Solidarity at a time of strife
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Statements from U.S. Political Prisoners In Support of Palestine
On the Occasion of A Commemoration of Black September And Palestinian Political Prisoners, Boston, September 17, 2006.
Russell "Maroon" Shoats AF-3855
SCI Greene 175 Progress Drive Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090
"My name is Russell 'Maroon' Shoats and I am a New Afrikan Political Prisoner of War, who at this moment is serving a prison sentence at the Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, state institution. … In response to the heightened repression of the New Afrikan liberation movement in general, and the unjustified killing of New Afrikan youth by the repressive police in the [Philadelphia] community, from August 1970 until January 1972, the date of my capture and arrest, I was active on the armed front of the New Afrikan Liberation Army." –from "I am Maroon!"
To My Palestinian Comrades
From Russell "Maroon" Shoats, a New Afrikan/Black Political Prisoner, to the Palestinian Political Prisoners.
Having joined the ongoing struggle for self-determination for Afrikans born in the United States in 1967, i was then and still am now inspired by the valiant people of Palestine.
Since then i've clearly come to learn that both of our struggles are connected by our people's equal desires to be free.
So when you suffer, we suffer; when you make progress, we make progress; and when you win your freedom, we will also celebrate! Because in our hearts we too are Palestinians!
Ever forward to victory!
Maroon
September 7, 2006
Marilyn Buck
#00482-285
5701 8th St. Camp Parks B
Federal Correctional Institution
Dublin, CA 94568
Anti-imperialist political prisoner who aligned herself with the Black Liberation Movement. In 1973 she was convicted of purchasing ammunition and was given a ten year sentence. She escaped after 4 years, and was underground until she was recaptured in1985 and tried for conspiracy in the successful escape of Assata Shakur. She was further convicted of conspiracy to commit "armed bank robbery" in support of the New Afrikan Independence struggle. In 1988 she was given another ten years for "conspiracy to protest and alter government policies (the invasion of Grenada, intervention in Central America) through use of violence" against government and military property."
Greetings to all who stand for a fee, just, liberated Palestine. I was still an infant when Palestine was dismembered, hacked into pieces and driven off its land. It was 18 or 19 years thereafter before I heard that Palestine was alive, that there had not been the burial the imperialist and Zionist powers had hoped. Life coursed then as now through diaspora veins connecting the hearts of Palestinian people worldwide.
The will and resistance of the Palestinian people taught and inspired me along with other anti-imperialists and internationalists. I greet you and honor you who defend the Palestinian nation and its people. If only I could be present to embrace you, to stand beside you for your homeland.
Those who struggle for a lifetime are the bearers of the future!
Your sister in solidarity.
Marilyn Buck, U.S. anti-imperialist political prisoner
Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3 #72148
CCR UB #3
Louisiana State Penitentiary
Angola, LA 70712
Black Panther Party political prisoner who, along with Herman Wallace, organized the Black Panther Party at Angola prison, known as the most brutal prison in the US. Their political activism made them targets of the all-white prison administration which concocted murder charges against Woodfox and Wallace and placed them on permanent lockdown with sentences of life without parole. Later in 1972, Robert King Wilkerson arrived at Angola, also a member of the Black Panther Party and was subsequently charged and convicted for a murder he did not commit.
To my Palestinian brothers and sisters. Herman Wallace and myself greet you from the belly of the beast! (Prison.)
We would so much rather be there in person, to honor your courage and determination against the zionist state of Israel!
For the last 35 years, we have watched the Palestinian people resist the genocide of Israel against the Palestinians while the western world and media tries to make the world see you as a people unfeeling, without love of family, or people of the world.
Your fight for the destiny and control of the Palestinian people's future is both inspiring and courageous! The world must not rest until the Palestinian people has their own state, with sovereign rights and East Jerusalem as its capital! I salute your courage, I salute your sacrifice, I salute your determination, I salute your victory!
Sincerely,
Albert Woodfox Angola #3! September 7, 2006
Debbie Sims Africa of the MOVE 9
Debbie Sims Africa, MOVE 9
#506307
451 Fullerton Avenue
Cambridge Springs, PA 16403-1238
The MOVE 9 are members of the revolutionary MOVE organization imprisoned since 1978 after a police assault on their headquarters in Powelton Village, Philadelphia. In 1985 the government dropped a bomb on the MOVE house on Osage Avenue in Philadelphia, killing 11 people, including 5 children.
Salute and solidarity to all our strong, loyal committed revolutionary sisters and brothers in Palestine.
The committed example that you continue to set in your country is being felt by all of us here in the USA too. The Move Organization is generating a united, revolutionary vibration to you and all political prisoners around the world through our unending fight for freedom and justice. We are linked together as one to confront and expose the demon intimidation tactics the oppressor uses to beat down and kill off the fighting spirit in all freedom fighters. We must keep fighting back, no matter what or how things may seem. We are obligated to show others the urgent need for change and guide them in the direction of revolution. We must never let ourselves be divided despite any so-call differences, because finally, we have the most important thing in common our fight against the enemy, the oppressor, the enslaver, this system, and any difference among us is secondary to that. What this system fears most is unity because they know unity is power. Power of the people is the key to bring this system to its knees.
We have committed our lives to revolution. Our men, women, children, our infants have lost their lives, they were murdered by this system. We know all of you have lost family, loved ones, and comrades too. The MOVE 9have been unjustly imprisoned for almost 30 years, we are innocent. But despite our innocence, we've been beat jailed and had family members murdered, not because we are guilty of any crime but because we stand up against this rotten, corrupt government and fight for what is right and because we expose these government officials, judges, and police for the diabolical monsters they are. We know all of you have suffered injustices there, the stories we've heard affect us personally and pushes us to fight harder, cause while we are located in different parts of the globe we understand and can relate to what you are going through. Stay strong my brothers and sisters and know that we will not let the lives of our family, your family, any freedom fighter be in vain. We will never stop fighting this system. The seed for this revolution is planted, and though we may not cross paths in our life time, our roots will be planted in the same soil. LONG LIVE ALL FREEDOM FIGHTERS LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!
To quote John Africa
"Solidarity is unity, without unity you can't have revolution…Revolution is organization just as solidarity is togetherness … The word people should be a symbol of identity which should unite people and dispel war but to call everybody a person and go to war against people is to say that people are compelled to conflict making peace hopeless and everything people are striving to make, to have, to be … If we expect to accomplish the defeat of oppression, we are going to have to understand the power of assertion, a single mind is an assertive mind, when we think as one we are as no other, when we think as one another we're defeated because one is one and another is something other than one."
LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA FOREVER
Ona Move, MOVE [Sent by Debbie Sims Africa, Sept. 2006]
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