt!
★ 6 | Honor Native treaties.. Free Leonard Peltier now
Both major parties have continued to allow the destruction and theft of Native lands by mining and corporate agricultural interests in blatant disregard of indigenous sovereign rights. 33% of Native children live in poverty and many of the poorest U..S... counties are reservations.... The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and the over-incarceration of Native peoples shows the bankruptcy of capitalism from its earliest inception in the Americas until today..
★ 7 | Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people
Fight back against anti-LGBTQ discrimination and violence... Defend marriage equality. Full equality in all matters governed by civil law, including employment, housing, healthcare and education. No to "religious exemption" laws that allow discrimination against LGBTQ people!
★ 8 | Equality for women and free, safe, legal abortion on demand
Stop the attack on women's reproductive rights and defend Roe v. Wade... Women must have the fundamental right to choose and to control their own bodies. Women still earn 22 percent less than men, and the gap is even more severe for Black and Latina women. Close the wage gap and end the gender division of labor....
★ 9 | Defend and expand our unions
Support the right of all workers to have a union. Fight back against the attacks on collective bargaining.... Require employers to recognize card check union votes. Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act. Focusing on low-wage worker organizing, rebuild a fighting labor movement.
★ 10 | Take over the stolen wealth of the giant banks and corporations – Jail Wall St.. criminals
The vast wealth of the giant banks and corporations is created by workers labor and the exploitation of the world's diminishing natural resources. The billionaires looted and destroyed the economy. It is time to seize their assets and use those resources in the interests of the vast majority. Power must be taken out of the hands of the super rich, and Wall Street criminals must be jailed.
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Chelsea Manning just spent another birthday behind bars.
Sign the Petition: Free Chelsea Manning Now
Judge Anthony Trenga
In 2010, former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning disclosed earth-shattering information about the nature of asymmetric warfare and U.S. handling of global affairs. And she paid dearly for it. Chelsea was incarcerated for years, including long stretches in solitary confinement, under conditions that the United Nations condemned as torture.
After millions of people around the world spoke out and demanded her release, Chelsea's sentence was commuted.. But the US government did not stop persecuting her.
Now, Chelsea has been back in jail for nine months, and faces nine more. Not because she has committed any crime, but because of her conscientious objection to participating in a secretive grand jury investigation into the publication of her 2010 disclosures.
Between their original forensic investigation and Chelsea's detailed statement at court martial, the government gained exhaustive knowledge about her role in the disclosures.. They have no need for her testimony—they obtained at least one indictment a full year before she was called to testify before the grand jury, and disclosed another two months after she was jailed for her refusal to do so.
Chelsea's refusal to participate in this process is part of a long history of resistance to grand juries, which are routinely used to harass and entrap activists, journalists, and truth tellers. In a shocking move, the judge in the case has imposed massive fines on Chelsea, charging her $1,000 per day while the US government holds her in "coercive confinement," ostensibly to convince her to agree to their demand that she give testimony to the grand jury.
We know Chelsea Manning's name because she is a principled and fearless advocate for her beliefs. She is prepared to spend another nine months in confinement, and to bear the crushing debt of these unprecedented fines..... Senior U.....S... officials, including the Secretary of State and the President himself have publicly expressed their hostility toward her. It could not be more clear that the government wishes to punish Chelsea further for her 2010 disclosures. It could not be more clear that she will never comply with the grand jury.
Chelsea has already served half of the 18 month maximum that the government can hold her. She's about to spend another birthday in a jail cell... The US government has no legal justification for continuing to imprison her. This must stop. Sign the petition now to send the following letter to Judge Trenga demanding Chelsea Manning's immediate release.
To: Judge Anthony Trenga
From:
Dear Honorable Judge Trenga,
I am writing to ask you to recognize that continuing to keep Chelsea Manning behind bars is both futile and cruel. She is known to the world as a principled advocate, and everything she does and says demonstrates her strong will and commitment to her ideals. Her testimony in this grand jury is not needed, and her current incarceration appears to be an attempt to punish her further for past offenses.. As she will never be convinced to betray her principles, even by jail time or burdensome fines, her imprisonment does not serve the interests of the grand jury, the government, the court, or the law.
Please make the right decision and order her release so that she may return to her community and heal in peace.
Questions and comments may be sent to info@freedomarchives....org
In 2010, former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning disclosed earth-shattering information about the nature of asymmetric warfare and U.S. handling of global affairs. And she paid dearly for it. Chelsea was incarcerated for years, including long stretches in solitary confinement, under conditions that the United Nations condemned as torture.
After millions of people around the world spoke out and demanded her release, Chelsea's sentence was commuted.. But the US government did not stop persecuting her.
Now, Chelsea has been back in jail for nine months, and faces nine more. Not because she has committed any crime, but because of her conscientious objection to participating in a secretive grand jury investigation into the publication of her 2010 disclosures.
Between their original forensic investigation and Chelsea's detailed statement at court martial, the government gained exhaustive knowledge about her role in the disclosures.. They have no need for her testimony—they obtained at least one indictment a full year before she was called to testify before the grand jury, and disclosed another two months after she was jailed for her refusal to do so.
Chelsea's refusal to participate in this process is part of a long history of resistance to grand juries, which are routinely used to harass and entrap activists, journalists, and truth tellers. In a shocking move, the judge in the case has imposed massive fines on Chelsea, charging her $1,000 per day while the US government holds her in "coercive confinement," ostensibly to convince her to agree to their demand that she give testimony to the grand jury.
We know Chelsea Manning's name because she is a principled and fearless advocate for her beliefs. She is prepared to spend another nine months in confinement, and to bear the crushing debt of these unprecedented fines..... Senior U.....S... officials, including the Secretary of State and the President himself have publicly expressed their hostility toward her. It could not be more clear that the government wishes to punish Chelsea further for her 2010 disclosures. It could not be more clear that she will never comply with the grand jury.
Chelsea has already served half of the 18 month maximum that the government can hold her. She's about to spend another birthday in a jail cell... The US government has no legal justification for continuing to imprison her. This must stop. Sign the petition now to send the following letter to Judge Trenga demanding Chelsea Manning's immediate release.
To: Judge Anthony Trenga
From:
Dear Honorable Judge Trenga,
I am writing to ask you to recognize that continuing to keep Chelsea Manning behind bars is both futile and cruel. She is known to the world as a principled advocate, and everything she does and says demonstrates her strong will and commitment to her ideals. Her testimony in this grand jury is not needed, and her current incarceration appears to be an attempt to punish her further for past offenses.. As she will never be convinced to betray her principles, even by jail time or burdensome fines, her imprisonment does not serve the interests of the grand jury, the government, the court, or the law.
Please make the right decision and order her release so that she may return to her community and heal in peace.
Questions and comments may be sent to info@freedomarchives....org
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Stop Kevin Cooper's Abuse by San Quentin Prison Guards!
https://www.change.org/p/san-quentin-warden-ronald-davis-stop-kevin-cooper-s-abuse-by-san-quentin-prison-guards-2ace89a7-a13e-44ab-b70c-c18acbbfeb59?recruiter=747387046&recruited_by_id=3ea6ecd0-69ba-11e7-b7ef-51d8e2da53ef&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&use_react=false
On Wednesday, September 25, Kevin Cooper's cell at San Quentin Prison was thrown into disarray and his personal food dumped into the toilet by a prison guard, A. Young.
The cells on East Block Bayside, where Kevin's cell is, were all searched on September 25 during Mandatory Yard. Kevin spent the day out in the yard with other inmates. In a letter, Kevin described what he found when he returned:
"This cage was hit hard, like a hurricane was in here .. ... . little by little I started to clean up and put my personal items back inside the boxes that were not taken .... .. .. I go over to the toilet, lift up the seatcover and to my surprise and shock the toilet was completely filled up with my refried beans, and my brown rice. Both were in two separate cereal bags and both cereal bags were full. The raisin bran cereal bags were gone, and my food was in the toilet!"
A bucket was eventually brought over and:
"I had to get down on my knees and dig my food out of the toilet with my hands so that I could flush the toilet. The food, which was dried refried beans and dried brown rice had absorbed the water in the toilet and had become cement hard. It took me about 45 minutes to get enough of my food out of the toilet before it would flush."
Even the guard working the tier at the time told Kevin, "K.C.., that is f_cked up!"
A receipt was left in Kevin's cell identifying the guard who did this as A... Young. Kevin has never met Officer A.... Young, and has had no contact with him besides Officer Young's unprovoked act of harassment and psychological abuse...
Kevin Cooper has served over 34 years at San Quentin, fighting for exoneration from the conviction for murders he did not commit. It is unconscionable for him to be treated so disrespectfully by prison staff on top of the years of his incarceration.
No guard should work at San Quentin if they cannot treat prisoners and their personal belongings with basic courtesy and respect............... Kevin has filed a grievance against A. Young. Please:
1) Sign this petition calling on San Quentin Warden Ronald Davis to grant Kevin's grievance and discipline "Officer" A. Young.
2) Call Warden Ronald Davis at: (415) 454-1460 Ext. 5000. Tell him that Officer Young's behaviour was inexcusable, and should not be tolerated.......
3) Call Yasir Samar, Associate Warden of Specialized Housing, at (415) 455-5037
4) Write Warden Davis and Lt. Sam Robinson (separately) at:
Main Street
San Quentin, CA 94964
5) Email Lt. Sam Robinson at: samuel.robinson2@cdcr...................ca.gov
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Sign Global Petition to Dismiss Charges Against Anti-Nuclear Plowshares Activists Facing 25 Years
US ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR
This is an urgent request that you join with distinguished global supporters including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, other Nobel laureates and many others by signing our global petition to dismiss all charges against the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (KBP7).. They face 25 years in prison for exposing illegal and immoral nuclear weapons that threaten all life on Earth. The seven nonviolently and symbolically disarmed the Trident nuclear submarine base at Kings Bay, GA on April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (View KBP7 reading their statement here....)
This petition is also a plea for us all to be involved in rebuilding the anti-nuclear weapons movement that helped disarm the world's nuclear arsenals from 90,000 down to 15,000 weapons in the 1980s.. We must abolish them all. The KBP7 trial is expected to begin this fall in Georgia. Time is short. Please sign the petition and visit kingsbayplowshares7.....org. Help KBP7 by forwarding their petition to your friends, to lists, and post it on social media......
The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 have offered us their prophetic witness. Now it's up to us!
In peace and solidarity,
The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Support Committee
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sign-global-petition-to-dismiss-charges-against-anti-nuclear-plowshares-activists-facing-25-years?source=direct_link&
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Support the return of Leonard Peltier's Medicine Bundle
November 1, 2019
Dear Friends and supporters,
We need your help in getting Leonard Peltier's- (89637-132) Medicine Bundle returned to him. His Medicine Bundle includes: Pipe bowel, Pipe stem, Eagle feathers, sage and cedar. Leonard is at USP Coleman1, in Coleman FL. which has been locked down since mid-July. This lockdown has led to many "shakedowns" that is where the guards go in to a cell and check it for weapons. Leonard said in a legal letter, that on"10/22/2019 the shakedown crew came to his cell and destroyed it. They came in and tore apart everything and threw out everything they could–just because they could. The most painful, and what caused me the most anger was when they took my religious items, myPipe (Chunapa) in myMedicine Bundle, use in my prayers."
Leonard's lawyer was immediately on top of the situation and asked us to hold off until he could reach Leonard's counselor and get the Bundlereturned. I heard from the attorney last night and he said the prison has not returned Leonard his Medicine Bundle nor give them any reason for itbeing taken.
Leonard Peltier as a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, a federally recognized American Indian Nation is afforded all the legalprotections and rights pursuant to the American Indian Freedom of Religion Act codified at Title 42 United States Code 1996 et.seq.
I am asking if today you would send e-mails to Coleman I SR. Attorney J.C. DiNicola jcdinicola@bop.gov, public relations officer-COA/Publicinformation@bop.gov and to thenBOP-Southwest Regional office SERO/ExecAssistant@bop..gov requesting the return of Leonard Peltier 89637-132, Medicine Bundle...
This lockdown has been extremely hard on Leonard and his Medicine Bundle is his way to help him maintain his relationship to his Creator!
Miigwech
Paulette Dauteuil ILPDC National Office
Sheridan Murphy- President of the ILPDC Board
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863......9977 https://freedomarchives........org/
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Support the return of Leonard Peltier's Medicine Bundle
November 1, 2019
Dear Friends and supporters,
We need your help in getting Leonard Peltier's- (89637-132) Medicine Bundle returned to him. His Medicine Bundle includes: Pipe bowel, Pipe stem, Eagle feathers, sage and cedar. Leonard is at USP Coleman1, in Coleman FL. which has been locked down since mid-July. This lockdown has led to many "shakedowns" that is where the guards go in to a cell and check it for weapons. Leonard said in a legal letter, that on"10/22/2019 the shakedown crew came to his cell and destroyed it. They came in and tore apart everything and threw out everything they could–just because they could. The most painful, and what caused me the most anger was when they took my religious items, myPipe (Chunapa) in myMedicine Bundle, use in my prayers."
Leonard's lawyer was immediately on top of the situation and asked us to hold off until he could reach Leonard's counselor and get the Bundlereturned. I heard from the attorney last night and he said the prison has not returned Leonard his Medicine Bundle nor give them any reason for itbeing taken.
Leonard Peltier as a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, a federally recognized American Indian Nation is afforded all the legalprotections and rights pursuant to the American Indian Freedom of Religion Act codified at Title 42 United States Code 1996 et.seq.
I am asking if today you would send e-mails to Coleman I SR. Attorney J.C. DiNicola jcdinicola@bop.gov, public relations officer-COA/Publicinformation@bop.gov and to thenBOP-Southwest Regional office SERO/ExecAssistant@bop..gov requesting the return of Leonard Peltier 89637-132, Medicine Bundle...
This lockdown has been extremely hard on Leonard and his Medicine Bundle is his way to help him maintain his relationship to his Creator!
Miigwech
Paulette Dauteuil ILPDC National Office
Sheridan Murphy- President of the ILPDC Board
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863......9977 https://freedomarchives........org/
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Leonard Peltier's 2019 Thanksgiving Message: "Walking on Stolen Land"
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Leonard Peltier's 2019 Thanksgiving Message: "Walking on Stolen Land"
by Levi Rickert
Published November 23, 2019
COLEMAN, FLORIDA – Leonard Peltier, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, who is incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Coleman, Florida, for his 1977 conviction in connection with a shootout with U.S............... government forces, where two FBI agents and one young American Indian lost their lives........
Peltier, who is considered a political prisoner of war by many, released this statement on Thanksgiving through the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:
The year of 2019 is coming to a close and with it, comes the day most Americans set aside as a day for Thanksgiving. As I let my mind wander beyond the steel bars and concrete walls, I try to imagine what the people who live outside the prison gates are doing, and what they are thinking. Do they ever think of the Indigenous people who were forced from their homelands? Do they understand that with every step they take, no matter the direction, that they are walking on stolen land? Can they imagine, even for one minute, what it was like to watch the suffering of the women, the children and babies and yes, the sick and elderly, as they were made to keep pushing west in freezing temperatures, with little or no food? These were my people and this was our land... There was a time when we enjoyed freedom and were able to hunt buffalo and gather the foods and sacred medicines.. We were able to fish and we enjoyed the clean clear water! My people were generous, we shared everything we had, including the knowledge of how to survive the long harsh winters or the hot humid summers. We were appreciative of the gifts from our Creator and remembered to give thanks on a daily basis... We had ceremonies and special dances that were a celebration of life.
With the coming of foreigners to our shores, life as we knew it would change drastically. Individual ownership was foreign to my people............. Fences?? Unheard of, back then. We were a communal people and we took care of each other. Our grandparents weren't isolated from us! They were the wisdom keepers and story tellers and were an important link in our families.. The babies? They were and are our future! Look at the brilliant young people who put themselves at risk, fighting to keep our water and environment clean and safe for the generations yet to come.. They are willing to confront the giant, multi-national corporations by educating the general public of the devastation being caused...... I smile with hope when I think of them.. They are fearless and ready to speak the truth to all who are willing to listen... We also remember our brothers and sisters of Bolivia, who are rioting, in support of the first Indigenous President, Evo Morales. His commitment to the people, the land, their resources and protection against corruption is commendable....... We recognize and identify with that struggle so well..
So today, I thank all of the people who are willing to have an open mind, those who are willing to accept the responsibility of planning for seven generations ahead, those who remember the sacrifices made by our ancestors so we can continue to speak our own language, practice our own way of thankfulness in our own skin, and that we always acknowledge and respect the Indigenous linage that we carry..
For those of you who are thankful that you have enough food to feed your families, please give to those who aren't as fortunate. If you are warm and have a comfortable shelter to live in, please give to those who are cold and homeless, if you see someone hurting and in need of a kind word or two, be that person who steps forward and lends a hand. And especially, when you see injustice anywhere, please be brave enough to speak up to confront it.
I want to thank all who are kind enough to remember me and my family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for continuing to support and believe in me..... There isn't a minute in any day that passes without me hoping that this will be the day I will be granted freedom. I long for the day when I can smell clean fresh air, when I can feel a gentle breeze in my hair, witness the clouds as their movement hides the sun and when the moon shines the light on the path to the sacred Inipi. That would truly be a day I could call a day of Thanksgiving.
Thank you for listening to whomever is voicing my words. My Spirit is there with you.
Levi Rickert, a tribal citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, is the publisher and editor of Native News Online. Previously, he served as editor of the Native News Network........... He is a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan.....
by Levi Rickert
Published November 23, 2019
COLEMAN, FLORIDA – Leonard Peltier, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, who is incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Coleman, Florida, for his 1977 conviction in connection with a shootout with U.S............... government forces, where two FBI agents and one young American Indian lost their lives........
Peltier, who is considered a political prisoner of war by many, released this statement on Thanksgiving through the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:
The year of 2019 is coming to a close and with it, comes the day most Americans set aside as a day for Thanksgiving. As I let my mind wander beyond the steel bars and concrete walls, I try to imagine what the people who live outside the prison gates are doing, and what they are thinking. Do they ever think of the Indigenous people who were forced from their homelands? Do they understand that with every step they take, no matter the direction, that they are walking on stolen land? Can they imagine, even for one minute, what it was like to watch the suffering of the women, the children and babies and yes, the sick and elderly, as they were made to keep pushing west in freezing temperatures, with little or no food? These were my people and this was our land... There was a time when we enjoyed freedom and were able to hunt buffalo and gather the foods and sacred medicines.. We were able to fish and we enjoyed the clean clear water! My people were generous, we shared everything we had, including the knowledge of how to survive the long harsh winters or the hot humid summers. We were appreciative of the gifts from our Creator and remembered to give thanks on a daily basis... We had ceremonies and special dances that were a celebration of life.
With the coming of foreigners to our shores, life as we knew it would change drastically. Individual ownership was foreign to my people............. Fences?? Unheard of, back then. We were a communal people and we took care of each other. Our grandparents weren't isolated from us! They were the wisdom keepers and story tellers and were an important link in our families.. The babies? They were and are our future! Look at the brilliant young people who put themselves at risk, fighting to keep our water and environment clean and safe for the generations yet to come.. They are willing to confront the giant, multi-national corporations by educating the general public of the devastation being caused...... I smile with hope when I think of them.. They are fearless and ready to speak the truth to all who are willing to listen... We also remember our brothers and sisters of Bolivia, who are rioting, in support of the first Indigenous President, Evo Morales. His commitment to the people, the land, their resources and protection against corruption is commendable....... We recognize and identify with that struggle so well..
So today, I thank all of the people who are willing to have an open mind, those who are willing to accept the responsibility of planning for seven generations ahead, those who remember the sacrifices made by our ancestors so we can continue to speak our own language, practice our own way of thankfulness in our own skin, and that we always acknowledge and respect the Indigenous linage that we carry..
For those of you who are thankful that you have enough food to feed your families, please give to those who aren't as fortunate. If you are warm and have a comfortable shelter to live in, please give to those who are cold and homeless, if you see someone hurting and in need of a kind word or two, be that person who steps forward and lends a hand. And especially, when you see injustice anywhere, please be brave enough to speak up to confront it.
I want to thank all who are kind enough to remember me and my family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for continuing to support and believe in me..... There isn't a minute in any day that passes without me hoping that this will be the day I will be granted freedom. I long for the day when I can smell clean fresh air, when I can feel a gentle breeze in my hair, witness the clouds as their movement hides the sun and when the moon shines the light on the path to the sacred Inipi. That would truly be a day I could call a day of Thanksgiving.
Thank you for listening to whomever is voicing my words. My Spirit is there with you.
Levi Rickert, a tribal citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, is the publisher and editor of Native News Online. Previously, he served as editor of the Native News Network........... He is a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan.....
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Eddie Conway's Update on Forgotten Political Prisoners
EDDIE CONWAY: I'm Eddie Conway, host of Rattling the Bars. As many well-known political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal continue to suffer in prison…
MUMIA ABU JAMAL: In an area where there is corporate downsizing and there are no jobs and there is only a service economy and education is being cut, which is the only rung by which people can climb, the only growth industry in this part of Pennsylvania, in the Eastern United States, in the Southern United States, in the Western United States is "corrections," for want of a better word. The corrections industry is booming. I mean, this joint here ain't five years old.
EDDIE CONWAY: …The media brings their stories to the masses.. But there are many lesser-known activists that have dropped out of the spotlight, grown old in prison, or just been forgotten............ For Rattling the Bars, we are spotlighting a few of their stories...... There was a thriving Black Panther party in Omaha, Nebraska, headed by David Rice and Ed Poindexter..... By 1968, the FBI had began plans to eliminate the Omaha Black Panthers by making an example of Rice and Poindexter. It would take a couple of years, but the FBI would frame them for murder.
KIETRYN ZYCHAL: In the 90s, Ed and Mondo both applied to the parole board. There are two different things you do in Nebraska, the parole board would grant you parole, but because they have life sentences, they were told that they have to apply to the pardons board, which is the governor, the attorney general, and the secretary of state, and ask that their life sentences be commuted to a specific number of years before they would be eligible for parole.
And so there was a movement in the 90s to try to get them out on parole..... The parole board would recommend them for parole because they were exemplary prisoners, and then the pardons board would not give them a hearing. They wouldn't even meet to determine whether they would commute their sentence..
EDDIE CONWAY: They served 45 years before Rice died in the Nebraska State Penitentiary. After several appeals, earning a master's degree, writing several books and helping other inmates, Poindexter is still serving time at the age of 75.
KEITRYN ZYCHAL: Ed Poindexter has been in jail or prison since August of 1970. He was accused of making a suitcase bomb and giving it to a 16-year-old boy named Duane Peak, and Duane Peak was supposed to take the bomb to a vacant house and call 911, and report that a woman was dragged screaming into a vacant house, and when police officers showed up, one of those police officers was killed when the suitcase bomb exploded...........
Ed and his late co-defendant, Mondo we Langa, who was David Rice at the time of the trial, they have always insisted that they had absolutely nothing to do with this murderous plot, and they tried to get back into court for 50 years, and they have never been able to get back into court to prove their innocence. Mondo died in March of 2016 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Ed is going to turn 75 this year, I think........... And he has spent the majority of his life in prison... It will be 50 years in 2020 that he will be in prison.
EDDIE CONWAY: There are at least 20 Black Panthers still in prison across the United States. One is one of the most revered is H. Rap Brown, known by his Islamic name, Jamil Al-Amin.
KAIRI AL-AMIN: My father has been a target for many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many years of the federal government, and I think him being housed these last 10 years in federal penitentiaries without federal charges show that the vendetta is still strong. The federal government has not forgotten who he was as H.. Rap Brown, or who he is as Imam Jamil Al-Amin..
JAMIL AL-AMIN: See, it's no in between.. You are either free or you're a slave. There's no such thing as second-class citizenship.
EDDIE CONWAY: Most people don't realize he's still in prison. He's serving a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson...
KAIRI AL-AMIN: Our campaign is twofold.. One, how can egregious constitutional rights violations not warrant a new trial, especially when they were done by the prosecution....... And two, my father is innocent. The facts point to him being innocent, which is why we're pushing for a new trial. We know that they can't win this trial twice... The reason they won the first time was because of the gag order that was placed on my father which didn't allow us to fight in the court of public opinion as well as the court of law.. And so when you don't have anyone watching, anything can be done without any repercussion.
EDDIE CONWAY: Another well-known political prisoner that has been forgotten in the media and in the public arena is Leonard Peltier. Leonard Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement and has been in prison for over 40 years and is now 75 years old.
SPEAKER: Leonard Peltier represents, in a very real sense, the effort, the struggle by indigenous peoples within the United States to exercise their rights as sovereign nations, recognized as such in treaties with the United States.. For the government of the United States, which has colonized all indigenous peoples to claim boundaries, keeping Leonard in prison demonstrates the costs and consequences of asserting those rights.
EDDIE CONWAY: Leonard Peltier suffers from a host of medical issues including suffering from a stroke... And if he is not released, he will die in prison...
LEONARD PELTIER: I'll be an old man when I get out, if I get out.
PAULETTE D'AUTEUIL: His wellbeing is that he rarely gets a family visit. His children live in California and North Dakota. Both places are a good 2000 miles from where he's at in Florida, so it makes it time consuming as well as expensive to come and see him. He is, health-wise, we are still working on trying to get some help for his prostate, and there has been some development of some spots on his lungs, which we are trying to get resolved....... There's an incredible mold issue in the prison, especially because in Florida it's so humid and it builds up. So we're also dealing with that...
EDDIE CONWAY: These are just a few of the almost 20 political prisoners that has remained in American prisons for 30 and 40 years, some even longer. Mutulu Shakur has been in jail for long, long decades.... Assata Shakur has been hiding and forced into exile in Cuba...... Sundiata has been in prison for decades; Veronza Bower, The Move Nine........ And there's just a number of political prisoners that's done 30 or 40 years.
They need to be released and they need to have an opportunity to be back with their family, their children, their grandchildren, whoever is still alive. Any other prisoners in the United States that have the same sort of charges as those people that are being held has been released up to 15 or 20 years ago. That same justice system should work for the political prisoners also.
Thank you for joining me for this episode of Rattling the Bars. I'm Eddie Conway.....
EDDIE CONWAY: I'm Eddie Conway, host of Rattling the Bars. As many well-known political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal continue to suffer in prison…
MUMIA ABU JAMAL: In an area where there is corporate downsizing and there are no jobs and there is only a service economy and education is being cut, which is the only rung by which people can climb, the only growth industry in this part of Pennsylvania, in the Eastern United States, in the Southern United States, in the Western United States is "corrections," for want of a better word. The corrections industry is booming. I mean, this joint here ain't five years old.
EDDIE CONWAY: …The media brings their stories to the masses.. But there are many lesser-known activists that have dropped out of the spotlight, grown old in prison, or just been forgotten............ For Rattling the Bars, we are spotlighting a few of their stories...... There was a thriving Black Panther party in Omaha, Nebraska, headed by David Rice and Ed Poindexter..... By 1968, the FBI had began plans to eliminate the Omaha Black Panthers by making an example of Rice and Poindexter. It would take a couple of years, but the FBI would frame them for murder.
KIETRYN ZYCHAL: In the 90s, Ed and Mondo both applied to the parole board. There are two different things you do in Nebraska, the parole board would grant you parole, but because they have life sentences, they were told that they have to apply to the pardons board, which is the governor, the attorney general, and the secretary of state, and ask that their life sentences be commuted to a specific number of years before they would be eligible for parole.
And so there was a movement in the 90s to try to get them out on parole..... The parole board would recommend them for parole because they were exemplary prisoners, and then the pardons board would not give them a hearing. They wouldn't even meet to determine whether they would commute their sentence..
EDDIE CONWAY: They served 45 years before Rice died in the Nebraska State Penitentiary. After several appeals, earning a master's degree, writing several books and helping other inmates, Poindexter is still serving time at the age of 75.
KEITRYN ZYCHAL: Ed Poindexter has been in jail or prison since August of 1970. He was accused of making a suitcase bomb and giving it to a 16-year-old boy named Duane Peak, and Duane Peak was supposed to take the bomb to a vacant house and call 911, and report that a woman was dragged screaming into a vacant house, and when police officers showed up, one of those police officers was killed when the suitcase bomb exploded...........
Ed and his late co-defendant, Mondo we Langa, who was David Rice at the time of the trial, they have always insisted that they had absolutely nothing to do with this murderous plot, and they tried to get back into court for 50 years, and they have never been able to get back into court to prove their innocence. Mondo died in March of 2016 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Ed is going to turn 75 this year, I think........... And he has spent the majority of his life in prison... It will be 50 years in 2020 that he will be in prison.
EDDIE CONWAY: There are at least 20 Black Panthers still in prison across the United States. One is one of the most revered is H. Rap Brown, known by his Islamic name, Jamil Al-Amin.
KAIRI AL-AMIN: My father has been a target for many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many years of the federal government, and I think him being housed these last 10 years in federal penitentiaries without federal charges show that the vendetta is still strong. The federal government has not forgotten who he was as H.. Rap Brown, or who he is as Imam Jamil Al-Amin..
JAMIL AL-AMIN: See, it's no in between.. You are either free or you're a slave. There's no such thing as second-class citizenship.
EDDIE CONWAY: Most people don't realize he's still in prison. He's serving a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson...
KAIRI AL-AMIN: Our campaign is twofold.. One, how can egregious constitutional rights violations not warrant a new trial, especially when they were done by the prosecution....... And two, my father is innocent. The facts point to him being innocent, which is why we're pushing for a new trial. We know that they can't win this trial twice... The reason they won the first time was because of the gag order that was placed on my father which didn't allow us to fight in the court of public opinion as well as the court of law.. And so when you don't have anyone watching, anything can be done without any repercussion.
EDDIE CONWAY: Another well-known political prisoner that has been forgotten in the media and in the public arena is Leonard Peltier. Leonard Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement and has been in prison for over 40 years and is now 75 years old.
SPEAKER: Leonard Peltier represents, in a very real sense, the effort, the struggle by indigenous peoples within the United States to exercise their rights as sovereign nations, recognized as such in treaties with the United States.. For the government of the United States, which has colonized all indigenous peoples to claim boundaries, keeping Leonard in prison demonstrates the costs and consequences of asserting those rights.
EDDIE CONWAY: Leonard Peltier suffers from a host of medical issues including suffering from a stroke... And if he is not released, he will die in prison...
LEONARD PELTIER: I'll be an old man when I get out, if I get out.
PAULETTE D'AUTEUIL: His wellbeing is that he rarely gets a family visit. His children live in California and North Dakota. Both places are a good 2000 miles from where he's at in Florida, so it makes it time consuming as well as expensive to come and see him. He is, health-wise, we are still working on trying to get some help for his prostate, and there has been some development of some spots on his lungs, which we are trying to get resolved....... There's an incredible mold issue in the prison, especially because in Florida it's so humid and it builds up. So we're also dealing with that...
EDDIE CONWAY: These are just a few of the almost 20 political prisoners that has remained in American prisons for 30 and 40 years, some even longer. Mutulu Shakur has been in jail for long, long decades.... Assata Shakur has been hiding and forced into exile in Cuba...... Sundiata has been in prison for decades; Veronza Bower, The Move Nine........ And there's just a number of political prisoners that's done 30 or 40 years.
They need to be released and they need to have an opportunity to be back with their family, their children, their grandchildren, whoever is still alive. Any other prisoners in the United States that have the same sort of charges as those people that are being held has been released up to 15 or 20 years ago. That same justice system should work for the political prisoners also.
Thank you for joining me for this episode of Rattling the Bars. I'm Eddie Conway.....
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Reality Winner, a whistleblower who helped expose foreign hacking of US election systems leading up to the 2016 presidential election, has been behind bars since June 2017. Supporters are preparing to file a petition of clemency in hopes of an early release.. Reality's five year prison sentence is by far the longest ever given for leaking information to the media about a matter of public interest............ Stand with Reality shirts, stickers, and more available. Please take a moment to sign the letter
Vietnam War combat veteran Daniel Shea on his time in Vietnam and the impact that Agent Orange and post traumatic stress had on him and his family since... Listen now
This Courage to Resist podcast was produced in collaboration with the Vietnam Full Disclosure effort of Veterans For Peace — "Towards an honest commemoration of the American war in Vietnam." This year marks 50 years of GI resistance, in and out of uniform, for many of the courageous individuals featured.. If you believe this history is important, please ...
COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
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Mobilization4Mumia
215-724-1618
mobilization4mumia@gmail.com
PRESS RELEASE
Contact Sophia Williams 917-806-0521, Ted Kelly 610-715-6924 or Joe Piette 610-931-2615
Philadelphia, Jan. 30 - Mumia Abu-Jamal has always insisted on his innocence in the death of police officer Daniel Faulkner, blaming police, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct for his politically-tainted conviction. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is expected to announce his response this week to the legal briefs for Post Conviction Relief Act hearings and the request to remand Abu-Jamal's case back to Common Pleas court, filed by his attorneys in early September 2019.
Abu-Jamal's supporters will rally outside DA Krasner's office at 4:30 on Friday, January 31, whether or not he challenges Mumia's appeals. We call for Mumia's release.
Recent exonerations of 10 Philadelphia residents unfairly convicted for crimes they did not commit reveal a simple truth - the Philadelphia police, courts and prosecutors convicted innocent Black men based on gross violations of their constitutional rights. The same patterns of constitutional violations plague the case of Abu-Jamal.
Since Jan. 2018, Sherman McCoy, James Frazier, Dwayne Thorpe, Terrance Lewis, Jamaal Simmons, Dontia Patterson, John Miller, Willie Veasey, Johnny Berry and Chester Holmann III have all been exonerated by DA Larry Krasner's Conviction Integrity Unit.
Philadelphia is not alone. The National Registry of Exonerations counted 165 exonerations last year. The registry has tallied 2,500 wrongful convictions since 1989, costing defendants more than 22,000 years of incarceration.
Seven of the ten men released in Philadelphia were convicted by longtime district attorney Lynne Abraham, a "tough-on-crime" prosecutor who regularly sought maximum punishments and death spentences. Abraham as Common Pleas Court Judge arraigned Abu-Jamal in 1981and years later as District Attorney fought his post conviction relief hearings..
Ineffective counsel, false witness testimony, witness coercion and intimidation, phony ballistics evidence, prosecution failure to turn over evidence to the defense as required by law, racist jury selections -- these and other legal errors led to the exoneration of these innocent defendants after decades in prison.. These are the same police, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct practices Abu-Jamal's attorneys and supporters have been citing since 1982.
In the late 1970s and early 80s, Abu-Jamal was a daily radio reporter for WHYY and NPR who earned acclaim for his award-winning reporting. As a journalist who reported fairly on the MOVE organization's resistance against state repression, he drew the ire of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police and the notoriously racist Police Commissioner and later Mayor Frank Rizzo.
On Dec. 9, 1981, while driving a cab to supplement his income, Abu-Jamal happened upon his brother in an altercation with Faulkner. Faulkner was killed. Abu-Jamal, who was shot and severely beaten by police, was charged in Faulkner's death, even though witnesses reported seeing another man, most probably the passenger in Abu-Jamal's brother's car, running from the scene.
Imprisoned for nearly four decades, Abu-Jamal has maintained his innocence. He successfully won his release from Pennsylvania's death row in 2011. In December 2018 he won the right to appeal his 1982 conviction because of biased judicial oversight by PA Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille
In early January 2019, DA Krasner reported finding six boxes of previously undisclosed evidence held by prosecutors in the case and allowed Abu-Jamal's attorneys to review the files.
In September 2019 Abu-Jamal's lawyers filed new appellate briefs, including a request that the case be returned for a hearing before the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court based on finding of concrete evidence of prosecutorial misconduct by the DA's office in his 1982 trial.
A Sept.. 9, 2019 Abu-Jamal's attorneys Judith Ritter and Sam Spital filed a brief in PA Superior Court to support his claim that his 1982 trial was fundamentally unfair and violated the Constitution. They argue the prosecution failed to disclose evidence as required and discriminated against African Americans when selecting the jury. And, his 1982 lawyer did not adequately challenge the State's witnesses.
The attorneys also filed a motion revealing new evidence of constitutional violations such as promises by the prosecutor to pay or give leniency to two witnesses. There is also new evidence of racial discrimination in jury selection.
Attorney Ritter contends that the new evidence shows Abu-Jamal's trial was "fundamentally unfair and tainted by serious constitutional violations."
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZgI0jvcWY5soAh_DXKdNnJJZSY0HEftuRwthQMurgd8/edit?usp=sharing
Reality Winner, a whistleblower who helped expose foreign hacking of US election systems leading up to the 2016 presidential election, has been behind bars since June 2017. Supporters are preparing to file a petition of clemency in hopes of an early release.. Reality's five year prison sentence is by far the longest ever given for leaking information to the media about a matter of public interest............ Stand with Reality shirts, stickers, and more available. Please take a moment to sign the letter Vietnam War combat veteran Daniel Shea on his time in Vietnam and the impact that Agent Orange and post traumatic stress had on him and his family since... Listen now This Courage to Resist podcast was produced in collaboration with the Vietnam Full Disclosure effort of Veterans For Peace — "Towards an honest commemoration of the American war in Vietnam." This year marks 50 years of GI resistance, in and out of uniform, for many of the courageous individuals featured.. If you believe this history is important, please ... |
COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Mobilization4Mumia
215-724-1618
mobilization4mumia@gmail.com
PRESS RELEASE
Contact Sophia Williams 917-806-0521, Ted Kelly 610-715-6924 or Joe Piette 610-931-2615
Philadelphia, Jan. 30 - Mumia Abu-Jamal has always insisted on his innocence in the death of police officer Daniel Faulkner, blaming police, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct for his politically-tainted conviction. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is expected to announce his response this week to the legal briefs for Post Conviction Relief Act hearings and the request to remand Abu-Jamal's case back to Common Pleas court, filed by his attorneys in early September 2019.
Abu-Jamal's supporters will rally outside DA Krasner's office at 4:30 on Friday, January 31, whether or not he challenges Mumia's appeals. We call for Mumia's release.
Recent exonerations of 10 Philadelphia residents unfairly convicted for crimes they did not commit reveal a simple truth - the Philadelphia police, courts and prosecutors convicted innocent Black men based on gross violations of their constitutional rights. The same patterns of constitutional violations plague the case of Abu-Jamal.
Since Jan. 2018, Sherman McCoy, James Frazier, Dwayne Thorpe, Terrance Lewis, Jamaal Simmons, Dontia Patterson, John Miller, Willie Veasey, Johnny Berry and Chester Holmann III have all been exonerated by DA Larry Krasner's Conviction Integrity Unit.
Philadelphia is not alone. The National Registry of Exonerations counted 165 exonerations last year. The registry has tallied 2,500 wrongful convictions since 1989, costing defendants more than 22,000 years of incarceration.
Seven of the ten men released in Philadelphia were convicted by longtime district attorney Lynne Abraham, a "tough-on-crime" prosecutor who regularly sought maximum punishments and death spentences. Abraham as Common Pleas Court Judge arraigned Abu-Jamal in 1981and years later as District Attorney fought his post conviction relief hearings..
Ineffective counsel, false witness testimony, witness coercion and intimidation, phony ballistics evidence, prosecution failure to turn over evidence to the defense as required by law, racist jury selections -- these and other legal errors led to the exoneration of these innocent defendants after decades in prison.. These are the same police, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct practices Abu-Jamal's attorneys and supporters have been citing since 1982.
In the late 1970s and early 80s, Abu-Jamal was a daily radio reporter for WHYY and NPR who earned acclaim for his award-winning reporting. As a journalist who reported fairly on the MOVE organization's resistance against state repression, he drew the ire of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police and the notoriously racist Police Commissioner and later Mayor Frank Rizzo.
On Dec. 9, 1981, while driving a cab to supplement his income, Abu-Jamal happened upon his brother in an altercation with Faulkner. Faulkner was killed. Abu-Jamal, who was shot and severely beaten by police, was charged in Faulkner's death, even though witnesses reported seeing another man, most probably the passenger in Abu-Jamal's brother's car, running from the scene.
Imprisoned for nearly four decades, Abu-Jamal has maintained his innocence. He successfully won his release from Pennsylvania's death row in 2011. In December 2018 he won the right to appeal his 1982 conviction because of biased judicial oversight by PA Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille
In early January 2019, DA Krasner reported finding six boxes of previously undisclosed evidence held by prosecutors in the case and allowed Abu-Jamal's attorneys to review the files.
In September 2019 Abu-Jamal's lawyers filed new appellate briefs, including a request that the case be returned for a hearing before the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court based on finding of concrete evidence of prosecutorial misconduct by the DA's office in his 1982 trial.
A Sept.. 9, 2019 Abu-Jamal's attorneys Judith Ritter and Sam Spital filed a brief in PA Superior Court to support his claim that his 1982 trial was fundamentally unfair and violated the Constitution. They argue the prosecution failed to disclose evidence as required and discriminated against African Americans when selecting the jury. And, his 1982 lawyer did not adequately challenge the State's witnesses.
The attorneys also filed a motion revealing new evidence of constitutional violations such as promises by the prosecutor to pay or give leniency to two witnesses. There is also new evidence of racial discrimination in jury selection.
Attorney Ritter contends that the new evidence shows Abu-Jamal's trial was "fundamentally unfair and tainted by serious constitutional violations."
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZgI0jvcWY5soAh_DXKdNnJJZSY0HEftuRwthQMurgd8/edit?usp=sharing
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Mumia Abu-Jamal: New Chance for Freedom
Police and State Frame-Up Must Be Fully Exposed!
Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent. Courts have ignored and suppressed evidence of his innocence for decades.... But now, one court has thrown out all the decisions of the PA Supreme Court that denied Mumia's appeals against his unjust conviction during the years of 1998 to 2012!
This ruling, by Judge Leon Tucker, was made because one judge on the PA Supreme Court during those years, Ronald Castille, was lacking the "appearance of impartiality." In plain English, he was clearly biased against Mumia. Before sitting on the PA Supreme Court, Castille had been District Attorney (or assistant DA) during the time of Mumia's frame-up and conviction, and had used his office to express a special interest in pursuing the death penalty for "cop-killers." Mumia was in the cross-hairs. Soon he was wrongly convicted and sent to death row for killing a police officer...
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning and intrepid journalist, a former Black Panther, MOVE supporter, and a critic of police brutality and murder. Mumia was framed by police, prosecutors, and leading elements of both Democratic and Republican parties, for the shooting of a police officer. The US Justice Department targeted him as well... A racist judge helped convict him, and corrupt courts have kept him locked up despite much evidence that should have freed him. He continues his commentary and journalism from behind bars. As of 2019, he has been imprisoned for 37 years for a crime he did not commit.
Time is up! FREE MUMIA NOW!
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DA's Hidden Files Show Frame-Up of Mumia
In the midst of Mumia's fight for his right to challenge the state Supreme Court's negative rulings, a new twist was revealed: six boxes of files on Mumia's case--with many more still hidden--were surreptitiously concealed for decades in a back room at the District Attorney's office in Philadelphia. The very fact that these files on Mumia's case were hidden away for decades is damning in the extreme, and their revelations confirm what we have known for decades: Mumia was framed for a crime he did not commit!
So far, the newly revealed evidence confirms that, at the time of Mumia's 1982 trial, chief prosecutor Joe McGill illegally removed black jurors from the jury, violating the Batson decision. Also revealed: The prosecution bribed witnesses into testifying that they saw Mumia shoot the slain police officer when they hadn't seen any such thing.... Taxi driver Robert Chobert, who was on probation for fire-bombing a school yard at the time, had sent a letter demanding his money for lying on the stand... Very important, but the newly revealed evidence is just the tip of the iceberg!
All Evidence of Mumia's Innocence Must Be Brought Forward Now!
Mumia Abu-Jamal's trial for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner was rigged against him from beginning to end........ All of the evidence of Mumia's innocence--which was earlier suppressed or rejected--must now be heard:
• Mumia was framed - The judge at Mumia's trial, Albert Sabo, was overheard to say, "I'm gonna help 'em fry the n____r." And he proceeded to do just that.... Mumia was thrown out of his own trial for defending himself! Prosecution "witnesses" were coerced or bribed at trial to lie against Mumia.. In addition to Chobert, this included key witness Cynthia White, a prostitute who testified that she saw Mumia shoot Faulkner... White's statements had to be rewritten under intense pressure from the cops, because she was around the corner and out of sight of the shooting at the time! Police bribed her with promises of being allowed to work her corner, and not sent to state prison for her many prostitution charges.
• Mumia only arrived on the scene after Officer Faulkner was shot - William Singletary, a tow-truck business owner who had no reason to lie against the police, said he had been on the scene the whole time, that Mumia was not the shooter, and that Mumia had arrived only after the shooting of Faulkner. Singletary's statements were torn up, his business was wrecked, and he was threatened by police to be out of town for the trial (which, unfortunately, he was)...
• There is no evidence that Mumia fired a gun - Mumia was shot on the scene by an arriving police officer and arrested. But the cops did not test his hands for gun-powder residue--a standard procedure in shootings! They also did not test Faulkner's hands. The prosecution nevertheless claimed Mumia was the shooter, and that he was shot by Faulkner as the officer fell to the ground. Ballistics evidence was corrupted to falsely show that Mumia's gun was the murder weapon, when his gun was reportedly still in his taxi cab, which was in police custody days after the shooting!
• The real shooter fled the scene and was never charged - Veronica Jones was a witness who said that after hearing the shots from a block away, she had seen two people fleeing the scene of the shooting.... This could not have included Mumia, who had been shot and almost killed at the scene. Jones was threatened by the police with arrest and loss of custody of her children. She then lied on the stand at trial to say she had seen no one running away.
• Abu-Jamal never made a confession - Mumia has always maintained his innocence. But police twice concocted confessions that Mumia never made. Inspector Alfonso Giordano, the senior officer at the crime scene, made up a confession for Mumia. But Giordano was not allowed to testify at trial, because he was top on the FBI's list of corrupt cops in the Philadelphia police force... At the DA's request, another cop handily provided a second "confession," allegedly heard by a security guard in the hospital....... But at neither time was Mumia--almost fatally shot--able to speak.. And an earlier police report by cops in the hospital said that, referring to Mumia: "the negro male made no comment"!
• The crime scene was tampered with by police - Police officers at the scene rearranged some evidence, and handled what was alleged to be Mumia's gun with their bare hands... A journalist's photos revealed this misconduct. The cops then left the scene unattended for hours.. All of this indicates a frame-up in progress....
• The real shooter confessed, and revealed the reason for the crime - Arnold Beverly came forward in the 1990s. He said in a sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, that he, not Mumia, had been the actual shooter. He said that he, along with "another guy," had been hired to do the hit, because Faulkner was "a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the center city area"! (affidavit of Arnold Beverly).
• The corruption of Philadelphia police is documented and well known - This includes that of Giordano, who was the first cop to manufacture a "confession" by Mumia. Meanwhile, Faulkner's cooperation with the federal anti-corruption investigations of Philadelphia police is strongly suggested by his lengthy and heavily redacted FBI file.....
• Do cops kill other cops? There are other cases in Philadelphia that look that way. Frank Serpico, an NYC cop who investigated and reported on police corruption, was abandoned by fellow cops after being shot in a drug bust. Mumia was clearly made a scape-goat for the crimes of corrupt Philadelphia cops who were protecting their ill-gotten gains.
• Politicians and US DOJ helped the frame-up - Ed Rendell, former DA, PA governor, and head of the Democratic National Committee--and now a senior advisor to crime-bill author Joe Biden--is complicit in the frame-up of Mumia. The US Justice Department targeted Mumia for his anti-racist activities when he was a teenager, and later secretly warned then-prosecutor Rendell not to use Giordano as a witness against Mumia because he was an FBI target for corruption.
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All this should lead to an immediate freeing of Mumia! But we are still a ways away from that, and we have no confidence in the capitalist courts to finish the job. We must act! This victory in local court allowing new appeals must now lead to a full-court press on all the rejected and suppressed evidence of Mumia's innocence!
Mass Movement Needed To Free Mumia!
Mumia's persecution by local, state and federal authorities of both political parties has been on-going, and has generated a world-wide movement in his defense.. This movement has seen that Mumia, as a radio journalist who exposed the brutal attacks on the black community by the police in Philadelphia, has spoken out as a defender of working people of all colors and all nationalities in his ongoing commentaries (now on KPFA/Pacifica radio), despite being on death row, and now while serving life without the possibility of parole (LWOP)..
In 1999, Oakland Teachers for Mumia held unauthorized teach-ins in Oakland schools on Mumia and the death penalty, despite the rabid hysteria in the bourgeois media. Teachers in Rio de Janeiro held similar actions. Letters of support came in from maritime workers and trade unions around the world.. Later in 1999, longshore workers shut down all the ports on the West Coast to free Mumia, and led a mass march of 25,000 Mumia supporters in San Francisco...........
A year later, a federal court lifted Mumia's death sentence, based on improper instructions to the jury by trial judge Albert Sabo.. The federal court ordered the local court to hold a new sentencing hearing... Fearing their frame-up of Mumia could be revealed in any new hearing, even if only on sentencing, state officials passed. Much to the chagrin of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)--which still seeks Mumia's death--this left Mumia with LWOP, death by life in prison..
Mumia supporters waged a struggle to get him the cure for the deadly Hepatitis-C virus, which he had likely contracted through a blood transfusion in hospital after he was shot by a cop at the 1981 crime scene. The Labor Action Committee conducted demonstrations against Gilead Sciences, the Foster City CA corporation that owns the cure, and charged $1,000 per pill! The Metalworkers Union of South Africa wrote a letter excoriating Governor Wolf for allowing untreated sick freedom fighters to die in prison as the apartheid government had done. Finally, Mumia did get the cure.. Now, more than ever, struggle is needed to free Mumia!
Now is the Time: Mobilize Again for Mumia's Freedom!
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Mumia Abu-Jamal: New Chance for Freedom
Police and State Frame-Up Must Be Fully Exposed!
Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent. Courts have ignored and suppressed evidence of his innocence for decades.... But now, one court has thrown out all the decisions of the PA Supreme Court that denied Mumia's appeals against his unjust conviction during the years of 1998 to 2012!
This ruling, by Judge Leon Tucker, was made because one judge on the PA Supreme Court during those years, Ronald Castille, was lacking the "appearance of impartiality." In plain English, he was clearly biased against Mumia. Before sitting on the PA Supreme Court, Castille had been District Attorney (or assistant DA) during the time of Mumia's frame-up and conviction, and had used his office to express a special interest in pursuing the death penalty for "cop-killers." Mumia was in the cross-hairs. Soon he was wrongly convicted and sent to death row for killing a police officer...
* * * * *
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning and intrepid journalist, a former Black Panther, MOVE supporter, and a critic of police brutality and murder. Mumia was framed by police, prosecutors, and leading elements of both Democratic and Republican parties, for the shooting of a police officer. The US Justice Department targeted him as well... A racist judge helped convict him, and corrupt courts have kept him locked up despite much evidence that should have freed him. He continues his commentary and journalism from behind bars. As of 2019, he has been imprisoned for 37 years for a crime he did not commit.
Time is up! FREE MUMIA NOW!
* * * * *
DA's Hidden Files Show Frame-Up of Mumia
In the midst of Mumia's fight for his right to challenge the state Supreme Court's negative rulings, a new twist was revealed: six boxes of files on Mumia's case--with many more still hidden--were surreptitiously concealed for decades in a back room at the District Attorney's office in Philadelphia. The very fact that these files on Mumia's case were hidden away for decades is damning in the extreme, and their revelations confirm what we have known for decades: Mumia was framed for a crime he did not commit!
So far, the newly revealed evidence confirms that, at the time of Mumia's 1982 trial, chief prosecutor Joe McGill illegally removed black jurors from the jury, violating the Batson decision. Also revealed: The prosecution bribed witnesses into testifying that they saw Mumia shoot the slain police officer when they hadn't seen any such thing.... Taxi driver Robert Chobert, who was on probation for fire-bombing a school yard at the time, had sent a letter demanding his money for lying on the stand... Very important, but the newly revealed evidence is just the tip of the iceberg!
All Evidence of Mumia's Innocence Must Be Brought Forward Now!
Mumia Abu-Jamal's trial for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner was rigged against him from beginning to end........ All of the evidence of Mumia's innocence--which was earlier suppressed or rejected--must now be heard:
• Mumia was framed - The judge at Mumia's trial, Albert Sabo, was overheard to say, "I'm gonna help 'em fry the n____r." And he proceeded to do just that.... Mumia was thrown out of his own trial for defending himself! Prosecution "witnesses" were coerced or bribed at trial to lie against Mumia.. In addition to Chobert, this included key witness Cynthia White, a prostitute who testified that she saw Mumia shoot Faulkner... White's statements had to be rewritten under intense pressure from the cops, because she was around the corner and out of sight of the shooting at the time! Police bribed her with promises of being allowed to work her corner, and not sent to state prison for her many prostitution charges.
• Mumia only arrived on the scene after Officer Faulkner was shot - William Singletary, a tow-truck business owner who had no reason to lie against the police, said he had been on the scene the whole time, that Mumia was not the shooter, and that Mumia had arrived only after the shooting of Faulkner. Singletary's statements were torn up, his business was wrecked, and he was threatened by police to be out of town for the trial (which, unfortunately, he was)...
• There is no evidence that Mumia fired a gun - Mumia was shot on the scene by an arriving police officer and arrested. But the cops did not test his hands for gun-powder residue--a standard procedure in shootings! They also did not test Faulkner's hands. The prosecution nevertheless claimed Mumia was the shooter, and that he was shot by Faulkner as the officer fell to the ground. Ballistics evidence was corrupted to falsely show that Mumia's gun was the murder weapon, when his gun was reportedly still in his taxi cab, which was in police custody days after the shooting!
• The real shooter fled the scene and was never charged - Veronica Jones was a witness who said that after hearing the shots from a block away, she had seen two people fleeing the scene of the shooting.... This could not have included Mumia, who had been shot and almost killed at the scene. Jones was threatened by the police with arrest and loss of custody of her children. She then lied on the stand at trial to say she had seen no one running away.
• Abu-Jamal never made a confession - Mumia has always maintained his innocence. But police twice concocted confessions that Mumia never made. Inspector Alfonso Giordano, the senior officer at the crime scene, made up a confession for Mumia. But Giordano was not allowed to testify at trial, because he was top on the FBI's list of corrupt cops in the Philadelphia police force... At the DA's request, another cop handily provided a second "confession," allegedly heard by a security guard in the hospital....... But at neither time was Mumia--almost fatally shot--able to speak.. And an earlier police report by cops in the hospital said that, referring to Mumia: "the negro male made no comment"!
• The crime scene was tampered with by police - Police officers at the scene rearranged some evidence, and handled what was alleged to be Mumia's gun with their bare hands... A journalist's photos revealed this misconduct. The cops then left the scene unattended for hours.. All of this indicates a frame-up in progress....
• The real shooter confessed, and revealed the reason for the crime - Arnold Beverly came forward in the 1990s. He said in a sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, that he, not Mumia, had been the actual shooter. He said that he, along with "another guy," had been hired to do the hit, because Faulkner was "a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the center city area"! (affidavit of Arnold Beverly).
• The corruption of Philadelphia police is documented and well known - This includes that of Giordano, who was the first cop to manufacture a "confession" by Mumia. Meanwhile, Faulkner's cooperation with the federal anti-corruption investigations of Philadelphia police is strongly suggested by his lengthy and heavily redacted FBI file.....
• Do cops kill other cops? There are other cases in Philadelphia that look that way. Frank Serpico, an NYC cop who investigated and reported on police corruption, was abandoned by fellow cops after being shot in a drug bust. Mumia was clearly made a scape-goat for the crimes of corrupt Philadelphia cops who were protecting their ill-gotten gains.
• Politicians and US DOJ helped the frame-up - Ed Rendell, former DA, PA governor, and head of the Democratic National Committee--and now a senior advisor to crime-bill author Joe Biden--is complicit in the frame-up of Mumia. The US Justice Department targeted Mumia for his anti-racist activities when he was a teenager, and later secretly warned then-prosecutor Rendell not to use Giordano as a witness against Mumia because he was an FBI target for corruption.
* * * * *
All this should lead to an immediate freeing of Mumia! But we are still a ways away from that, and we have no confidence in the capitalist courts to finish the job. We must act! This victory in local court allowing new appeals must now lead to a full-court press on all the rejected and suppressed evidence of Mumia's innocence!
Mass Movement Needed To Free Mumia!
Mumia's persecution by local, state and federal authorities of both political parties has been on-going, and has generated a world-wide movement in his defense.. This movement has seen that Mumia, as a radio journalist who exposed the brutal attacks on the black community by the police in Philadelphia, has spoken out as a defender of working people of all colors and all nationalities in his ongoing commentaries (now on KPFA/Pacifica radio), despite being on death row, and now while serving life without the possibility of parole (LWOP)..
In 1999, Oakland Teachers for Mumia held unauthorized teach-ins in Oakland schools on Mumia and the death penalty, despite the rabid hysteria in the bourgeois media. Teachers in Rio de Janeiro held similar actions. Letters of support came in from maritime workers and trade unions around the world.. Later in 1999, longshore workers shut down all the ports on the West Coast to free Mumia, and led a mass march of 25,000 Mumia supporters in San Francisco...........
A year later, a federal court lifted Mumia's death sentence, based on improper instructions to the jury by trial judge Albert Sabo.. The federal court ordered the local court to hold a new sentencing hearing... Fearing their frame-up of Mumia could be revealed in any new hearing, even if only on sentencing, state officials passed. Much to the chagrin of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)--which still seeks Mumia's death--this left Mumia with LWOP, death by life in prison..
Mumia supporters waged a struggle to get him the cure for the deadly Hepatitis-C virus, which he had likely contracted through a blood transfusion in hospital after he was shot by a cop at the 1981 crime scene. The Labor Action Committee conducted demonstrations against Gilead Sciences, the Foster City CA corporation that owns the cure, and charged $1,000 per pill! The Metalworkers Union of South Africa wrote a letter excoriating Governor Wolf for allowing untreated sick freedom fighters to die in prison as the apartheid government had done. Finally, Mumia did get the cure.. Now, more than ever, struggle is needed to free Mumia!
Now is the Time: Mobilize Again for Mumia's Freedom!
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal | Mumia Abu-Jamal is an I.....
November 2019
November 2019
"There is no time for despair, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language.. This is how civilizations heal."
-Toni Morrison
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Board Game
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/race-for-solidarity
Solidarity against racism has existed from the 1600's and continues until today
An exciting board game of chance, empathy and wisdom, that entertains and educates as it builds solidarity through learning about the destructive history of American racism and those who always fought back. Appreciate the anti-racist solidarity of working people, who built and are still building, the great progressive movements of history.. There are over 200 questions, with answers and references.
Spread the word!!
By Dr... Nayvin Gordon
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/race-for-solidarity
Solidarity against racism has existed from the 1600's and continues until today
An exciting board game of chance, empathy and wisdom, that entertains and educates as it builds solidarity through learning about the destructive history of American racism and those who always fought back. Appreciate the anti-racist solidarity of working people, who built and are still building, the great progressive movements of history.. There are over 200 questions, with answers and references.
Spread the word!!
By Dr... Nayvin Gordon
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Action Alert for Shaka Shakur
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Action Alert for Shaka Shakur
Urgent Action Alert: Stop Prison Officials from Blocking Shaka Shakur's Access to Educational and Vocational Services
Shaka Shakur is a politically active, incarcerated, New Afrikan who was transferred on December 18th, 2018, from the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) to the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) as part of campaign to neutralize his activism by prison officials. This transfer was done in violation of his due process rights as a prisoner. He is currently incarcerated at the Sussex 1 State Prison in Waverly, Virginia..... His VA DOC # is 135647............. Since being held there, his right to access educational and vocational programs has been violated. Below is a summary of these violations in Shaka's own words:
"1) i was moved out of the state of Indiana against my will in violation of Indiana Code and due process.. i was never afforded any form of hearing where i was informed as to why i was being shipped out of state nor allowed to present evidence challenging the decision to move me...
2) Upon my arrival to the prison system in Virginia, i was never given any form of orientation... I've never been informed as to what my rights are, nor informed as to how i can go about challenging any decision made by the state of Va. I've only been informed that the state of Va has custody of my body and that all decisions pertaining to my classification, security level and placement was being determined and controlled by the state of Indiana and its Department of Corrections (IDOC).
3) There is supposed to be an IDOC liaison that oversees my placement in Va and communicates with an official in the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) named Ms. Collins. She has refused to respond to any and all efforts to contact her by myself or any outside sources..... Any questions i've had pertaining to video visits, security level, placement, and classification have gone unanswered except for being told that it is up to Indiana.
4) Per Indiana Code i am supposed to be afforded the same rights and privileges as if i was still in Indiana. That includes jobs, programming, religious services etc.........s To deny me such is a const violation and discrimination.... In fact, it denies me equal protection under the law.. I am not being allowed to find a job outside of the housing unit.. i'm being told that i'm not going to be allowed to drop my security level even though my points will drop as low as 10 points in Va and less than 15 in indiana. Both of which would qualify me for a level 3 security level placement.
5) The counselor Ponce falsified my classification review/progress report by lying and saying that i had assaulted a staff member within the last 12 months. This was in order to justify my continued placement at a level 4/5 prison. When this was brought to her attention, she pretended that she had corrected it and instead further falsified the report and then blamed it on Indiana.. i have copies of these documents and my lawyer have the originals [see images posted in event below]."
Furthermore:
6) The doctors at Sussex 1 have not been provided with Shaka's medical records past 2014... Shaka experiences nerve and other issues due to a degenerative disc on which he has been operated. Without these records he cannot be provided with the necessary care for his chronic condition.
7)There is no appeals process available to Shaka or any other out-of-state inmate. Indiana code establishes the sender state [Indiana] as having unchallenged authority in cases of interstate transfer. Having access only to internal grievance procedures in Virginia, Shaka is unable to appeal decisions made in Indiana
You can read about Shaka's long history of activism and rebellious activity in Indiana prisons here and here..
What You Can Do to Support Shaka:
On Monday, 11/11, call the Indiana DOC Executive Director of Classification Jack Hendrix at (317) 232-2247. Leave a message with whoever you are able to speak to, or a voicemail. You can also email Jack Hendrix at jdhendrix@idoc.in....gov..
Please tell them to drop Shaka's security level dropped to a level 3 for which he qualifies so that he can access vocational and educational programs, or to authorize Shaka's lateral transfer to a facility where he can be allowed to participate in vocational and educational programs.............
As Shaka stated:
"How am i supposed to work my way back to Indiana if i'm not being allowed to participate in anything positive or constructive?"
To make a donation to Shaka Shakur's legal defense fund and for more info on his case, go to https://www.....gofundme..com/f/shaka-shakur-legal-defense-fund
For more information, contact Seth Donnelly at sethdonnelly2000@yahoo..com.......
Urgent Action Alert: Stop Prison Officials from Blocking Shaka Shakur's Access to Educational and Vocational Services
Shaka Shakur is a politically active, incarcerated, New Afrikan who was transferred on December 18th, 2018, from the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) to the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) as part of campaign to neutralize his activism by prison officials. This transfer was done in violation of his due process rights as a prisoner. He is currently incarcerated at the Sussex 1 State Prison in Waverly, Virginia..... His VA DOC # is 135647............. Since being held there, his right to access educational and vocational programs has been violated. Below is a summary of these violations in Shaka's own words:
"1) i was moved out of the state of Indiana against my will in violation of Indiana Code and due process.. i was never afforded any form of hearing where i was informed as to why i was being shipped out of state nor allowed to present evidence challenging the decision to move me...
2) Upon my arrival to the prison system in Virginia, i was never given any form of orientation... I've never been informed as to what my rights are, nor informed as to how i can go about challenging any decision made by the state of Va. I've only been informed that the state of Va has custody of my body and that all decisions pertaining to my classification, security level and placement was being determined and controlled by the state of Indiana and its Department of Corrections (IDOC).
3) There is supposed to be an IDOC liaison that oversees my placement in Va and communicates with an official in the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) named Ms. Collins. She has refused to respond to any and all efforts to contact her by myself or any outside sources..... Any questions i've had pertaining to video visits, security level, placement, and classification have gone unanswered except for being told that it is up to Indiana.
4) Per Indiana Code i am supposed to be afforded the same rights and privileges as if i was still in Indiana. That includes jobs, programming, religious services etc.........s To deny me such is a const violation and discrimination.... In fact, it denies me equal protection under the law.. I am not being allowed to find a job outside of the housing unit.. i'm being told that i'm not going to be allowed to drop my security level even though my points will drop as low as 10 points in Va and less than 15 in indiana. Both of which would qualify me for a level 3 security level placement.
5) The counselor Ponce falsified my classification review/progress report by lying and saying that i had assaulted a staff member within the last 12 months. This was in order to justify my continued placement at a level 4/5 prison. When this was brought to her attention, she pretended that she had corrected it and instead further falsified the report and then blamed it on Indiana.. i have copies of these documents and my lawyer have the originals [see images posted in event below]."
Furthermore:
6) The doctors at Sussex 1 have not been provided with Shaka's medical records past 2014... Shaka experiences nerve and other issues due to a degenerative disc on which he has been operated. Without these records he cannot be provided with the necessary care for his chronic condition.
7)There is no appeals process available to Shaka or any other out-of-state inmate. Indiana code establishes the sender state [Indiana] as having unchallenged authority in cases of interstate transfer. Having access only to internal grievance procedures in Virginia, Shaka is unable to appeal decisions made in Indiana
You can read about Shaka's long history of activism and rebellious activity in Indiana prisons here and here..
What You Can Do to Support Shaka:
On Monday, 11/11, call the Indiana DOC Executive Director of Classification Jack Hendrix at (317) 232-2247. Leave a message with whoever you are able to speak to, or a voicemail. You can also email Jack Hendrix at jdhendrix@idoc.in....gov..
Please tell them to drop Shaka's security level dropped to a level 3 for which he qualifies so that he can access vocational and educational programs, or to authorize Shaka's lateral transfer to a facility where he can be allowed to participate in vocational and educational programs.............
As Shaka stated:
"How am i supposed to work my way back to Indiana if i'm not being allowed to participate in anything positive or constructive?"
To make a donation to Shaka Shakur's legal defense fund and for more info on his case, go to https://www.....gofundme..com/f/shaka-shakur-legal-defense-fund
For more information, contact Seth Donnelly at sethdonnelly2000@yahoo..com.......
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50 years in prison:
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!
FREE Chip Fitzgerald
Grandfather, Father, Elder, Friend
former Black Panther
Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald has been in prison since he was locked up 50 years ago...... A former member of the Black Panther Party, Chip is now 70 years old, and suffering the consequences of a serious stroke. He depends on a wheelchair for his mobility. He has appeared before the parole board 17 times, but they refuse to release him..
NOW is the time for Chip to come home!
In September 1969, Chip and two other Panthers were stopped by a highway patrolman..... During the traffic stop, a shooting broke out, leaving Chip and a police officer both wounded. Chip was arrested a month later and charged with attempted murder of the police and an unrelated murder of a security guard. Though the evidence against him was weak and Chip denied any involvement, he was convicted and sentenced to death.
In 1972, the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty........ Chip and others on Death Row had their sentences commuted to Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. All of them became eligible for parole after serving 7 more years...... But Chip was rejected for parole, as he has been ever since.
Parole for Lifers basically stopped under Governors Deukmajian, Wilson, and Davis (1983-2003), resulting in increasing numbers of people in prison and 23 new prisons. People in prison filed lawsuits in federal courts: people were dying as a result of the overcrowding.. To rapidly reduce the number of people in prison, the court mandated new parole hearings:
· for anyone 60 years or older who had served 25 years or more;
· for anyone convicted before they were 23 years old;
· for anyone with disabilities
Chip qualified for a new parole hearing by meeting all three criteria.
But the California Board of Parole Hearings has used other methods to keep Chip locked up. Although the courts ordered that prison rule infractions should not be used in parole considerations, Chip has been denied parole because he had a cellphone..........
Throughout his 50 years in prison, Chip has been denied his right to due process – a new parole hearing as ordered by Federal courts. He is now 70, and addressing the challenges of a stroke victim. His recent rules violation of cellphone possession were non-violent and posed no threat to anyone. He has never been found likely to commit any crimes if released to the community – a community of his children, grandchildren, friends and colleagues who are ready to support him and welcome him home.
The California Board of Parole Hearings is holding Chip hostage.....
We call on Governor Newsom to release Chip immediately.
What YOU can do to support this campaign to FREE CHIP:
1) Sign and circulate the petition to FREE Chip. Download it at https://www.change.org/p/california-free-chip-fitzgerald
Print out the petition and get signatures at your workplace, community meeting, or next social gathering.
2) Write an email to Governor Newsom's office (sample message at:https://docs..google.com/document/d/1iwbP_eQEg2J1T2h-tLKE-Dn2ZfpuLx9MuNv2z605DMc/edit?usp=sharing
3) Write to Chip:
Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald #B27527,
CSP-LAC
P.O. Box 4490
B-4-150
Lancaster, CA 93539
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Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863...............9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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50 years in prison:
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!
FREE Chip Fitzgerald
Grandfather, Father, Elder, Friend
former Black Panther
Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald has been in prison since he was locked up 50 years ago...... A former member of the Black Panther Party, Chip is now 70 years old, and suffering the consequences of a serious stroke. He depends on a wheelchair for his mobility. He has appeared before the parole board 17 times, but they refuse to release him..
NOW is the time for Chip to come home!
In September 1969, Chip and two other Panthers were stopped by a highway patrolman..... During the traffic stop, a shooting broke out, leaving Chip and a police officer both wounded. Chip was arrested a month later and charged with attempted murder of the police and an unrelated murder of a security guard. Though the evidence against him was weak and Chip denied any involvement, he was convicted and sentenced to death.
In 1972, the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty........ Chip and others on Death Row had their sentences commuted to Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. All of them became eligible for parole after serving 7 more years...... But Chip was rejected for parole, as he has been ever since.
Parole for Lifers basically stopped under Governors Deukmajian, Wilson, and Davis (1983-2003), resulting in increasing numbers of people in prison and 23 new prisons. People in prison filed lawsuits in federal courts: people were dying as a result of the overcrowding.. To rapidly reduce the number of people in prison, the court mandated new parole hearings:
· for anyone 60 years or older who had served 25 years or more;
· for anyone convicted before they were 23 years old;
· for anyone with disabilities
Chip qualified for a new parole hearing by meeting all three criteria.
But the California Board of Parole Hearings has used other methods to keep Chip locked up. Although the courts ordered that prison rule infractions should not be used in parole considerations, Chip has been denied parole because he had a cellphone..........
Throughout his 50 years in prison, Chip has been denied his right to due process – a new parole hearing as ordered by Federal courts. He is now 70, and addressing the challenges of a stroke victim. His recent rules violation of cellphone possession were non-violent and posed no threat to anyone. He has never been found likely to commit any crimes if released to the community – a community of his children, grandchildren, friends and colleagues who are ready to support him and welcome him home.
The California Board of Parole Hearings is holding Chip hostage.....
We call on Governor Newsom to release Chip immediately.
What YOU can do to support this campaign to FREE CHIP:
1) Sign and circulate the petition to FREE Chip. Download it at https://www.change.org/p/california-free-chip-fitzgerald
Print out the petition and get signatures at your workplace, community meeting, or next social gathering.
2) Write an email to Governor Newsom's office (sample message at:https://docs..google.com/document/d/1iwbP_eQEg2J1T2h-tLKE-Dn2ZfpuLx9MuNv2z605DMc/edit?usp=sharing
3) Write to Chip:
Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald #B27527,
CSP-LAC
P.O. Box 4490
B-4-150
Lancaster, CA 93539
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863...............9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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Chuck Sims Africa freed: final jailed Move 9 member released from prison
Ed Pilkington - February 7, 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/07/chuck-sims-africa-move-9-freed-philadelphia
One of the great open wounds of the black liberation struggle of the 1970s has finally been healed with the release of the last member of the Move 9, the group of radicals rounded up in a Philadelphia police siege in 1978 and held behind bars for more than four decades.
Chuck Sims Africa, 59, walked free from the Fayette state correctional institution in La Belle, Pennsylvania, on Friday morning. The youngest of the incarcerated group, he has been in custody since shortly after he turned 18.
His freedom marked his reunion with his family for the first time in almost 42 years. It was also historic, as it closed a chapter that had remained unfinished since the black power movement erupted in the late 1960s.
Alongside the Black Panthers, Philadelphia's Move organisation was central to the volatile and at times violent struggle for black equality that lasted until the 1980s.
Members of the organisation regarded themselves – and still do to this day – as part of a family dedicated to race equality, with all members taking the last name "Africa". Part Panthers and part eco-hippies, they also had a commitment to environmental justice that was ahead of its time.
Mike Africa Jr, the son of two of the Move 9, said Chuck's release put an end to a long and gruelling campaign. "We will never have to shout 'Free the Move 9!' ever again. It's been 41 years, and now we'll never have to say it."
For Mike Africa, who is also Chuck's nephew, the release was especially poignant. He was born in a cell five weeks after his mother, Debbie Sims Africa, Chuck's sister, was rounded up in the 1978 siege and incarcerated – she gave birth to him unbeknown to the prison guards and kept him hidden with her in the cell for the first few days of his life.
The Guardian began investigating the prolonged imprisonment of the Move 9 in 2018 as part of an examination into black power behind bars.. At that time all the surviving members of the group were still in custody in various Pennsylvania prisons.
Members of the group described in letters, emails and prison interviews how they had endured so many years inside while keeping their spirits high. Janine Phillips Africa said that she raised therapy dogs in her cell and grew vegetables in the prison yard, avoiding birthdays or holidays that reminded her of the passage of time.
"The years are not my focus," she wrote in a letter to the Guardian. "I keep my mind on my health and the things I need to do day by day."
Delbert Orr Africa said: "We've suffered the worst that this system can throw at us – decades of imprisonment, loss of loved ones. So we know we are strong."
Soon after the Guardian began its investigation, the seven surviving members of the group began to be released on parole. First up was Debbie Sims Africa, set free in June 2018. "We are peaceful people," she said as she stepped out of Cambridge Springs prison.
Then the other six began to emerge, one after the other like falling dominoes:
* Mike Africa Sr, October 2018
* Janine Phillips Africa and Janet Holloway Africa, May 2019
* Eddie Goodman Africa, June 2019
* Delbert Orr Africa, January 2020
Chuck Sims Africa completes the set.
The Move 9 were arrested following a massive police siege of their collective headquarters and home in Powelton Village, Philadelphia, on 8 August 1978. Hundreds of police officers in Swat teams armed with machine guns, teargas, bulldozers and water cannons surrounded the property following a long standoff with city authorities that saw the group as a threat to the community.
The siege culminated in a police shootout in which Move members allegedly returned fire though they denied doing so. A police officer, James Ramp, was killed in the crossfire.
Nine members were arrested and held jointly responsible for Ramp's death despite forensic evidence showing he was killed with a single bullet. In 1980 the nine were convicted of third-degree murder and lesser offenses and each sentenced to 30 years to life.
Two of the nine – Merle and Phil Africa – died in prison. The remaining seven fought for many years to convince parole authorities that they were safe to be let out, pointing to clean discipline sheets in prison.
Over the past two years there have been no security incidents relating to any of the paroled individuals.
Wilson Goode, former mayor of Philadelphia, wrote to the parole board to support Chuck Africa's bid for freedom. He said: "His release will reunite a family after 40 years and I am convinced he will be a positive contributing voice to the Philadelphia community."
Goode, the first black mayor of Philadelphia, was in that position on 13 May 1985 when the second disaster relating to Move occurred. Following another prolonged bout of acrimony between the organisation and its neighbors and city authorities, the decision was taken forcibly to evict the group from its latest headquarters, then in Osage Avenue.
Another shootout broke out, and when that failed to flush them out police dropped incendiary bombs from a helicopter on to the roof of the building. A fire ensued which was allowed to spread, eventually razing to the ground 61 homes in the overwhelmingly African American neighborhood.
Eleven people in the Move house, including five children, died in the inferno. Chuck Africa's cousin, Frank, was among the adults who were killed.
All the paroled members of the Move 9 are now preparing to mark the 35th anniversary of the tragedy. For the first time they will be able to commemorate the event and the relatives and peers they lost outside a prison cell.
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
Questions and comments may be sent to info@freedomarchives.org
Ed Pilkington - February 7, 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/07/chuck-sims-africa-move-9-freed-philadelphia
One of the great open wounds of the black liberation struggle of the 1970s has finally been healed with the release of the last member of the Move 9, the group of radicals rounded up in a Philadelphia police siege in 1978 and held behind bars for more than four decades.
Chuck Sims Africa, 59, walked free from the Fayette state correctional institution in La Belle, Pennsylvania, on Friday morning. The youngest of the incarcerated group, he has been in custody since shortly after he turned 18.
His freedom marked his reunion with his family for the first time in almost 42 years. It was also historic, as it closed a chapter that had remained unfinished since the black power movement erupted in the late 1960s.
Alongside the Black Panthers, Philadelphia's Move organisation was central to the volatile and at times violent struggle for black equality that lasted until the 1980s.
Members of the organisation regarded themselves – and still do to this day – as part of a family dedicated to race equality, with all members taking the last name "Africa". Part Panthers and part eco-hippies, they also had a commitment to environmental justice that was ahead of its time.
Mike Africa Jr, the son of two of the Move 9, said Chuck's release put an end to a long and gruelling campaign. "We will never have to shout 'Free the Move 9!' ever again. It's been 41 years, and now we'll never have to say it."
For Mike Africa, who is also Chuck's nephew, the release was especially poignant. He was born in a cell five weeks after his mother, Debbie Sims Africa, Chuck's sister, was rounded up in the 1978 siege and incarcerated – she gave birth to him unbeknown to the prison guards and kept him hidden with her in the cell for the first few days of his life.
The Guardian began investigating the prolonged imprisonment of the Move 9 in 2018 as part of an examination into black power behind bars.. At that time all the surviving members of the group were still in custody in various Pennsylvania prisons.
Members of the group described in letters, emails and prison interviews how they had endured so many years inside while keeping their spirits high. Janine Phillips Africa said that she raised therapy dogs in her cell and grew vegetables in the prison yard, avoiding birthdays or holidays that reminded her of the passage of time.
"The years are not my focus," she wrote in a letter to the Guardian. "I keep my mind on my health and the things I need to do day by day."
Delbert Orr Africa said: "We've suffered the worst that this system can throw at us – decades of imprisonment, loss of loved ones. So we know we are strong."
Soon after the Guardian began its investigation, the seven surviving members of the group began to be released on parole. First up was Debbie Sims Africa, set free in June 2018. "We are peaceful people," she said as she stepped out of Cambridge Springs prison.
Then the other six began to emerge, one after the other like falling dominoes:
* Mike Africa Sr, October 2018
* Janine Phillips Africa and Janet Holloway Africa, May 2019
* Eddie Goodman Africa, June 2019
* Delbert Orr Africa, January 2020
Chuck Sims Africa completes the set.
The Move 9 were arrested following a massive police siege of their collective headquarters and home in Powelton Village, Philadelphia, on 8 August 1978. Hundreds of police officers in Swat teams armed with machine guns, teargas, bulldozers and water cannons surrounded the property following a long standoff with city authorities that saw the group as a threat to the community.
The siege culminated in a police shootout in which Move members allegedly returned fire though they denied doing so. A police officer, James Ramp, was killed in the crossfire.
Nine members were arrested and held jointly responsible for Ramp's death despite forensic evidence showing he was killed with a single bullet. In 1980 the nine were convicted of third-degree murder and lesser offenses and each sentenced to 30 years to life.
Two of the nine – Merle and Phil Africa – died in prison. The remaining seven fought for many years to convince parole authorities that they were safe to be let out, pointing to clean discipline sheets in prison.
Over the past two years there have been no security incidents relating to any of the paroled individuals.
Wilson Goode, former mayor of Philadelphia, wrote to the parole board to support Chuck Africa's bid for freedom. He said: "His release will reunite a family after 40 years and I am convinced he will be a positive contributing voice to the Philadelphia community."
Goode, the first black mayor of Philadelphia, was in that position on 13 May 1985 when the second disaster relating to Move occurred. Following another prolonged bout of acrimony between the organisation and its neighbors and city authorities, the decision was taken forcibly to evict the group from its latest headquarters, then in Osage Avenue.
Another shootout broke out, and when that failed to flush them out police dropped incendiary bombs from a helicopter on to the roof of the building. A fire ensued which was allowed to spread, eventually razing to the ground 61 homes in the overwhelmingly African American neighborhood.
Eleven people in the Move house, including five children, died in the inferno. Chuck Africa's cousin, Frank, was among the adults who were killed.
All the paroled members of the Move 9 are now preparing to mark the 35th anniversary of the tragedy. For the first time they will be able to commemorate the event and the relatives and peers they lost outside a prison cell.
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Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
Questions and comments may be sent to info@freedomarchives.org
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Move 9 member Delbert Orr Africa freed after 42 years in prison
Ed Pilkington - January 18, 2020
One of the great open wounds of the 1970s black liberation struggle came closer to being healed on Saturday with the release of Delbert Orr Africa, a member of the Move 9 group who has been imprisoned for 42 years for a crime he says he did not commit...
Del Africa walked free from Pennsylvania's state correctional institution, Dallas, on Saturday morning after a long struggle to convince parole authorities to release him. He is the eighth of the nine Move members – five men and four women – to be released or to have died while in prison.
Only one of the nine, Chuck Africa, remains behind bars.
The nine were arrested and sentenced to 30 years to life following a dramatic police siege of their communal home in Philadelphia which culminated with a shootout on 8 August 1978. In the maelstrom a police officer, James Ramp, was killed with a single bullet. Move has always denied that any of its members were responsible......
Brad Thomson, a member of Del Africa's legal team, said the decision to release him on parole "affirms what the movement to free the Move 9 has been arguing for decades: that their continued incarceration is unjust".
Thomson added: "With the release of Delbert, that leaves Charles 'Chuck' Africa as the last member of the Move 9 to still be in prison. Chuck went before the parole board last month and we are optimistic that he will be released in the very near future."
The Guardian told the story of Del Africa and his fellow Move 9 member Janine Phillips Africa in a series of articles on black radicals who have been incarcerated for decades as a result of their activities in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
Move was formed in Philadelphia as a group of black radicals committed not only to the liberation from racial oppression, in tune with the Black Panther party of the time, but also to environmentalist and back-to-nature ideals. They lived, as they still do today, as a family, taking "Africa" as their shared last name.
Over two years, from prison, Del Africa related his story to the Guardian in emails and a three-hour interview. He recounted how he became engaged in the black struggle when a girlfriend introduced him to the Black Panther Party in Chicago in the late 1960s.
Later, he moved to Philadelphia and drifted into Move.... He was inside the Move house in Powelton Village in the summer of 1978 when it came under police siege.
The city, under a notoriously brutal mayor, Frank Rizzo, wanted to evict the group on the grounds that they were a nuisance and an affront to public decency.
When the shootout broke out, police went in with guns and water cannon. Del Africa provided one of the astonishing images of the black liberation struggle when he emerged from the house with his arms outstretched, as if on the cross, while a police officer jabbed a rifle in his neck.
Video footage shows two officers throwing him to the ground and kicking him on the head, which bounces between them like a ball.
Africa described the event: "A cop hit me with his helmet..... Smashed my eye. Another cop swung his shotgun and broke my jaw.. I went down, and after that I don't remember anything till I came to and a dude was dragging me by my hair and cops started kicking me in the head."
For six years of his incarceration, Delbert Africa was put in an infamous solitary confinement wing known by prisoners as the "dungeon"... His isolation was imposed because he refused to have his dreadlocks cut – part of the Move philosophy.
He recalled in Guardian interviews how he survived in solitary confinement by developing a black history quiz with other prisoners, which they would play by tapping out messages. Other prisoners joined the game, which asked questions like: when was the Brown v Board of Education ruling in the US supreme court? What year was the Black Panther party founded? Who was Dred Scott? For what is John Brown remembered?
In 1985, when Del Africa had been in prison for almost seven years, tragedy struck again. He learned that Philadelphia police had conducted a second siege on the Move communal home, which was now located in Osage Avenue..
On this occasion, the police dropped an incendiary bomb from a helicopter... The bomb ignited a fire that spread through the overwhelmingly African American neighborhood...
City leaders allowed the fire to rage. Sixty-one houses were razed and 11 people in the Move house were killed, including five children. One of the survivors, Ramona Africa, was badly burned. She was duly put on trial and sentenced to seven years in prison..
One of the children who died was Delisha, Del Africa's 13-year-old daughter.. He told the Guardian how he responded to the news that she had been killed in an inferno: "I just cried. I wanted to strike out.. I wanted to wreak as much havoc as I could until they put me down. That anger, it brought such a feeling of helplessness. Like, dang! What to do now? Dark times."
With the 35th anniversary of the bombing approaching in May, Del Africa is free.. At the end of the Guardian's interview with him, he described how he had managed to endure four decades behind bars...
"I keep staying on the move. Stagnation is the worst thing. I'm on the move, and I hope you are too," he said.
"We've suffered the worst that this system can throw at us – decades of imprisonment, loss of loved ones. So we know we are strong. For all of that, we are still here and I look on that with pride."
Questions and comments may be sent to info@freedomarchives.org
Ed Pilkington - January 18, 2020
One of the great open wounds of the 1970s black liberation struggle came closer to being healed on Saturday with the release of Delbert Orr Africa, a member of the Move 9 group who has been imprisoned for 42 years for a crime he says he did not commit...
Del Africa walked free from Pennsylvania's state correctional institution, Dallas, on Saturday morning after a long struggle to convince parole authorities to release him. He is the eighth of the nine Move members – five men and four women – to be released or to have died while in prison.
Only one of the nine, Chuck Africa, remains behind bars.
The nine were arrested and sentenced to 30 years to life following a dramatic police siege of their communal home in Philadelphia which culminated with a shootout on 8 August 1978. In the maelstrom a police officer, James Ramp, was killed with a single bullet. Move has always denied that any of its members were responsible......
Brad Thomson, a member of Del Africa's legal team, said the decision to release him on parole "affirms what the movement to free the Move 9 has been arguing for decades: that their continued incarceration is unjust".
Thomson added: "With the release of Delbert, that leaves Charles 'Chuck' Africa as the last member of the Move 9 to still be in prison. Chuck went before the parole board last month and we are optimistic that he will be released in the very near future."
The Guardian told the story of Del Africa and his fellow Move 9 member Janine Phillips Africa in a series of articles on black radicals who have been incarcerated for decades as a result of their activities in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
Move was formed in Philadelphia as a group of black radicals committed not only to the liberation from racial oppression, in tune with the Black Panther party of the time, but also to environmentalist and back-to-nature ideals. They lived, as they still do today, as a family, taking "Africa" as their shared last name.
Over two years, from prison, Del Africa related his story to the Guardian in emails and a three-hour interview. He recounted how he became engaged in the black struggle when a girlfriend introduced him to the Black Panther Party in Chicago in the late 1960s.
Later, he moved to Philadelphia and drifted into Move.... He was inside the Move house in Powelton Village in the summer of 1978 when it came under police siege.
The city, under a notoriously brutal mayor, Frank Rizzo, wanted to evict the group on the grounds that they were a nuisance and an affront to public decency.
When the shootout broke out, police went in with guns and water cannon. Del Africa provided one of the astonishing images of the black liberation struggle when he emerged from the house with his arms outstretched, as if on the cross, while a police officer jabbed a rifle in his neck.
Video footage shows two officers throwing him to the ground and kicking him on the head, which bounces between them like a ball.
Africa described the event: "A cop hit me with his helmet..... Smashed my eye. Another cop swung his shotgun and broke my jaw.. I went down, and after that I don't remember anything till I came to and a dude was dragging me by my hair and cops started kicking me in the head."
For six years of his incarceration, Delbert Africa was put in an infamous solitary confinement wing known by prisoners as the "dungeon"... His isolation was imposed because he refused to have his dreadlocks cut – part of the Move philosophy.
He recalled in Guardian interviews how he survived in solitary confinement by developing a black history quiz with other prisoners, which they would play by tapping out messages. Other prisoners joined the game, which asked questions like: when was the Brown v Board of Education ruling in the US supreme court? What year was the Black Panther party founded? Who was Dred Scott? For what is John Brown remembered?
In 1985, when Del Africa had been in prison for almost seven years, tragedy struck again. He learned that Philadelphia police had conducted a second siege on the Move communal home, which was now located in Osage Avenue..
On this occasion, the police dropped an incendiary bomb from a helicopter... The bomb ignited a fire that spread through the overwhelmingly African American neighborhood...
City leaders allowed the fire to rage. Sixty-one houses were razed and 11 people in the Move house were killed, including five children. One of the survivors, Ramona Africa, was badly burned. She was duly put on trial and sentenced to seven years in prison..
One of the children who died was Delisha, Del Africa's 13-year-old daughter.. He told the Guardian how he responded to the news that she had been killed in an inferno: "I just cried. I wanted to strike out.. I wanted to wreak as much havoc as I could until they put me down. That anger, it brought such a feeling of helplessness. Like, dang! What to do now? Dark times."
With the 35th anniversary of the bombing approaching in May, Del Africa is free.. At the end of the Guardian's interview with him, he described how he had managed to endure four decades behind bars...
"I keep staying on the move. Stagnation is the worst thing. I'm on the move, and I hope you are too," he said.
"We've suffered the worst that this system can throw at us – decades of imprisonment, loss of loved ones. So we know we are strong. For all of that, we are still here and I look on that with pride."
Questions and comments may be sent to info@freedomarchives.org
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On Abortion: From Facebook
Best explanation I've heard so far....., Copied from a friend who copied from a friend who copied............., "Last night, I was in a debate about these new abortion laws being passed in red states. My son stepped in with this comment which was a show stopper. One of the best explanations I have read:, , 'Reasonable people can disagree about when a zygote becomes a "human life" - that's a philosophical question.... However, regardless of whether or not one believes a fetus is ethically equivalent to an adult, it doesn't obligate a mother to sacrifice her body autonomy for another, innocent or not..., , Body autonomy is a critical component of the right to privacy protected by the Constitution, as decided in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), McFall v.. Shimp (1978), and of course Roe v. Wade (1973).. Consider a scenario where you are a perfect bone marrow match for a child with severe aplastic anemia; no other person on earth is a close enough match to save the child's life, and the child will certainly die without a bone marrow transplant from you. If you decided that you did not want to donate your marrow to save the child, for whatever reason, the state cannot demand the use of any part of your body for something to which you do not consent... It doesn't matter if the procedure required to complete the donation is trivial, or if the rationale for refusing is flimsy and arbitrary, or if the procedure is the only hope the child has to survive, or if the child is a genius or a saint or anything else - the decision to donate must be voluntary to be constitutional... This right is even extended to a person's body after they die; if they did not voluntarily commit to donate their organs while alive, their organs cannot be harvested after death, regardless of how useless those organs are to the deceased or how many lives they would save..., , That's the law.., , Use of a woman's uterus to save a life is no different from use of her bone marrow to save a life - it must be offered voluntarily............. By all means, profess your belief that providing one's uterus to save the child is morally just, and refusing is morally wrong.......... That is a defensible philosophical position, regardless of who agrees and who disagrees...... But legally, it must be the woman's choice to carry out the pregnancy..., , She may choose to carry the baby to term... She may choose not to. Either decision could be made for all the right reasons, all the wrong reasons, or anything in between... But it must be her choice, and protecting the right of body autonomy means the law is on her side... Supporting that precedent is what being pro-choice means....", , Feel free to copy/paste and re-post., y
Sent from my iPhone
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Celebrating the release of Janet and Janine Africa
Take action now to support Jalil A.... Muntaqim's release
Jalil A..... Muntaqim was a member of the Black Panther Party and has been a political prisoner for 48 years since he was arrested at the age of 19 in 1971. He has been denied parole 11 times since he was first eligible in 2002, and is now scheduled for his 12th parole hearing. Additionally, Jalil has filed to have his sentence commuted to time served by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Visit Jalil's support page, check out his writing and poetry, and Join Critical Resistance in supporting a vibrant intergenerational movement of freedom fighters in demanding his release.
48 years is enough. Write, email, call, and tweet at Governor Cuomo in support of Jalil's commutation and sign this petition demanding his release.
http://freedomarchives.org/Support.Jalil/Campaign.html
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Funds for Kevin Cooper
https://www.gofundme.....com/funds-for-kevin-cooper?member=1994108
For 34 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California..
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here ...
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings ......... Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, paper, toiletries, supplementary food, and/or phone calls.......
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
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