My good comrades,
It's nice to be back in your midst after a brief breakaway. I'm trying to
catch up with y'all on all the good stuff I missed. At the rate i'm going,
it may be another couple of days -:)
Meanwhile, chew on this:
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----- Original Message -----
> Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 13:59:05 -0700
> Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
> From: Arm The Spirit <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [AFIB] Black August 2000: A Story Of African Freedom Fighters
>
> _______________________________
>
> ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN
> News * Analysis * Research * Action
> _______________________________
>
> SPECIAL EDITION
> - August 1, 2000 -
>
> * * *
>
> BRC-NEWS
> Black Radical Congress
> P.O. Box 490365
> Atlanta, GA 30349
> (404) 768-2529
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Web: http://www.blackradicalcongress.org
> - Tuesday, 1 August 2000 -
>
> -----
> ____________________________________________________________________
>
> BLACK AUGUST 2000:
> A Story of African Freedom Fighters
> ____________________________________________________________________
>
> By Kiilu Nyasha, [log in to unmask]
>
> Black August is a month of great significance for Africans throughout the
> diaspora, but particularly here in the U.S. where it originated.
"August,"
> as Mumia Abu-Jamal noted, "is a month of meaning, of repression and
radical
> resistance, of injustice and divine justice; of repression and righteous
> rebellion; of individual and collective efforts to free the slaves and
> break the chains that bind us.".
>
> On this 21st anniversary of Black August, first organized to honor our
> fallen freedom fighters, Jonathan and George Jackson, Khatari Gaulden,
> James McClain, William Christmas, and the sole survivor of the August 7,
> 1970 Courthouse Slave Rebellion, Ruchell Cinque Magee, it is still a time
> to embrace the principles of unity, self-sacrifice, political education,
> physical fitness and/or training in martial arts, resistance, and
spiritual
> renewal..
>
> The concept, Black August, grew out of the need to expose to the light of
> day the glorious and heroic deeds of those Afrikan women and men who
> recognized and struggled against the injustices heaped upon people of
color
> on a daily basis in America.
>
> One cannot tell the story of Black August without first providing the
> reader with a brief glimpse of the "Black Movement" behind California
> prison walls in the Sixties, led by George Jackson and W. L. Nolen, among
> others.
>
> As Jackson wrote: "...when I was accused of robbing a gas station of $70,
I
> accepted a deal...but when time came for sentencing, they tossed me into
> the penitentiary with one to life. It was 1960. I was 18 years old.... I
> met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels, and Mao when I entered prison and they
> redeemed me. For the first four years I studied nothing but economics and
> military ideas. I met black guerrillas, George `Big Jake' Lewis, and
James
> Carr, W.L. Nolen, Bill Christmas, Torry Gibson, and many, many others. We
> attempted to transform the Black criminal mentality into a black
> revolutionary mentality. As a result, each of us has been subject to
years
> of the most vicious reactionary violence by the state. Our mortality rate
> is almost what you would expect to find in a history of Dachau. Three of
us
> [Nolen, Sweet Jugs Miller, and Cleve Edwards) were murdered several
months
> ago [Jan. 13, 1969] by a pig shooting from thirty feet above their heads
> with a military rifle." (Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George
> Jackson)
>
> When the brothers first demanded the killer guard be tried for murder,
they
> were rebuffed. Upon their insistence, the administration held a kangaroo
> court and three days later returned a verdict of "justifiable homicide."
> Shortly afterward, a white guard was found beaten to death and thrown
from
> a tier. Six days later, three prisoners were accused of murder, and
became
> known as The Soledad Brothers.
>
> "I am being tried in court right now with two other brothers. John
> Clutchette and Fleeta Drumgo, for the alleged slaying of a prison guard.
> This charge carries an automatic death penalty for me. I can't get life.
I
> already have it."
>
> On August 7, 1970, just a few days after George was transferred to San
> Quentin, his younger brother Jonathan Jackson, 17, invaded Marin County
> Courthouse single-handed, with a satchel full of handguns, an assault
rifle
> and a shotgun hidden under his raincoat. "Freeze," he commanded as he
> tossed guns to William Christmas, James McClain, and Ruchell Magee. Magee
> was on the witness stand testifying for McClain, on trial for assaulting
a
> guard in the wake of a guard's murder of another Black prisoner, Fred
> Billingsley, beaten and teargassed to death. A jailhouse lawyer, Magee
had
> deluged the courts with petitions for seven years contesting his illegal
> conviction in `63. The courts had refused to listen, so Magee seized the
> hour and joined the guerrillas as they took the judge, prosecutor and
three
> jurors hostage to a waiting van. To reporters gathering quickly outside
the
> courthouse, Jonathan shouted, "You can take our pictures. We are the
> revolutionaries!"
>
> Operating with courage and calm even their enemies had to respect, the
four
> Black freedom fighters commandeered their hostages out of the courthouse
> without a hitch. The plan was to use the hostages to take over a radio
> station and broadcast the racist, murderous prison conditions and demand
> the immediate release of The Soledad Brothers. But before Jonathan could
> drive the van out of the parking lot, the San Quentin guards arrived and
> opened fire. When the shooting stopped, Jonathan, Christmas, McClain and
> the judge lay dead. Magee and the prosecutor were critically wounded, and
> one juror suffered a minor arm wound.
>
> Magee survived his wounds and was tried originally with co-defendant
Angela
> Davis. Their trials were later severed and Davis was eventually acquitted
> of all charges. Magee was convicted of simple kidnap and remains in
prison
> to date -- 37 years with no physical assaults on his record. An
incredible
> jailhouse lawyer, Magee has been responsible for countless prisoners
being
> released -- the main reason he was kept for nearly 20 years in one lockup
> after another. He is currently at Corcoran State Prison, having been
> recently transferred from Pelican Bay, remains strong and determined to
win
> his freedom and that of all oppressed peoples.
>
> In his second book, Blood In My Eye, published posthumously, Jackson
noted:
> "Reformism is an old story in Amerika. There have been depressions and
> socio-economic political crises throughout the period that marked the
> formation of the present upper-class ruling circle, and their controlling
> elites. But the parties of the left were too committed to reformism to
> exploit their revolutionary potential.... Fascism has temporarily
succeeded
> under the guise of reform." Those words ring even truer today as we
witness
> a form of fascism that has replaced gas ovens with executions and torture
> chambers; plantations with prison industrial complexes deployed in rural
> white communities to perpetuate white supremacy and Black/Brown slavery.
>
> The concentration of wealth at the top is worse than ever: One percent
now
> owns more wealth than that of the combined 95% of the U.S. population;
> individuals are so rich their wealth exceeds the total budgets of
numerous
> nations -- as they plunder the globe in the quest for more.
>
> "The fascist must expand to live. Consequently he has pushed his
frontiers
> to the farthest lands and peoples... I'm going to bust my heart trying to
> stop these smug, degenerate, primitive, omnivorous, uncivil --- and
anyone
> who would aid me, I embrace you."
>
> "International capitalism cannot be destroyed without the extremes of
> struggle...We are the only ones...who can get at the monster's heart
> without subjecting the world to nuclear fire. We have a momentous
> historical role to act out if we will. The whole world for all time in
the
> future will love us and remember us as the righteous people who made it
> possible for the world to live on....I don't want to die and leave a few
> sad songs and a hump in the ground as my only monument. I want to leave a
> world that is liberated from trash, pollution, racism, nation-states,
> nation-state wars and armies, from pomp, bigotry, parochialism, a
thousand
> different brands of untruth, and licentious, usurious economics."
(Soledad
> Brother)
>
> On August 21, 1971, after numerous failed attempts on his life, the State
> finally succeeded in assassinating George Jackson, then Field Marshall of
> the Black Panther Party, in what was described by prison officials as an
> escape attempt in which Jackson allegedly smuggled a gun into San Quentin
> in a wig. That feat was proven impossible, and evidence subsequently
> suggested a setup designed by prison officials to eliminate Jackson once
> and for all.
>
> However, they didn't count on losing any of their own in the process. On
> that fateful day, three notoriously racist prison guards and two inmate
> turnkeys were also killed, presumably by Jackson who was shot and killed
by
> guards as he drew fire away from the other prisoners in the Adjustment
> Center (lockup) of San Quentin.
>
> Subsequently, six A/C prisoners were singled out and put on trial --
> wearing 30 lbs of chains in Marin courthouse -- for various charges of
> murder and assault: Fleeta Drumgo, David Johnson, Hugo L.A. Pinell
(Yogi),
> Luis Talamantez, Johnny Spain, and Willie Sundiata Tate. Only one was
> convicted of murder, Johnny Spain. The others were either acquitted or
> convicted of assault. Pinell is the only one remaining in prison and has
> suffered prolonged torture in lockups since 1969. He is currently serving
> his 10th year in Pelican Bay's SHU, a torture chamber if ever there was
> one. A true warrior, Pinell would put his life on the line to defend his
> fellow captives.
>
> As decades passed, our Black scholars, like Mumia Abu-Jamal, learned of
> other liberation moves that happened in Black August. E.g., the first and
> only armed revolution whereby Africans freed themselves from chattel
> slavery commenced on August 21, 1791. Nat Turner's slave rebellion began
on
> August 21, 1831 (coincidence?), and Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad
> started in August. As Mumia stated, "Their sacrifice, their despair,
their
> determination and their blood has painted the month Black for all time."
>
> Let us honor our martyred freedom fighters as George Jackson counselled:
> "Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our
> situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are
already
> dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered
> half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your
humanity
> and your love in revolution"
>
> Copyright (c) 2000 Kiilu Nyasha. All Rights Reserved.
>
> Articles on BRC-NEWS may be forwarded and posted on other mailing lists,
as
> long as the wording/attribution is not altered in any way. In particular,
> if there is a reference to a web site where an article was originally
> located, please do not remove that.
>
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> ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
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>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
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