450 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
450 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
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LOVE AND RAGE
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Electronic Edition
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FEBRUARY/MARCH 1993
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Part 3
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MUMIA ABU-JAMAL RESPONDS TO HENTOFF
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The accompanying article by Mumia Abu-Jamal was written for Lies
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of Our Times. We thank them for allowing us to print it before
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they went to print. The following is some background to the events
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preceding the letter. Also check out the next World War 3 for
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further coverage.
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OCTOBER 2, 1992: GOVERNOR ROBERT CASEY OF Pennsylvania attempts to
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give a forum with Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice, entitled Can a
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Liberal Be Pro-Life? Both Casey and Hentoff are males of European
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descent and are vocal anti-choice advocates. Casey is trying to
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execute Mumia Abu-Jamal as well as many other African prisoners on
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death row. The audience was told to submit questions in writing.
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The pre-planned die-in was scrapped after Casey claimed he didn't
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know anything of Abu-Jamal's case. He was then booed off the stage
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and handed thousands of signatures on petitions. [See Love & Rage,
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Vol. 3 No. 7.]
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OCTOBER 20: Nat Hentoff writes a column entitled The Perennial
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Face of Fascism, accusing leftists of being fascists and opposed
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to free speech. Hentoff quotes Abu-Jamal as being surprised,
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displeased, shocked, and saddened" by the selfish mindlessness of
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his anti-free speech supporters.
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NOVEMBER 3: Nat Hentoff again slanders activists in a column Who
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Owns Free Speech? He uses the International Workers of the World
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(IWW) as a model for free speech advocates and insinuates that
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leftists are the antithesis.
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BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
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NO ONE WAS MORE SURPRISED THAN I AT THE eruption of protest at New
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York City's Cooper Union on October 2, 1992, following
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Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey's aborted address on his
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pro-life positions.
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The subsequent editorials denouncing the protesters for their
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affront to the First Amendment have a distinctly hollow sound,
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especially to one who has found the First Amendment, as applied,
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equally hollow; for although it is undoubted that feelings were
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hurt by the protest, none of the people at Cooper Union face death
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for their words or past affiliations perhaps the ultimate affront
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to the First Amendment.
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ABU-JAMAL'S TRIAL
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Prosecutor: Mr. Jamal, let me ask you if you can recall saying
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something sometime ago and perhaps it might ring a bell as to
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whether you are an executioner or endorse such actions.
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Black brothers and sisters and organizations which wouldn't commit
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themselves before are relating to us Black people that they are
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facing we are facing the reality that the Black Panther Party has
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been facing which is --
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Now listen to this quote. You've often been quoted
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as saying this:
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Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
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Do you remember saying that sir?
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Jamal: I remember writing that. That's a quotation from Mao
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Tse-Tung.
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Q: Do you recall making that quote, Mr. Jamal, to Acel Moore [then
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a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer ed]?
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A: I recall quoting Mao Tse-Tung to Acel Moore about 12 to 15
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years ago.
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Q: Do you recall saying All power to the people? Do you recall
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that?
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A: Yes.
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Q: Do you believe that your actions as well as your philosophy are
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consistent with the quote Political power grows out of the barrel
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of a gun ?
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A: I believe that America has proven that quote to be true.
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Q: Do you recall saying that The Panther Party is an
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uncompromising party, it faces reality ?
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A: (nods head affirmatively) Yes.
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[Text taken verbatim from testimony, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
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vs. Abu-Jamal, pp. 21-22.]
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Prosecutor: This is what this is all about, law and order. How do
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we avoid it if we don't like it, we don't just accept it, and we
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don't try to change it from within, we just rebel against it. And
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maybe that was the siege all the way back then with political
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power, power growing out of the barrel of a gun. No matter who
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said it, when you do say it and when you FEEL it, and particularly
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in an area when you're talking about police or cops or shootings
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and so forth, even back then, this is not something that happened
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overnight. [From argument by the prosecutor to the jury in favor
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of the death penalty, verbatim - ibid, p. 68.]
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CASEY SHOUTED DOWN
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It is all very well to opinionate about free speech, but it ain't
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free if it's used to kill you. Seen in this light it can hardly be
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said that the Cooper Union protestors were, as their critics
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contended, fascists they demonstrated for the fullest expression
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of free speech - for the life of one who was, literally, damned
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for words uttered over a decade before.
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It is both curious and revealing that none (not one) of the free speech
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defenders who raged over the desecration of our hallowed First
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Amendment at Cooper Union made a peep of protest when Philadelphia
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police darkly threatened to put supporters to death on an electric sofa for
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daring to exercise their rights of free speech in my defense. Such a threat,
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coming from those who bombed MOVE men, women, and babies, an
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entire neighborhood, into oblivion with impunity on May 13, 1985,
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surely seems a bit closer to the fascistic model than those who spoke out
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at Cooper Union, but, to date, no single newspaper of general circulation
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condemned the chilling death threats as fascistic.
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It is precisely this piecemeal application that allows the
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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to ignore the full dictates of the First
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Amendment when it forbids the freedom of MOVE people who have
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been eligible for parole for years, because they refuse to denounce their
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religion; MOVE people like Carlos Africa and Consuela Africa, who
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could be free *today* -- if they but renounced their religious
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convictions.
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The First Amendment must become more than the shield of the
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powerful and politically entrenched; to use it as the
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editorialists suggest is to denigrate and implicitly devalue the
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speech, the faith, the alleged guarantees of the powerles s and
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politically outcast. It works for all, or for none.
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The dry, formulaic parceling of the First Amendment which makes it
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a cudgel of the strong and a truncheon against the weak; a
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platform for the established and a trapdoor for the poor; loses
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any significance when not read in its wholeness, or applied
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equally.
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I KNOW NOTHING !
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It has been written that I was surprised, displeased, shocked, and
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saddened, which is true but not for the reasons given. Surprised
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at the occurrence of the demonstration. Displeased and shocked at
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the governor's statement that he knew nothing of the case (except
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what he'd read in the papers!) even though an estimated 40,000
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people signed petitions on my behalf and forwarded them to his
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office, at least four congresspersons wrote letters to the
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governor, international and American PEN wrote letters; an
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avalanche of letters from Germany, France, etcand he knew nothing.
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Nothing.
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SPIRITUAL DESCENDANTS OF WHOM?
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Saddened-initially at what was thought to be a lost opportunity,
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but what was clearly no opportunity, for after the governor
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professed ignorance, that he knew nothing of my case, what would a
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bunch of questions have produced? Nothing for he knew nothing. One
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critic, First Amendment maven Nat Hentoff [columnist for the
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Village Voice], likened the anti- death penalty professors to
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fascists, and called them the spiritual descendants of the dreaded
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bookburners of nazi infamy.
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When the liberal press can depict people who are literally
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pro-life as fascists, while people who threaten those people with
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death are lauded as defenders of law, then words have lost their
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meaning, and political relationships or power vs. powerless have
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no relevance.
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Until the baby-burners of Osage, the death-threateners of Philly,
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the state officers who utilize past political persuasions as
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indicators of death sentences are named fascists for their acts,
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then the term should be retired from the arena of rhetoric.
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-30-
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SUPPORT SUNDIATA ACOLI, POLITICAL PRISONER
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LEAVENWORTH, KS -- SUNDIATA Acoli, an ex-Black Panther, is coming
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up for parole in early 1993 after twenty years of imprisonment.
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The parole board plans to keep him locked up for ten more years.
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Acoli was captured with Assata Shakur in 1973 after a shoot-out on
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the New Jersey Turnpike in which their companion and a State
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Trooper were killed. Acoli was tried, convicted, and sentenced to
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life imprisonment at Trenton State Prison. There he was confined
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for five years in a Management Control Unit (MCU) isolation cell.
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While there, he was exposed to tuberculosis. He was then secretly
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transferred to the infamous federal penitentiary at Marion, IL,
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and was confined to an isolation unit for eight years, although he
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had no federal charges or convictions.
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Finally, in 1987, he was transferred to the general population at
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Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, Kan.
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Because of his outstanding record, the New Jersey Department of
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Corrections restored all of the good time he had lost while
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confined in Trenton's MCU. This made him immediately eligible for
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parole. Yet the New Jersey Board (who still has jurisdiction over
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him) plans to hit him with ten more years when he comes up for
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parole.
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For Acoli, already fifty-six years old and infected with
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tuberculosis, ten more years could amount to a death sentence.
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Write the Parole Board today and demand that he be released at his
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parole hearing.
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Send your letters to:
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The New Jersey State Parole Board,
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CN-862 Trenton, NJ 08625,
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tel (609) 292 4257
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Also send a copy of the letter to:
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The Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign
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PO Box 5538,
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Manhattanville Station
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Harlem, NY 10027
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-30-
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KENNY TOLIA FREED
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[Note: This did not run in the Feb/Mar issue due to editorial and
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communication problems. It was scheduled to run on the ABC page.]
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U.S. Political Prisoner Kenny Tolia was freed Dec. 8th '92. He
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had been falsely inprisoned on riot charges stemming from a police
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raid on an anarchist May Day concert in New York City in 1990.
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An international campaign was launched for Kenny which resulted in
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demonstations from Mexico City to Minsk, and petitions from
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Brazil, Scotland, and Poland.
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Kenny thanks the international anarchist community for their
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support - it made his day.
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info. from Bob Mc Glynn / OGB.
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-30-
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Vacaville Prison Protest:
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INTOLERABLE CONDITIONS FOR HIV+ INMATES
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VACAVILLE, CA -- MORE THAN one hundred activists staged a die-in
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at the gates of the California prison hospital for men in
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Vacaville, on December 5, 1992, to protest intolerable conditions
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for prisoners with AIDS and HIV. The World Aids Day protest,
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called by ACT UP - SF, was in support of prisoners' demands for
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improved medical care and an end to discrimination inside the
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prison.
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Since August more than eight prisoners have died under
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questionable circumstances, both in their cells and in the
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hospital, prompting prisoners to begin a medication strike and
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then a hunger strike to protest these deaths at Vacaville.
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The medication strike, which was undertaken by over 150 prisoners,
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is one of the most organized expressions of prisoner protests
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ever. Prisoners, risking their lives, are refusing their
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medications to bring attention to the emergency conditions for
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prisoners with AIDS. Vacaville has been without any HIV-AIDS
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medical staff since March, when three excellent doctors quit
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because the prison interfered with their attempts to treat the
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prisoners.
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-30-
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CAMPAIGN FOR ANARCHIST PRISONERS IN SPAIN
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We have begun a campaign to free two anarchist companeros:Pablo
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Serrano Serrano and Andres Torrijos Artes. They have been
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constantly harassed by the State (Spain). It's not only that their
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sentences - eight and eleven years respectively - exceed those of
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others, (fascist of course), but that they have had to survive
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the aggression they have faced in jail.
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Andres Torrijos Artes, who until now had been kept in the Huesca
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Prison, has been subject to reprisals and transferred to the
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Puerto 1 Prison in Cadiz, supposedly for having organized a
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meeting after a prisoner was beaten by the guards. The true
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motive is his constant denunciations of the Director and
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Administration of the prison. Our companero has been publishing
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them in the local press.
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As soon as he arrived at Puerto, he started to have problems with
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the administration, for instance, they took away his typewriter.
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Pablo Serrano Serrano, who has completed a quarter of his
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sentence, has a long history of activism, marked by successive
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battles and firings ever since his initiation into the world of
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labor.
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He is also known for his work with the Assembly of the Unemployed,
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which carries out more radical actions (such as expropriating food
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from supermarkets and eating in the Corona Hotel and leaving the
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bill for the Minister of the Economy.
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More recently he has moved on to other forms of struggle; accused
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of placing bombs in a pub where Yanquis meet, and of the death of
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an administration advisor.
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Once in jail, Serrano denounced the corruption there, leading to
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the retirement of the director of the Torrero jail. He
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participated in hunger strikes demanding better conditions. He
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was moved to Tenerife, for acting in solidarity with the
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hungerstrikers demanding unification of all political prisoners.
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YOU CAN:
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send telegrams and letters, demanding freedom for Pablo and Anres,
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and an end to the repressive measures against them.
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Sr. Daniel Samperez (dir. of the Terrero Prison in Zaragoza)
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Avenida America, 80 50007 Zaragoza, Espana
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Sr. Ricardo Perez Rabinal (Dir. Puerto 1 in Cadiz) Apdo de
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Correos 555, 11500 Puerto de Santamaria. Cadiz, Espana.
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Organize demonstrations in front of Spanish Consulates around the
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world. To coordinate demos in New York or other US cities,
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contact Love & Rage / Amor & Rabia. In Mexico contact Amor y
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Rabia support groups.
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FOR THE FREEDOM OF OUR COMPANEROS AND THE ABOLITION OF ALL
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PRISONS.
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Received from the C.N.T., Bilbao, Espana via the Anti-Prison
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Collective.
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-30-
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HELP POLITICAL PRISONERS IN NIGERIA
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HUNDREDS OF IMPRISONED workers and students -- four
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are members of the Nigerian anarchist-revolutionary syndicalist
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Awareness League -- are being held under the notorious Security
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Detention of Persons Decree. Two Awareness League coordinators,
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Samuel Mbah and Ifeanyi Chukwu, have been forced to go
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underground.
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Demonstrate the week of February 22 - 26 for their release.
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Peaceful pickets at Nigerian embassies and consulates are being
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called by the US Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) and by Neither
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East Nor West - NYC (who are coordinating the international campaign).
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Petitions are available from WSA, and letters of protest are encouraged.
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Send both to the WSA address below. Please also send in photos and
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accounts of your actions.
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For More Information:
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Workers Solidarity Alliance
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339 Lafayette St, Rm 202
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NY, NY 10012
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tel (212) 979 8353
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The Awareness League desperately needs financial support -
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international Money Orders or UK bank checks:
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Awareness League c/o Samuel Mbah
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PO Box 28,Agbani, Enugu State,Nigeria
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-30-
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POLITICAL PRISONERS: CONTACTS FOR ACTIVISTS
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To learn more about political prisoners, prisoners of war, and
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prisons in North America, write to any or all of the following
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groups:
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Bulldozer
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PO Box 5052 Station A
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Toronto, ONT M5W 1W4 CANADA
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Through The Walls
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472 Albert St
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Kingston, ONT K7L 3W3 CANADA
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Project 1313
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PO Box 1313
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Lawrence, KS 66044
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Anarchist Black Cross
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San Lorenzo PO Box 215
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San Lorenzo, CA 94580
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Prisoner's Legal News
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PO Box 1684
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Lake Worth, FL 33460
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The ANTI-WARior
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48 Shattuck Sq.
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Berkeley, CA 94704
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Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
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PO Box 583
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Lawrence, KS 66044
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Committee to End The Marion Lockdown
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PO Box 578172
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Chicago, IL 60657
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Friends of Liberty
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Box 95686
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Seattle, WA 98145-2686
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Minneapolis ABC
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PO Box 581354
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Mpls. MN 55408-1354
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-30-
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@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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@ _Love & Rage_ is a Revolutionary Anarchist newspaper produced
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@ by the Love and Rage Network. The Love and Rage Network is a
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@ continental network of groups and individuals in Canada, Mexico,
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@ and the United States. Subscriptions to the newspaper cost:
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@ $13 for first class (fast, envelope), $9 third class (slow, no
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@ envelope), $13 international (outside of United States), free for
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@ prisoners, GI's, published bimonthly.
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@ Please write to us at POB 3, NY, NY 10012
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@ email: lnr%nyxfer@igc.apc.org
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@ or: loveandrage@igc.apc.org
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@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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