There were gangs since the earliest of times
This is some of their history made into rhyme
Their real name is Street Organization: a band of Brothers
With their own rules, signs, sister sets and their own colors.
In the ’40s Chicago’s King David and Latino jail-mates
Started the Latin Kings which spread thru the Midwest to Northeastern states.
New York in the ’50s had Black gangs, White gangs, Puerto Rican and Chinese.
Each had their own turf, all fought each other in the streets.
Blacks were Chaplains, Bishops and Corsair Lords, Puerto Ricans were Dragons
And Kings and Whites were East Side Kids.
By the ’60s most of them had succumbed to drugs,
They were either chasing scag or were doing prison bids.
In ‘68 Lumumba Shakur, ex-War Lord of the Bishops,
Opened the Harlem Panther office for which he’s remembered, even worshipped.
So whenever you hear the name Afeni, Tupac, or Mutulu Shakur,
Know they all trace their names back to Lumumba for sure.
The GDs began in the ’60s by that same King David.
Their colors are the same as the Panthers,
Blue and black, like they’re the one who gave it.
In ‘68 the Panthers offered L.A. gangs a new direction:
Combatting injustice and representing their hood.
Bunchy Carter of the feared Slausons answered the call,
He was tired of destroying his people and was ready to do them good.
Raymond Washington and Tookie Williams hung out
At the Community Relations for Independent People (C.R.I.P.) youth center.
In ‘69 they formed the CRIPS,
Took Blue as their color and the Panthers as their mentor.
But the government hit the Panthers
And stomped them in the mud.
Without guidance the CRIPS made their foe the PIRUS 
And BRIMS who became in ‘ 70 the citywide BLOODS 
Their colors are RED and they spread and grew,
Using guns and rocks, Rap cds and their crews.
Other set grew too
And the gangwar and violence is giving the Black Community the Blues.
Slowly some sets are trying to change for the better,
Others are still set on just getting the cheddar.
Black people are calling for Stop the Violence,
Thug Codes, Black Agendas or whatever will do.
We’ve got to find a solution to this problem
Else the Black Community is through!

(end)

Send some love to our Brotha!

Bro. Sundiata Acoli (Squire)
#39794-066
P.O. Box 1000
FCI Otisville
Otisville, NY 10963-1000

Bro. Sundiata: Well, first i wonder why you call it a fiasco (meaning a “complete failure”)?
Also a fiasco for who? For Black people? For Obama? The Clintons? McCain, the u.s. or who?
Any way, i assume you’re asking for my view on “this whole BLACK Presidential thing?” and
if so, then i think it’s a normal progression (or next step) in the struggle for power between Blacks
and other oppressed people, and our enemy.

Most political people are familiar with neo-colonialism (Black mask/White skin) and know that
our enemy needs Obama to present a Black face to the world to help White imperialist and their
allies hold on to world power a little longer.

But that in no way changes the fact that the Black masses fervently want Obama to win, and
so do a lot of other nationalities (especially youths) here and abroad. Nor does it change the fact
that Blacks see Obama (or a Black President) as a concrete symbol of progress, hope and success in our long
struggle for freedom, equality and justice in the u.s.

So now i guess you’re also asking what do i want to see happen? i want to see Obama win. Not
that i think he’s going to “part the waters” for Blacks or do much that’s different from what any other
White politician would/could do. And frankly, some of his positions stated in his AIPAC and other
speeches scare me to death.

But mainly, i think his Presidency would serve to push the Black masses (and others oppressed)
past their long held belief that a “Black President” means we’ve achieved freedom. If Obama
wins i think his tenure will eventually show Blacks (and others oppressed) in a positive way that
“color really doesn’t matter,” that a Black (or non-White) President in itself makes no difference, that
the system itself must be changed and the only way that’s going to happen is that we, the oppressed,
band together to change this racist imperialistic system ourselves.

Now if Obama doesn’t win (due to foul deed or not) it’s going to anger and radicalize a lot of Blacks
and other oppressed people and move them beyond relying on conventional politics alone as a means
to bring about real change.

So my view on the whole matter is that it’s generally a win-win position for Black and oppressed
people. Whether Obama wins or loses, it will eventually push us forward and unite us for real change.
But that also means our greatest challenge, as oppressed peoples, will be to overcome the deluge
of sinister divisive tactics that the enemy has in store for us in attempt to continue his rule over us.

Struggle.

Sundiata

———————————————–

If you have a question for Sundiata Acoli go to the link below to Ask Sundiata

For Sundiata Acoli Answers
Sundiata Answers

I want to thank the AFSC for renewing its commitment to issues of isolation and torture in US prisons; the AFSC Healing Justice staff for their collective brilliance and spirit and Naima Black and the Stopmax Team for organizing this extraordinary community.

In the mid 80’s I received a letter from Ojore Lutalo who had just been placed in the Management Control Unit at Trenton State Prison. He asked what a control unit was, why he was in there and how long he would have to stay. At that point, we knew little of control units, except for the ground breaking work of Nancy Kurshan and Steve Whitman of the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML) and the many prisoners who reached out to the AFSC, which, in 1985 produced a pamphlet called “The Lessons of Marion”. We began hearing from people throughout the country saying that they were prisoners being held in extended isolation for political reasons. We also heard from jailhouse lawyers, Islamic militants and prisoner activists – many of whom found themselves locked down in 24/7 solitary confinement. The AFSC began contacting people inside and outside the prisons to see who was interested in working specifically on control unit isolation issues, and in 1994 (after eight years of organizing) we hosted the formation of the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons. This was done with the help of CEML, Komboa Ervin, who was one of the Marion Brothers, Corey Weinstein of California Prison Focus, Alejandro Molina from the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, students from Oberlin College, young people across the country who belonged to the Anarchist Black Cross, the United Church of Christ, Yaki Owusu of Spear and Shield, the input of the women held in small group isolation at Lexington, Ky. and many others who gave strength and purpose to the work. Some of these people were actively involved in the different political movements of the 60’s and 70’s and understood how control units were being used against us all. Getting issues of isolation and torture into the light has been a long road and I bow in gratitude to those inside who so gracefully and patiently mentored those of us on the outside.

In 1996, the National Campaign held four Regional Hearings across the country, giving voice to people in prison, ex-prisoners, family members, advocates, lawyers and others whom were impacted by the use of isolation. In 1997 we came out with the Interim Report which held data on the emergence of over 45 control units or supermax prisons in almost every state. We matched inside and outside monitors in each state and formed the testimonies we received into a Listening Project called “Testimonies of Torture” and the “Survivor’s Manual”. In 1998, the National AFSC folded the work of the Campaign into Newark, NJ’s Prison Watch Project of the New York Metropolitan Regional Office. During the four years of its existence, NCSCUP trained dozens of students in organizing principles, including helping to develop about half a dozen campus Prisoner Awareness groups. Many of those former students are still working for social change today.

The history of the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons really began with the movements of the 60’s and 70’s. My generation belonged to a society where we genuinely believed that each of us was free to dissent politically. In those years, people acted out this belief in a number of ways. Native peoples contributed to the formation of the American Indian Movement dedicated to self determination; Puerto Ricans joined the movement to free the island from US colonialism; white students formed the Students for a Democratic Society and other groups, while others worked in the southern Civil Rights movements. This was also a time that the New Afrikan Independence Movement reasserted itself, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was formed, as well as a time where there was a distinct rise in the prisoner’s rights movement. It was time when television news had graphic pictures of State Troopers, Police, the FBI, and the National Guard killing our peers. It was a time when I saw on the evening news the bullet holes fired by police into Panther Fred Hampton’s sleeping body, a time when young people protesting the Viet Nam War died on the Jackson and Kent State campuses killed by the National Guard, a time when civil rights workers were killed with impunity, and a time when we felt as if there was no opportunity to stop mourning because each day another activist was dead. These killings and other acts of oppression led to underground formations such as the Black Liberation Army and the Weathermen Underground.

The government, in response to this massive outcry against social inequities and for national liberation, utilized an FBI Counter Intelligence Program called COINTELPRO, which had as its objective the crippling of the Black Panther Party and other radical forces. Over the years that this directive was carried out, many of those young people who weren’t murdered were put in prisons across the country. Some, now in their 60’s and 70’s are still there. Those directives are still being carried out, only now we have an entire office of Homeland Security monitoring what it calls “radical prisoners”.

While the US denied that there were people being held for political reasons, there was no way at the time, to work with prisoners without hearing repeatedly of the existence of such people, including individuals who clearly fit the United Nations definition of political prisoners and prisoners of war – and the particular treatment they endured once in prison. As early as 1978, Andrew Young , who was US Ambassador to the United Nations, was quoted in newspaper interviews as saying that “there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of people I would describe as political prisoners” in US prisons.

Across the nation, we saw an enhanced use of sensory deprivation/isolation units for such people, and it was this growing “special treatment” which we began monitoring. At the time, Ralph Arons, a former warden at Marion, was quoted at a congressional hearing as saying, “The purpose of the Marion Control Unit is to control revolutionary attitudes in the prison system and in society at large”.

For those of us who have been in the struggle for decades, the deliberate use of long term sensory deprivation is haunting. People that we’ve known, worked with and loved have been, and some still are, being held in this manner. Some of those are people in the audience today. The names – Ojore Lutalo; Sundiata Acoli, who the Management Control Unit in NJ was built for in 1975; Assata Shakur, who was held for over five years in isolation. Marshall Eddie Conway, Albert Nuh Washington, who died in prison; Geronimo Pratt; Dhoruba Bin Wahad, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Mumia Abu Jamal; Leonard Peltier, David Gilbert, Marilyn Buck, Sekou Odinga, Ray Luc Levasseur, Kazi Toure, Masai Ehehosi; Leonard Peltier, Oscar Lopez Rivera, Alejandrina Torres, Dylcia Pagan, Bashir Hameed, Standing Deer and Sekou Odinga, Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin; Richard Williams, Tom Manning, Merle and the rest of the Africas, Africa, Susan Rosenberg, Laura Whitehorn, Linda Evans, Marilyn Buck, Sylvia Baraldini, Mutulu Shakur, Imam Jamil Al-Amin - these names and dozens of others – haunt the spaces of every control unit, SHU, DDU, ad seq unit and special housing unit in the country. No matter what name they are given, their purpose is the same as it is in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo – the breaking of minds. For every name I’ve read, there are a thousand more.

For people of my generation, this work is done with a compelling and lifetime passion and an understanding that the work is not risk free. We’ve made a promise to those dead and alive to abolish these torture chambers. People throughout the world are beginning to understand what the prisoners have been saying to us for decades about the oppressive tactics of the US government. The department of corrections is more than a set of institutions, it is a state of mind. It is that state of mind which has expanded the use of isolation, the use of devices of torture and the Counter Intelligence Program, as part of Homeland Security, against activists, both inside and outside the walls. Ojore Lutalo, the man who first contacted us in 1986, was released from the control unit via litigation in 2002 after 16 years in isolation. In 2004, he let us know that he had been placed back into the Management Control unit with no charges pending or any explanation. When I called the Department of Corrections, it took many conversations before I was bluntly told that this was upon the order of Homeland Security, that he is one of a number of prisoners across the country who they have targeted in this way.

The latest progression of control units are called “security threat group management units”. This is particularly egregious because it is the government which gets to define what a “security threat group” is. According to a national survey done by the Department of Justice in 1997, the Departments of Corrections of Minnesota and Oregon named all Asians as gangs, which Minnesota further compounds by adding all Native Americans. The State of NJ DOC lists the Black Cat Collective as a gang. The Black Cat Collective is my free foster son along with two friends who put on Afro-Centric cultural programs in libraries. Because my own background stems from the Civil Rights Era, I am very mindful of who is considered a “security threat” to this country and how they are treated.

Prison gang policies occur within the context of larger society and the wider criminal justice system, and the growth of security threat group management units are part of the larger policy agenda regarding US prisons. One of the standards that the federal government sets in order for states to receive prison construction subsidies is to mandate the building of supermax prisons or security threat group management units.

One of the things that makes this such an exciting time to re-new our efforts through Stopmax, is that we now have the growing understanding of the validity United Nations international law. The Convention Against Torture, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, The UN Convention on Political and Civil Rights and other international and regional treaties help give us a new set of legal, educational and organizing tools for social change.

Our work this weekend is very rooted in struggle against the system and political oppression. It is deeply touching to me to have representatives of so many long time political formations present. Those of us in AFSC rooted in these issues, continue to hear from prisoner activists, the mentally ill, people charged with being gang members and thousands of others – all being housed in extended isolation where devices of torture are used with impunity. After each Homeland Security Code change, Prison Watch is flooded with calls from people reporting loved ones with Islamic names being placed in solitary without charges.

Our work this weekend is a time when the building of new relationships and the broadening of our base can truly create social change. I think we all need to be mindful of the deep sense of grief that many of us feel as it impacts on our work and interactions. There may be groups here who need to work through differences with one another. There may be groups here who can form working alliances no matter what those differences are. Our priority has to be to work cooperatively to shut down these torture chambers.

I want to honor our foremothers and forefathers in this movement for abolition of prisons, isolation and torture with a poem of Assata Shakur’s called “No One Can Stop the Rain”, which reminds us that no one can stop a righteous movement. We, all of us, are a powerful community of resistance, and this is a dream come true for me.

Watch, the grass is growing.
Watch, but don’t make it obvious.
Let your eyes roam casually, but watch!
In any prison yard, you can see it, growing.
In the cracks, in the crevices, between the steel and the concrete,
Out of the dead gray dust,
The bravest blades of grass shoot up, bold and full of life.
Watch, the grass is growing.
It is growing through the cracks.
The guards say grass is against the Law.
Grass is contraband in prison.
The guards say that the grass is insolent.
It is uppity grass, radical grass, militant grass, terrorist grass,
They call it weeds.
Nasty weeds, nigga weeds, dirty, spic, savage indian, wetback, pinko,
Commie weeds – subversive!
And so the guards try to wipe out the grass.
They yank it from its roots.
They poison it with drugs.
They maul it.
They rake it.
Blades of grass has been found hanging in cells, covered with
Bruises, “Apparent suicides”.
The guards say that the “GRASS is UNAUTHORIZED”.
“”DO NOT LET THE GRASS GROW:”
You can spy on the grass. You can lock up the grass.
You can mow it down, temporarily.
But you will never keep it from growing.
Watch, the grass is beautiful.
The guards try to mow it down, but it keeps on growing.
The grass grows into a poem.
The grass grows into a song.
The grass paints itself across the canvas of life.
And the picture is clear and the lyrics are true,
And the haunting voices sing so sweet and strong
That the people hear the grass from far away.
And the people start to dance, and the people start to sing, and the song is freedom.

Watch the grass is growing.

Thank you.

The Indiana courts have set a new date for a trial before a jury on the sole issue of Zolo’s sentence, which could be the death penalty, on October 20, 2008.

Since 1981, for more than 25 years, he has been imprisoned by the state of Indiana. He is recognized by the Jericho Movement and others as a political prisoner. Zolo did not receive a fair trial and has always maintained his total innocence of any involvement in the crime for which he is imprisoned.

Zolo is a prolific writer and an accomplished artist whose work has been exhibited in many places around the country. His writing and his art reflect who he is: A man who lives his political convictions. At the time of his arrest for the shooting death of a policeman, Zolo was a well known activist in his hometown of Gary, Indiana. He was an ex-con who had grown up in extreme poverty, but he was also the valedictorian of his CETA federal job training class and had received a scholarship to Purdue University just prior to his arrest.  He was involved in the campaign to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday and had designed a button used by campaigners in Gary. He also declared himself a conscious citizen of the Republic of New Afrika and was involved in the struggle for self-determination of African people in America.

Since his arrest Zolo has fought the charges against him from his prison cell, often on death row.  His tireless efforts have exposed the unfair and racist way his case has been handled by the authorities.  He has defended his own rights and the rights of other prisoners, winning the respect of fellow prisoners and jailers alike.  His victories, overturning his death sentence twice, have set precedents cited by other prisoners.

As Indiana Circuit Court Judge Steve David wrote in a May, 2005 decision: “fundamental principles of fairness, due process, and speedy justice” were violated in Zolo’s case.  Judge David also pointed out that “the State bears most of the responsibility for the delay between the defendant’s 1982 conviction and the currently pending penalty proceeding.” In 1993, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned Zolo’s original death sentence because the prosecution had failed to turned over a gunshot residue test. In 2002, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned Zolo’s second death sentence because “the jury pool selection process was fundamentally flawed,” including the unconstitutional exclusion of Blacks.

Judge Steve David ruled that prosecutors could no longer seek the death penalty because Zolo’s constitutional rights to a speedy trial and due process would be violated.  But prosecutors appealed and two years later, the court ruled that “neither the delay nor any prejudice that Azania may suffer from it violates his constitutional rights. The State may continue to seek the death penalty.” The Court then appointed Marion Superior Court Judge Robert Altice as special judge to preside over Zolo’s new penalty phase, because Judge Steven David was called to active military duty.

Now the Indiana courts have set a new date for a trial before a jury on the sole issue of Zolo’s sentence on October 20, 2008.  The proceeding will probably be in Fort Wayne. However, Zolo and his lawyers, Jesse A. Cook of Terre Haute, Indiana and Michael E. Deutsch of the National Lawyers Guild and the People’s Law Office in Chicago are fighting for a change of venue to Gary, Indiana or Indianapolis, both cities with a more diverse jury pool.  Zolo hopes that progressive activists will again pack the courtroom to show their opposition to the death penalty as they have in the past.

The Indiana courts have also held that Zolo’s new sentencing proceeding will be conducted pursuant to the current  Indiana death penalty statute enacted in 2002, which means that when the trial court judge receives a sentencing recommendation from the jury, the judge is to sentence the defendant “accordingly,” whether the jury recommends the death penalty, or a term of years.

The jury will thus be presented with the stark choice of the death penalty or Zolo’s release within a short time, and the danger is that the jurors will choose the death penalty because they may succumb to media hysteria and believe that a person convicted of killing a police officer is too dangerous to let out of prison.  The Indiana Supreme Court has written that  ”In Azania’s case, the specter of an unconstitutional sentence particularly arises where the jury might consider Azania’s future dangerousness. We held that future dangerousness was not a concern in Azania’s re-sentencing, because the trial judge would have the final say in applying the death penalty and because the jury system requires that we trust juries to follow the law in their deliberations. With the trial judge’s sentencing discretion limited by the 2002 death penalty statute amendment, we emphasize again that a trial judge is not expected, and indeed not permitted, to enter a sentence where the sentence, or the manner of arriving at it, is illegal.”

The stakes are high for this next step in Zolo’s more than a quarter century of fighting for justice, for his freedom and for his very life. Those who oppose the death penalty need to continue to get the word out that Zolo is a wonderful person who contributed much to the lives of others and still has much to contribute, and that the government should not be allowed to put him to death.

What can we do to support Zolo?

Plan to come to court in October 2008, and write to Zolo at:

Zolo Azania #4969, Indiana State Prison, P.O. Box 41, Michigan City, IN 46361

by Safiya Bukhari of the Jericho Movement

Sitting in a cell in the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia under the name of Freddie Hilton is Kamau Sadiki. Kamau is awaiting trial on a 30-year old murder case. A Fulton County Police Officer found shot to death in his car outside a service station. A case that they refused to try 30 years ago because they didn’t believe they could win it. The question is “Why him? Why now?”

Who Is Kamau Sadiki?

Kamau Sadiki is a former member of the Black Panther Party. At the age of 17 he dedicated his life to the service of his people. He worked out of the Jamaica office of the Black Panther Party. Having internalized the 10 Point Program and Platform, the 3 Main Rules of Discipline and 8 Points of Attention, Kamau used his knowledge to guide his organizing efforts within the Black Community.

He worked in the Free Breakfast Program, getting up every morning, going to his designated assignment and cooking and feeding hungry children before they went to school. When the Free Breakfast Program was over for the day, he reported to the office, gathered his papers and received his assignment for the day, and went out into the community to sell his papers. While selling his papers he continued to educate the people, while organizing tenants, welfare mothers, whomever he came in contact. At the end of the day, he reported to the office. He wrote his daily report and attended political education classes.

Kamau Sadiki was one of the thousands of young Black men and women who made up the Black Panther Party. The rank and file members of the Party who were made the Black Panther Party the International political machine it was. While the media followed Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and others the day to day work of the Party was being carried out by these rank and file brothers and sisters, the backbone of the Black Panther Party. They were these nameless and faceless tireless workers who carried out the programs of the Black Panther Party, without whom there would have been no one to do the work of the Free Health Clinics, Free Clothing Drive, Liberation Schools, and Free Breakfast for Children Program. It was to these brothers and sisters that the people in the Black community looked when they needed help and support.

COunterINTELligencePROgram

It was because of this tireless work in the community that J. Edgar Hoover, the then FBI Director, declared the Black Panther Party to be the greatest threat to National Security and sought to destroy it. It was not because we advocated the use of the gun that made the Black Panther Party the threat. It was because of the politics that guided the gun. We had been taught that politics guide the gun, therefore our politics had to be correct and constantly evolving. We had to study and read the newspapers to keep abreast of the constantly changing political situation. But this was not the image that the government wanted to portray of the Black Panther Party. It preferred the image of the ruthless, gangster, racist gun toting thug. Every opportunity that came up to talk, or write about the Black Panther Party was used to portray this image.

When the opportunity didn’t arise on it’s own, they created situations and circumstances to make the claim. An all out propaganda war was waged on the Black Panther Party. Simultaneously a psychological and military campaign was instituted. The governments was of terror against the Black Panther Party saw over 28 young black men and women of the Black Panther Party killed over a period of less than four (4) years, hundreds more in prison or underground, dozens in exile and the Black Panther Party in disarray. Even though the Black Panther Party, as an entity, had been destroyed the government never ceased observing those Panthers who were still alive. Whether or not others believed it, the government took seriously that aspect of the Black Panther Party’s teaching that included the 10-10-10 Program.

If one (1) Panther organized ten (10) people, those ten (10) people organized ten people, and those ten people organized 10 people exponentially we would organize the world for revolution. The only way to stop that was to weed out the Panthers. Not only must the Black Panther Party be destroyed, but all the people who were exposed to the teachings must be weeded out and put on ice or destroyed. During this turbulent time, Kamau had been among the members of the Party who had gone underground. He was subsequently captured and spent five (5) years in prison. While he was on parole he legally changed his name from Fred Hilton to Kamau Sadiki.

The Waters are Muddied!

About eighteen (18) months ago a story appeared in the Daily News in New York about a former Panther being arrested and charged with child sexual abuse. The newspaper identified the former Panther as Freddie Hilton. The first thing that comes into the minds of most people when such an allegation is read in the newspaper is that it must be true. We, in the Black Panther Party, have been taught from day one, the adage, “No investigation, no right to speak”. In a case like this, a political case, it’s extremely important to get to the bottom of such an allegation as quickly as possible. Part of the pattern of COINTELPRO has been to demonize individuals, destroy their credibility, and discredit their character, thereby making them vulnerable to the enemy because their base of support has been eroded.

It appears that the charge was brought against Kamau by the woman he had been living with for a number of years to get him out of the house. Kamau had been, and still is, very sick and suffering from Sarcoidosis, Cirrhosis of the Liver and Hepatitis C. He had been out of work sick for an extended period. Everyone believed he was going to die. However, he didn’t die. He went into remission, got better and returned to work. The problem was his woman friend had moved on with her life and wanted him out of the way. She told the police that he had abused her daughter three (3) years earlier. When that didn’t stand up to scrutiny they were told he had a gun in the house and where it could be found and that he was a former Black Panther etc.

Even though the government did not initiate this arrest, they seized the opportunity, based on today’s climate, to get Kamau off the street. A domestic dispute was handled in an incorrect manner and a man’s reputation and character has been sullied and destroyed. People are more interested in the fact that this allegation was made then they are about the fact that he is going on trial for the murder of a police officer. Says Kamau, “All I have is my name and my honor. They can’t be allowed to take that away from me.” The molestation charge was dropped and Kamau pled guilty to a disorderly conduct charge. While he was serving his sentence the warrant from Georgia was issued.

The damage had already been done. A seed had been planted in the minds of the people. While the story of the charge being made had appeared in the newspaper, there was no story of the disposition of the case. Kamau Sadiki had never, at any time, molested any child.

Why Him? Why Now?

While the people who would normally come to his defense were still reeling from these charges and being told not to make a big deal out of it, the state was using this time to put pressure on Kamau. Knowing that he suffers from Hepatitis C, Cirrhosis of the Liver and Sarcoidosis they told him that unless he helped them capture Assata Shakur that he would ‘die in prison’. They told him that if he worked with them and got Assata to leave Cuba and go to some other country where they could apprehend her that they would not prosecute on the police killing. This seemed to be the right time to play this card. So many different forces were congealing in the world that had changed the mood of the country in favor of mania and fear. The conflict in the Middle East had heightened the stakes with 9/11. The Patriot Act had been passed, giving new meaning to what it meant to be patriotic and making disagreeing with or not going along with the policies of the government unpatriotic.

Police and other uniformed personnel were heroes/heroines and above the law…untouchables. What would not have been able to be prosecuted thirty (30) years ago was now, in this climate, possible. Then too, Kamau has not been in the spotlight in the last 25 years. What people don’t know is he never was. After being released from prison, he went to work. Having two daughters and himself to support, He went to work. He worked for the telephone company in New York for over eighteen years. Both of his daughters finished college and are now married with families of their own. No, Kamau wasn’t out beating the drums, he was being the quiet warrior that he is. He is a Muslim. Another liability in these United States where the term is almost synonymous to terrorist now.

The Lies…The Distortions…The Drawbacks

There are many lies and distortions of the truth that come to play in this case. The most glaring and insidious is that Freddie Hilton had been in hiding under the name Kamau Sadiki and that’s why it has taken so long to find and indict him. A bald face lie. The entire five (5) years Kamau spent in prison he wrote and signed all him mail under the name Kamau Sadiki. All of his mail was censored. When he was released from prison he was on parole and while he was on parole he had his name legally changed to Kamau Sadiki. His parole officer was aware of this. When he went to work, he didn’t obtain a new social security number under Kamau Sadiki, but his name was changed on his old card to Kamau Sadiki. There was never an attempt to hide from anything. How could he? One of his daughters was also the daughter of Assata Shakur and he couldn’t hide from that. He was always under the scrutiny of the federal government, if for this reason alone.

Kamau Sadiki did not ‘come to the attention’ of the police because of the molestation charge, but the charge was a convenient way to arrest him and keep him in jail while they attempt to use him. They knew who he was and where he was all the time. What they didn’t have was a convenient excuse to arrest him that wouldn’t get every one up in arms. Once in jail, they knew they didn’t have a lot of time because the molestation charge would not hold up. So they placed the warrant from Georgia on him to give them additional time to put pressure on him.

New Evidence?! No. No new evidence. The same old story from the 70’s that was supposedly told to them by Sam Cooper. The same old story that was not enough to indict at the time of the death of the police officer in 1972, is now enough to indict in 2002. Thirty years later, they are able to find independent witnesses to corroborate Sam Cooper’s story. It boggles the mind that they have found a way to make memories that usually fade over time, reverse themselves and grow stronger.

The Implications of this Case

We have long held that there is a diabolical scheme going on in the minds of the those who run this government. It is not something that started yesterday or the day before. It is not something that will end tomorrow or the day after. This scheme is to rid the world of those who disagree with the politics of the United States. The Black Panther Party was such an entity and it no longer exists. It was systematically and meticulously destroyed almost thirty (30) years ago. But the effort to destroy the legacy of the Black Panther Party continues. Books are continually written attacking the Party. Daily, articles still appear in newspapers and periodicals redefining the work of the Black Panther Party. Panthers are still in prison and still going to prison from cases dating back to the 60’s and 70’s.

The further we get away from the 60’s and 70’s the more likely that people forget what happened and what we were really about. When issues are taken out of their historical place and placed into another day and time, people tend to get confused. The government banks on that. Historically, it has worked for them. In this new day and time. In the shadow of 9/11, in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the greatest historical figures of the Civil Rights/Black Power era was convicted and sent to prison for life without the possibility of parole. The response of the community was, ‘We told you we were capable of convicting him.’ This gave impetus to the government’s plan to clean up the streets of dissent. In 1967 it was disclosed that one of the goals of COINTELPRO was to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize… no opportunity must be missed to exploit through counterintelligence techniques … for maximum effectiveness … long range goals are being set… prevent [them from] gaining respectability … and a final goal should be to prevent the long range growth of militant black organizations, especially among youth.”

COINTELPRO didn’t go away. It continues today. This case, as well as the case of Mumia Abu Jamal and Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin are prime examples of the existence of COINTELPRO and it’s agenda. We have a tendency to forget and think that things have changed. The enemy doesn’t forget. They maintain files and lists. They maintain think tanks and, when it is convenient and at the proper time they move. The movement’s of the ‘60s, caught them by surprise. They rushed to catch up and won the first skirmish. We still have casualties. While we were busy they were preparing so they wouldn’t be caught off guard again. This round of activity on the part of the state is their efforts to clean up the books. We must not allow them to do this. We must defend Kamau Sadiki. We must push back the state. We must not allow them to use Kamau as a scapegoat… we must Free Kamau Sadiki and all Political Prisoners.

Under the present system most federal prisoners must serve 85% of their sentences before being released. Almost no provisions exist for federal prisoners to earn early release thru good behavior, superior work performance, outstanding achievements and the like. A federal prisoner sentenced to 10 years today must serve 8 1/2 years before being released; one sentenced to 20 years must serve 17 years before release, no if, ands or buts.

Under the old Federal Parole System all first-offenders were eligible for parole after serving 1/3, or 33%, of their sentence. Also, most were actually paroled after completing 1/3 of their sentence and all reached *mandatory release* upon serving 2/3, or 67%, of their sentence. A federal prisoner sentenced to 10 years under the old laws was usually paroled after doing 3 1/3 years and reached mandatory release at 6 2/3 years; one sentenced to 20 years was normally paroled after 6 2/3 years, or mandatorily released after 13 1/3 years.

Now Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) has introduced to the House, HR 3072, a bill To Revive the System of Parole for Federal Prisoners. In order to get this bill passed he needs the support of other congresspersons nationwide.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Write and/or call *your* Congressperson (*contact info provided below) and urge him/her to “co-sponsor HR 3072, a bill *To Revive the System of Parole for Federal Prisoners*,” so that:

1) Your family member, loved one or friend in the federal prison may be released early and reunited with you earlier;

and/or

2) Billions of tax dollars being spent to confine mostly non-violent drug offenders can be saved or diverted to better and proven methods of solving drug abuse and addiction problems;

and/or

3) A safer society can be built by promoting rehabilitation, shorter incarceration times for deserving prisoners, relief of dangerous prison overcrowding, prohibition of another wasteful and futile spree of prison-building and promotion of a better use of public funds to strengthen needed social programs;

and/or

4) Whatever other reasons you feel the old Federal Parole System should be reviewed.

After you write and/or call your Congressperson, get your family members and friends to write/call their Congressperson.

*To get your Congresspersons address(es) and telephone numbers access http://www.visi.com/juan/congress and click on *your* state; it will give you all contact info for your Congressperson. Write your Congressperson at her/his local office. It will reach him/her faster. Letters to his/her Washington D.C. address will be delayed several months while being checked for anthrax.

~~ END ~~

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org

Abdullah, Haki Malik (s/n Michael Green) # C-56123
PO Box 3456, Corcoran, CA 93212

Abu-Jamal, Mumia #AM 8335
SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg, PA 15370
Birthday: April 24, 1954

Acoli, Sundiata #39794-066
FCI Otisville, P.O. Box 1000, Otisville, NY 10963
Birthday: January 14, 1937

Africa, Charles Simms #AM4975
SCI Graterford, Box 244, Graterford PA 19426
Birthday: April 7, 1956

Africa, Delbert Orr #AM4985
SCI Dallas Drawer K, Dallas, PA 18612
Birthday: June 21, 1951

Africa, Edward Goodman #AM4974
301 Morea Road, Frackville, PA 17932
Birthday: October 21, 1949

Africa, Janet Holloway #006308
451 Fullerton Ave, Cambridge Springs, PA 16403-1238
Birthday: April 13, 1951

Africa, Janine Phillips #006309
451 Fullerton Ave, Cambridge Springs, PA 16403-1238
Birthday: April 25, 1956

Africa, Michael Davis #AM4973
SCI Graterford, Box 244, Graterford, PA 19426-0244
Birthday: October 6, 1955

Africa, William Phillips #AM4984
SCI Dallas Drawer K, Dallas, PA 18612
Birthday: January 1, 1956

Africa, Debbie Sims #006307
451 Fullerton Ave, Cambridge Springs, PA 16403-1238
Birthday: August 4, 1956

Al-Amin, Jamil Abdullah # 99974-555
USP Florence ADMAX, P.O. Box 8500, Florence, CO 81226
Birthday: October 4, 1943

Azania, Zolo #4969
Indiana State Prison, P.O. Box 41, Michigan City, IN 46361
Birthday: December 12, 1954

Barnes, Grant #137563
San Carlos Correctional Facility, PO Box 3, Pueblo, CO 81002

Bell, Herman 2318931
San Francisco County Jail, 850 Bryant St., San Francisco CA 94103
Birthday: January 14, 1948

Beltrán Torres, Haydée #88462-024
SCI Tallahassee, 501 Capitol Circle NE, Tallahassee, FL 32031

Block, Nathan #36359-086
FCI Lompoc, 3600 Guard Road, Lompoc, CA 93436

Bomani Sababu, Kojo (Grailing Brown) #39384-066
USP Coleman 1, P.O. Box 1033, Coleman, FL 33521

Boudreaux, Ray 2301300
Out on bail, but can be reached at:
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
P.O. Box 90221, Pasadena, CA 91109, (415) 226-1120

Bowers, Veronza #35316-136
USP Atlanta, P.O. Box 150160, Atlanta, GA 30315
Birthday: February 4

Brown, Richard 2300819
Out on bail, but can be reached at:
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
P.O. Box 90221, Pasadena, CA 91109, (415) 226-1120

Buck, Marilyn #00482-285
Unit B, Camp Parks, 5701 Eighth Street, Dublin, CA 94568
Birthday: December 13

Campa, Rubén #58738-004
(envelope addessed to Rubén Campa,
letter addressed to Fernando Gonzáles)
FCI Terre Haute, P.O. Box 33, Terre Haute, IN 47808
Birthday: August 18, 1963

Conroy, Jacob # 93501-011
FCI Victorville Medium I, P.O. Box 5300, Adelanto, CA 92301

Conway, Marshall Eddie #116469
MD. Correctional Training Center
18800 Roxbury Rd., Hagerstown, MD 21746
Birthday: April 23, 1946

Coronado, Rodney #03895-000
FCI El Reno, P.O. Box 1500, El Reno, OK 73036

Dunne, Bill #10916-086
USP Big Sandy, P.O. Box 2068, Inez, KY 41224
Birthday: August 3

Fitzgerald, Romaine “Chip” #B-27527
Centinela State Prison, FC-2-110, PO Box 921, Imperial, CA 92251
http://www.freechip.org/

Gazzola, Lauren # 93497-011
FCI Danbury, Route #37, Danbury, CT 06811

Gilday, William # W33537
MCI Shirley, PO Box 1218, Shirley, MA 01464-1218

Gilbert, David #83A6158
Clinton Correctional Facility, P.O. Box 2001, Dannemora, NY 12929
Birthday: October 6, 1944

González, René #58738-004
FCI Marianna, P.O. Box 7007, Marianna, FL 32447-7007
Birthday: August 13, 1956

Guerrero, Antonio #58741-004
U.S.P. Florence, P.O. Box 7000, Florence CO 81226
Birthday: October 18, 1958

Hameed, Bashir #82-A-6313
Great Meadow CF, Box 51, Comstock, New York 12821
Birthday: December 1, 1940

Harper, Joshua # 29429-086
FCI Sheridan, P.O. Box 5000, Sheridan, OR 97378

Hatcher, Eddie #0173499
Central Prison, 1300 Western Blvd., Raleigh, NC 27606

Hayes, Robert Seth #74-A-2280
Wende CF, Wende Rd., PO Box 1187, Alden, NY 14004-1187
Birthday: October 15, 1948

Hernández, Alvaro Luna #255735
Hughes Unit, Rt. 2, Box 4400, Gatesville, TX 76597
Birthday: May 12, 1952

Hernández, Gerardo #58739-004
U.S.P. Victorville, P.O. Box 5500, Adelanto, CA 92301
Birthday: July 4, 1965

Hilton, Freddie (Kamau Sadiki) #0001150688
Augusta State Medical Prison, Bldg 13A-2 E7
3001 Gordon Highway, Grovetown, GA 30813

Jones, Henry W. (Hank) 2301301
Out on bail, but can be reached at:
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
P.O. Box 90221, Pasadena, CA 91109, (415) 226-1120

Kambui, Sekou (William Turk) #113058
Box 56, SCC (B1-21), Elmore, AL 36025-0056
Birthday: September 6, 1948

Kjonaas, Kevin # 93502-011
Unit I, FCI Sandstone, P.O. Box 1000, Sandstone, MN 55072

Koti, Mohamman Geuka 80A-0808
354 Hunter Street, Ossining, NY 10562-5442

Laaman, Jaan Karl #W 87237
MCI Cedar Junction, Box 100, South Walpole, MA 02071-0100
Birthday: March 21, 1948

Lake, Richard Mafundi #079972
Donaldson CF, 100 Warrior Lane, Bessemer, AL 35023-7299

Langa, Mondo We (David Rice) #27768,
Nebraska State Penitentiary, P.O. Box 2500, Lincoln, NE 68542
Birthday: May 21, 1947

Latine, Maliki Shakur # 81-A-4469
Great Meadow CF, P.O. Box 51, Comstock, NY 12821

López Rivera, Oscar #87651-024
FCI Terre Haute, P.O. Box 33, Terre Haute, IN 47808
Birthday: January 6, 1943

Luers, Jeffrey (Free) #13797671
CRCI, 9111 NE Sunderland Ave, Portland, OR 97211-1708
Birthday: December 5

Lutalo, Ojore # 59860
PO Box 861, #901548, Trenton NJ 08625
Birthday: August 6

Magee, Ruchell Cinque # A92051
3A2-131 Box 3471, C.S.P. Corcoran, CA 93212

Majid, Abdul (Anthony Laborde) #83-A-0483
Drawer B, Green Haven CF, Stormville, NY 12582-0010
Birthday: June 25, 1949

Manning, Thomas #10373-016
MCFP, Springfield Medical Center,
P.O. Box 4000, Springfield, MO 65801
Birthday: June 28, 1946

McDavid, Eric 16209-097
FCI Victorville Medium II, PO Box 5700, Adelanto, CA 92301

McGowan, Daniel #63794-053
FCI Terre Haute, P.O. Box 33, Terre Haute, IN 47808

Medina, Luís #58734-004
(envelope is addressed to Luis Medina, letter to Ramón Labañino)
USP McCreary, P.O. Box 3000, Pine Knot, KY 42635
Birthday: June 9, 1963

Muntaqim, Jalil (Anthony Bottom) #2311826
San Francisco County Jail, 850 Bryant St., San Francisco CA 94103
Birthday: October 18, 1951

Odinga, Sekou #05228-054
USP Florence ADMAX, P.O. Box 8500, Florence, CO 81226
Birthday: June 17, 1944

Olson, Sara #W94197
506-10-04 Low, CCWF, P.O. Box 1508, Chowchilla, CA 93610-1508
Birthday: January 16, 1947

O’Neal, Richard 2300818
Out on bail, but can be reached at:
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
P.O. Box 90221, Pasadena, CA 91109, (415) 226-1120

Paul, Jonathan #07167-085
FCI Phoenix, 37910 N 45th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85086

Peltier, Leonard #89637-132
USP Lewisburg, P.O. Box 1000, Lewisburg, PA 17837
Birthday: September 12, 1944

Pinell, Hugo “Dahariki” # A88401
SHU D3-221, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95531-7500
Birthday: March 10, 1945

Poindexter, Ed # 27767
Nebraska State Penitentiary, P.O. Box 2500, Lincoln, NE 68542
Birthday: November 1, 1944

Rodríguez, Luis V. # C33000
Mule Creek State Prison, P.O. Box 409000, Ione, CA 95640

Shabazz Bey, Hanif (Beaumont Gereau) #295933
Keen Mountain CC, P.O. Box 860, Oakwood, VA 24631
Birthday: August 16, 1950

Shakur, Mutulu #83205-012
USP Florence ADMAX, PO Box 8500, Florence, CO 81226
Birthday: August 8, 1950

Shane Chubbuck, Byron #07909-051
USP Coleman I, P.O. Box 1033, Coleman, FL 33521
Birthday: February 26, 1967

Shoats, Russell Maroon #AF-3855
SCI Greene, 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg, PA 15370
Birthday: August 23, 1943

Stepanian, Andrew # 26399-050
USP Marion, P.O. Box 1000, Marion, IL 62959

Taylor, Harold 2305584
Out on bail, but can be reached at:
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
P.O. Box 90221, Pasadena, CA 91109, (415) 226-1120

Torres, Carlos Alberto #88976-024
FCI Pekin, P.O. Box 5000, Pekin, IL 61555
Birthday: September 19, 1952

Torres, Francisco 2307534
Out on bail, but can be reached at:
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
P.O. Box 90221, Pasadena, CA 91109, (415) 226-1120

Tyler, Gary # 84156
Louisiana State Penitentiary, ASH-4, Angola LA 70712

Wallace, Herman #76759
CCR Lower B Cell #3, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, LA 70712
Birthday: October 13, 1941

Waters, Briana 36432-086,
FDC - Seatac, P.O. Box 13900, Seattle, WA 98198

Watson, Gary #098990
Unit SHU17, Delaware Correctional Center,
1181 Paddock Road, Smyrna, DE 19977

Woodfox, Albert #72148
CCR Upper B Cell #14, Louisiana State Pen, Angola LA 70712
Birthday: February 19, 1947

Zacher, Joyanna #36360-086
FCI Dublin, 5701 8th St, Camp Parks, Unit E, Dublin, CA 94568

Revolutionary Worker, #94, 25 January 1998

On May 2, 1973, state troopers closed in on a carload of Black revolutionaries driving south on the New Jersey turnpike. A shootout erupted along the highway. One of the revolutionaries, Zayd Shakur, was gunned down. A uniformed cop also died. Sundiata Acoli and Assata Shakur were captured, framed and subjected to years of brutality by the state.

Sundiata Acoli has been locked up since that day, in some of the oppressors’ deepest dungeons. He is one of the longest held political prisoners in the U.S. Now over 60, he remains an unbroken revolutionary, deeply committed to the liberation of Black people in the U.S. He describes himself as a fighter for the New Afrikan Independence Movement, saying, “We use the term `New Afrikan,’ instead of Black, to define ourselves as an Afrikan people who have been forcibly transplanted to a new land and formed into a `new Afrikan nation’ in North America.”

From Texas Farm Country to the Liberation Struggle

Sundiata Acoli grew up in the tiny rural town of Vernon, Texas during the ’30s and ’40s. As a child, he worked in the fields. In 1956 he graduated from a Texas college with a degree in mathematics. He became a computer programmer for NASA, in its earliest days in California. He then moved to New York City, where he worked in the computer field for the next 13 years. He was propelled into political activism by the murder of three civil rights workers –Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner–in Mississippi. In the summer of 1964, Sundiata read a newspaper article which suggested that the murder of the three students might frighten off volunteers in the campaign against Jim Crow in Mississippi. Sundiata immediately called up to volunteer, bought himself a plane ticket and left for Mississippi. That fall, he returned to his New York computer job–but his life now belonged to the liberation struggle.

Sundiata writes, “i couldn’t be proud of survival under the system in America, because too many of my brothers and sisters hadn’t survived…i was aware of the subtle pressures working to force upon me the acceptance of white values, to give up more and more of being Black…i loved being Black–the Black mentality, mores, habits and associations. i looked around for an organization that was dedicated to alleviating the suffering of Black people.”

That organization was the Black Panther Party (BPP). Sundiata Acoli joined as soon as the Panthers arrived in New York. Years later in prison, Acoli described what he saw as the many positive contributions of the BPP: advocating and organizing armed self-defense, and linking up the revolutionary nationalist movement with the masses of people in creative ways.

It is important to Sundiata Acoli that women played important roles within the BPP. “This occurred,” Acoli writes, “at a time when most Black Nationalist organizations were demanding that the woman’s role be in the home and/or one step behind the Black man, and at a time when the whole country was going through a great debate on the woman’s liberation.”

Within months of joining the BPP, Acoli and other leading New York Panthers found themselves in jail–facing serious charges in the notorious attempt by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program to frame the New York Panther 21.

Sundiata writes: “In the summer of ‘68, David Brothers established a BPP branch in Brooklyn, New York, and a few months later Lumumba Shakur set up a branch in Harlem, New York. i joined the Har-lem BPP in the fall of ‘68 and served as its Finance Officer until arrested on April 2, 1969 in the Panther 21 Conspiracy case which was the opening shot in the government’s nationwide attack on the BPP. Moving westward, Police Departments in each city made military raids on BPP offices or homes in Philadelphia, Chicago, Newark, Omaha, Denver, New Haven, San Diego, Los Angeles, and other cities, murdering some Panthers and arresting others.” (From Acoli’s “A Brief History of the Black Panther Party–Its Place in the Black Liberation Movement”)

Sundiata writes: “On April 2, 1969, i was arrested to stand trial in the Panther 21 case. Twenty-one of us were accused of conspiring to carry out a ridiculous plot to blow up a number of New York department stores and the New York Botanical Gardens. Although the legal process took two years and the trial lasted eight months–the longest criminal prosecution in New York history–the jurors took only 56 min-utes to acquit all the defendants of every charge. Police agents appearing at the Panther 21 trial had also attended some group political education classes held at my apartment. Although an ad hoc organization of my fellow workers named `Computer People for Peace’ had raised and posted bail for me during the Panther 21 trial, and although several other defendants had been released on bail, the judge refused to let me out on bail. i had to do the entire two years on trial in jail until released on acquittal. i endured 2 years of political internment.”

After the Panther 21 were released, the FBI and police’s murderous harassment and disruption contin-ued: “Most of us returned to the community and to the BPP but by then COINTELPRO had taken its toll. The BPP was rife with dissension, both internal and external. The internal strife, division, intrigue, and paranoia had become so ingrained that eventually most members drifted or were driven, away. Some continued the struggle on other fronts and some basically cooled out altogether.”

Sundiata associated himself with those, like Assata Shakur, who believed that organizing small, armed, underground “strike teams” was the best way to continue resistance. They formed the clandestine or-ganization known as the Black Liberation Army (BLA).

On May 2, 1973, Sundiata, Assata Shakur, and Zayd Malik Shakur were ambushed by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike. Zayd died. Sundiata escaped and police only captured him after a massive two-day manhunt. Sundiata writes: “When i was arrested, police immediately cut my pants off me so that i only wore shorts. Whooping and hollering, a gang of New Jersey state troopers dragged me through the woods, through water puddles, and hit me over the head with the barrel of their shot gun. They only cooled out somewhat when they noticed that all the commotion had caused a crowd to gather at the edge of the road, observing their actions.”

Sundiata was denied medical care, newspapers and kept in isolation from everyone but his lawyer. Bright lights were kept turned on in his cell 24 hours per day; his food was restricted. State troopers pa-raded in front of his cell–harassing and threatening him.

Sundiata’s trial was a farce wrapped in manufactured hysteria. At the end, the judge stated that Sundiata was an avowed revolutionary and sentenced him to life in prison–and then to 30 more years to be served consecutively. No credible evidence ever linked Sundiata to the killing of the state trooper.

Behind the Walls

The system has tried to break Sundiata’s spirit and force him to renounce his support for the liberation of the Black people–and, they kept him isolated from the general prison population for long periods of time.

Soon after Sundiata’s arrival in the antiquated Trenton State Prison, the warden there created a new Management Control Unit (MCU) for Sundiata and 50 other “politically oriented” prisoners. His isola-tion cell was smaller than the SPCA’s recommended space for caging a German shepherd. Sundiata de-veloped tuberculosis. After five years, Sundiata was transferred to the federal penitentiary at Marion, a special facility for punishing and isolating political prisoners.

Sundiata and the other prisoners at Marion were locked down for 22-23 hours per day. Sometimes they were shackled spread-eagled on their bunks. Drinking water at Marion came from a federal toxic waste dump. Prisoners developed skin rashes and tumors.

On November 2, 1979, Sundiata’s comrade and co-defendant Assata Shakur was liberated from the Women’s Prison in Clinton, New Jersey by a multinational underground unit. Assata made her way to exile in Cuba.

Sundiata was immediately punished by new restrictions on visits that lasted throughout his eight years at Marion. He writes: “i was permitted visits with immediate family and attorneys only, with no friends or associates allowed. Because of the great distance and costs, these visits were possible only every one to three years. Prison officials constantly berated my children and threatened to cut off their visiting privi-lege for playing (i.e., not sitting still in the visiting booth). They once declared a baby blanket a non-permitted item, and took it out from under my daughter’s infant sister who was sleeping on the floor, causing the child and mother to cry. Only 24 total hours of visiting were permitted each month. Once my mother traveled 2,000 miles to visit me, unaware that i had already used 16 visiting hours that month. Prison officials rudely cut off her visit after only 8 hours, causing my mother to cry. In another instance, legal aide Anne Else traveled 550 miles to visit me. The FBI and Marion staff eavesdropped on our meeting until they were inadvertently discovered in the act by another prisoner, Leonard Peltier.”

After eight years, in large part due to the work of outside supporters in exposing the Marion lockdown, Sundiata was transferred to Leavenworth.

Unrepentent

“All history has shown that this government will bring its police and military powers to bear on any group which truly seeks to free Afrikan people. Any Black `freedom’ organization which ignores self-defense does so at its own peril.”

After serving 21 years in the harshest penitentiaries of the U.S. prison system, Sundiata became eligible for parole. But the vengeance of the authorities continued. They turned down his parole after a 20 min-ute hearing in New Jersey, in 1994. Sundiata was not even permitted to attend but was forced to listen in from Leavenworth via telephone.

Sundiata was an ideal candidate for parole–according to official regulations. He had attended college from prison. He had a profession and outside job offers. As fellow political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has pointed out, if Sundiata Acoli had been a “common criminal”–he would have been free a decade ago.

But Sundiata Acoli remained an unrepentant supporter of the liberation struggle. Not only was he denied parole, but the New Jersey parole board ruled that he would only be able to apply for parole again after another 20 years! The parole board gave blatantly political reasons for this new “20 year hit.” They ar-gued that he had not been punished enough and that he had not been “rehabilitated.” They pointed out that hundreds of letters had demanded his freedom, describing him as a New Afrikan POW who had contributed to the theory and practice of the New Afrikan Independence Movement.

In short, the authorities said that Sundiata would remain in prison because he was still an unbroken revolutionary leader. Last August, Mumia pointed out that in Sundiata’s parole case, the authorities were trying to treat signs of outside support for political prisoners as an argument against release. Mumia wrote: “This is political hogwash, which seeks to deaden popular support for them, and further isolate them from supporters.”

Sundiata was transferred to U.S.P. Allenwood, Pennsylvania–the federal maximum security prison complex for the East Coast. In January 1997, Sundiata’s legal team appealed the outrageous and bla-tantly political denial of parole–and a series of hearings were held last year, in which the government stalled for time.

Now over 60 years old, Sundiata Acoli has dedicated his life to the liberation of Black people. He has spoken out in defense of others, including Chairman Gonzalo, the imprisoned leader of the Communist Party of Peru. Sundiata has also made his experience and conclusions available through a series of writ-ings that analyze the legacy of the Black Panther Party, denounce the criminalization of Black youth, and lay out his support for the New African Independence Movement.

Sundiata Acoli is a living proof of the fact that in the U.S., the biggest criminals run the society, while heroic representatives of the oppressed are persecuted.

“Prisoners everywhere are being harshly repressed. Control units and control complexes abound, mass arrest, mass imprisonment, building more and harsher prisons, the death penalty, more police, more guards, and the `lock ‘em up and throw away the key’ mentality, is the order of the day. Prison guards’ unions have grown as powerful as the policemen’s PBA in bankrolling law-and-order politicians to pass more repressive crime legislation. Nothing is too cruel to be done to prisoners today, particularly since most prisoners are Black, and Brown, or other people of color….

“If Attica represents a high point of the unity and consciousness of the prison struggle movement, then today represents a low point in prison conditions, consciousness, solidarity, and struggle. The real lesson of Attica is that it serves as a beacon to remind us of where we were, and how we got there. Today’s prisons are filled with mostly younger, less politically aware, but rebellious prisoners who were swept up during the Big Lie `War on Drugs,’ actually it was, and is, a War on people of color. We changed the prisons before and we can again, even further this time. To do so it’s necessary to politically educate and activate a whole new generation of prisoners, and community and legal supporters.”

Written in 1990 by the Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign

“His love for Black people is so intense that you can almost touch it and hold it in your hand.”
– Assata Shakur

Sundiata Acoli, the author of several inspiring and informative pamphlets, is one of the longest held political prisoners in the United States. He is an extraordinary human being who, despite almost two decades of brutal and dehumanizing treatment at the hands of the U.S. government, remains firmly committed to the liberation of Black people in the United States. Although Sundiata is special, he is at the same time also representative of the many other Black people the United States has imprisoned for fighting for the liberation of their people. Indeed, Sundiata is one of the many Black political prisoners the U.S. has tried to bury inside its prisons; people who fought and continue to fight to transform this country and who have been made to pay a heavy price.

As the 1990’s open, Sundiata Acoli is actually one of the longest held political prisoners in the world, having spent 18 years in prison. For eight months he endured 24 hours a day in a specially created cell in a New Jersey prison which, according to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is smaller than the space requirements for a German shepherd dog. Sundiata also spent eight years locked down 23 hours a day in the worst prison in the United States, the United States Penitentiary at Marion. In fact, Sundiata, like so many other dissidents in the U.S., has been constantly brutalized in an effort to either destroy him or force him to renounce his politics. The effort the U.S. has expended trying to destroy Sundiata is a testimony to his importance as a leader of the Black Liberation Movement.

In the last few years, we have seen the release of political prisoners in many parts of the world, from Nelson Mandela to Soviet dissidents. Yet here in the United States most people appear to be either unaware or unconcerned with our own Nelson Mandelas. We must change this situation if we ever hope to create a humane society.

The time is long past due to free Sundiata Acoli. But the only way this will happen is if there is enough of an outcry from people like you. We hope that you will commit some time and energy in this direction for two reasons. First, because the injustice of his 18-year imprisonment demands redress. And second, because his release will enable him to even more fully contribute to the struggle for the liberation of Black people.

Historical Background

Sundiata Acoli was born in 1937 in Vernon, Texas, a small town below the Panhandle, where he grew up, went to Booker T. Washington High School, did agricultural work, hunted, fished, played sports, and did all the other things kids do while growing up. Upon graduation he went to Prairie View A & M College at Prairie View, Texas. He graduated in 1956 with a B.S. in Mathematics. After unsuccessfully looking for work in New York City, he took a job as a mathematician/computer programmer for NASA at Edwards Air Force base in California. Three years later Sundiata returned to New York where he worked with computers for the next 13 years.

The 1960s were a time of intense ferment and change, particularly among Black people. The civil rights movement and later the movement for Black liberation and power instilled a sense of new possibilities and transformation, as Black people en masse challenged the power structure.

Sundiata was an integral part of that process. He first became politically active in the summer of 1964, doing voter registration work in Mississippi with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was not a member of SNCC or any other organization. He was simply a computer programmer in New York City who read about the murder of three civil rights workers. The article implied that the murders would deter volunteers from going south to register voters and it listed the Conference of Federated Organizations (COFO) in New York City as the coordinator of the volunteer project. Sundiata called COFO and volunteered. They said yes, if he paid his own fare to Mississippi. Sundiata bought an airline ticket and flew down. In the fall, he returned to his mathematician/computer career but felt that:

I couldn’t be proud of survival under the system in America, because too many of my brothers and sisters hadn’t survived… I was aware of the subtle pressures working to force upon me the acceptance of white values, to give up more and more of being Black… I loved being Black - the Black mentality, mores, habits and associations. I looked around for an organization that was dedicated to alleviating the suffering of Black people.

In 1968, Sundiata joined the Black Panther Party (BPP) chapter in Harlem. The BPP was one of the most important political organizations of the 1960s. It particularly captured the imagination and energy of young Black people and mushroomed into chapters in many cities. The BPP supported community programs such as community control of schools, tenant control of slum housing, free breakfast programs for school children, free health care, day care, and legal clinics, political education classes for the community, and publication of a weekly national newspaper. Perhaps most notably, the BPP also fought against rampant police brutality in the Black community and was committed to armed self-defense.

COunter INTELligence PROgram

The Black Panther Party’s enormous popularity was matched by an enormous hatred of the BPP by the United States government, which launched a major political/military offensive to destroy it as well as other Black organizations. The ultimate goal was to destroy the Black Liberation Movement. To this end, the FBI along with local police departments, unleashed what was later revealed to be the Counter Intelligence Program, otherwise known as COINTELPRO. Panther headquarters around the country were militarily assaulted by local and federal police forces. False rumors and divisions were propagated that caused internal squabbling in the Black movement. COINTELPRO also left scores of Black revolutionaries dead and many others imprisoned. For example, in 1969 alone, 28 Panthers, including Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, were murdered and 749 others were arrested and/or imprisoned.

Sundiata was one of those arrested. As he has written:

On April 2, 1969, i was arrested to stand trial in the Panther 21 case. Twenty-one of us were accused of conspiring to carry out a ridiculous plot to blow up a number of New York department stores and the New York Botanical Gardens. Although the legal process took two years and the trial lasted eight months - the longest criminal prosecution in New York history - the jurors took only 56 minutes to acquit all the defendants of every charge. Police agents appearing at the Panther 21 trial had also attended some group political education classes held at my apartment.Although an adhoc organization of my fellow workers named “Computer People for Peace” had raised and posted bail for me during the Panther 21 trial, and although several other defendants had been released on bail, the judge refused to let me out on bail. i had to do the entire two years on trial in jail until released on acquittal. i endured 2 years of political intemment.

After Sundiata was released, he was constantly followed and harassed by the F.B.I. and local police forces. He finally decided that he could not be effective in the pursuit of Black liberation under these conditions, and so he went underground. On May 2, 1973, Sundiata, Assata Shakur, and Zayd Malik Shakur were ambushed by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike. The incident that ensued resulted in the murder of Zayd as well as the serious wounding of Assata. Trooper Werner Foerster was also killed. Sundiata managed somehow to elude arrest on that day. However, police launched a two-day massive search of the surrounding area: “When i was arrested, police immediately cut my pants off me so that i only wore shorts. Whooping and hollering, a gang of New Jersey state troopers dragged me through the woods, through water puddles, and hit me over the head with the barrel of their shot gun. They only cooled out somewhat when they noticed that all the commotion had caused a crowd to gather at the edge of the road, observing their actions.”

Sundiata was tried in an environment of mass hysteria and convicted, although there was no credible evidence he had killed the trooper or even been involved in the shooting. At sentencing the judge stated that Sundiata was an avowed revolutionary and sentenced him to life and to 30 more years, to be served consecutively!

Incarceration

Since his incarceration, Sundiata has been subjected to all the worst that U.S. prisons have to offer - and that is saying a lot. During his pre-trial detention he was denied all medical care, was kept in isolation the entire time, was permitted no visits from family, friends, or anyone except his attorney; and was not permitted to receive or read any newspapers. A light was kept on in his cell 24 hours per day, he was fed very sparse meals, and state troopers were allowed to come into the jail and threaten him.

After sentencing he was transferred to Trenton State Prison (TSP), New Jersey, which was built before the Civil War in 1835, and had been condemned for years as uninhabitable. Shortly after his arrival the warden visited San Quentin Prison in California to study its maximum security wing called MCU (Management Control Unit) or “O” Wing. He returned to Trenton and copied the exact setup, including the name MCU, and instituted it at Trenton State Prison. Overnight they rounded up 250 prisoners and put them in this instantly erected MCU. Sundiata was the first prisoner they rounded up. Within a month they had released the prisoners back into population except for about 50, including Sundiata. These 50 were accused of being “politically oriented.”

After many stays in the “doghouse,” contracting tuberculosis, and constant battling with prison officials, Sundiata was transferred to the United States Penitentiary at Marion . Marion, considered to be the worst prison in the U.S., has been condemned by Amnesty International for violating the United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Marion is located over a thousand miles from Sundiata’s home, and is supposedly reserved for prisoners who commit violent acts while in prison. (Sundiata had no such charges pending while at Trenton.) Most prisoners at Marion are locked down for 22-23 hours per day, subjected to many degrading practices such as anal finger probes and being shackled spread eagle to their bed blocks. Drinking water at Marion Penitentiary is drawn from a federally-designated emergency toxic waste dump clean-up site, and many prisoners suffer unexplained skin rashes and benign tumors.

At Marion Sundiata was immediately put on controlled visit status (restricted to non contact visits where prisoners spoke over the telephone while sitting in a small booth) as punishment for being the co-defendant of Assata Shakur, who had just escaped (in 1979) from the Clinton, New Jersey Women’s Prison. Sundiata remained on control visit status during his entire eight years at Marion, and was usually the only prisoner classified as such.

Sundiata writes:

i was permitted visits with immediate family and attorneys only with no friends or associates allowed. Because of the great distance and costs, these visits were possible only every one to three years. Prison officials constantly berated my children and threatened to cut off their visiting privilege for playing (i.e., not sitting still in the visiting booths). They once declared a baby blanket a non-permitted item, and took it out from under my daughter’s infant sister who was sleeping on the floor, causing the child and mother to cry. Only 24 total hours of visiting were permitted each month. Once my mother traveled 2000 miles to visit me, unaware that i had already used 16 visiting hours that month. Prison officials rudely cut off her visit after only 8 hours, causing my mother to cry. In another instance, legal aide Anne Else traveled 550 miles to visit me. The FBI and Marion staff eavesdropped on our meeting until they were inadvertently discovered in the act by another prisoner, Leonard Peltier. The FBI then interrupted my visit and called Anne Else to the front office, where they attempted to interrogate, terrorize and intimidate her into not filing a lawsuit against them.In still one more instance of harassment, Scott Anderson, editor of the Milwaukee Courier newspaper, traveled over 500 miles to interview me. He was allowed one hour to conduct a tape-recorded interview over a phone in the visiting booth. At the end of the hour he 2 discovered that Marion officials cut off the sound to the tape recorder’s telephone soon after the interview began. The officials refused to let him redo the interview. At Marion i was also not permitted to telephone my lawyer unless i could prove it was less than five days before he was to appear in court on my behalf, otherwise all communications to my lawyer had to be written.

After eight years, in large part due to demonstrations at Marion and substantial national pressure to end the lockdown, Sundiata was transferred to Leavenworth, where he remains today.

Assata Shakur was one of the key targets of COINTELPRO. She was called the “soul of the Black Liberation Army” by the government. After spending 6 years in prison, Assata Shakur escaped in 1979. In her autobiography, written from her new home in Cuba, Assata describes Sundiata’s character:

There is something about Sundiata that exudes calm. From every part of his being you can sense the presence of revolutionary spirit and fervor. And his love for Black people is so intense that you can almost touch it and hold it in your hand.

Sundiata is a true hero. He has been an unceasing fighter for the liberation of Black people and for this he has been made to spend the last 18 years of his life in prison. And if we do not do something about it, the U.S. government will be only too pleased to watch Sundiata die in his cell. Join us in our campaign to ensure Sundiata’s freedom.