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Beacon of Victory: Hezbollah’s Operations Room Iissues Statement on Ceasefire

The Hezbollah Operations Room issued on Wednesday a statement which affirmed that, in support of the steadfast Palestinian people as well as their valiant and honorable resistance, and in defense of Lebanon and its resilient people, the Islamic Resistance continues its journey, answering the call of its Secretary-General and supreme martyr, His Eminence Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, may Allah sanctify his soul, and under the banner of his successor, His Eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem, may Allah preserve him.

Over more than 13 months, the resistance has maintained its pledge and fight, achieving victory over the delusional enemy that has failed to break its resolve or will, according to the statement which added that it is the battlefield that has spoken, with steadfast fighters relying on Allah to thwart the enemy’s goals, defeat its army, and pen with their blood epics of resilience and defiance during the battles of Al-Aqsa Flood and The Formidable in Might.

On this momentous occasion, the Resistance announced the following:

Statement No. 4638 Issued by the Islamic Resistance Operations Room

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

{Permission [to fight] has been granted to those who are being fought because they have been wronged, and indeed Allah is capable of granting them victory.}

Allah Almighty is Truthful

In support of our steadfast Palestinian people, in backing their valiant and honorable resistance, and in defense of Lebanon and its resilient people, the Islamic Resistance continues its journey, answering the call of its Secretary-General and supreme martyr, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, may Allah sanctify his soul, and under the banner of his successor, His Eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem, may Allah preserve him. Over more than 13 months, the resistance has maintained its pledge and fight, achieving victory over the delusional enemy that has failed to break its resolve or will. It is the battlefield that has spoken, with steadfast fighters relying on Allah to thwart the enemy’s goals, defeat its army, and pen with their blood epics of resilience and defiance during the battles of Al-Aqsa Flood and The Formidable in Might.

On this momentous occasion, the Resistance announces the following:

– Since the launch of Al-Aqsa Flood operations on October 8, 2023, the Islamic Resistance has conducted more than 4,637 [announced] military operations over 417 days, averaging 11 operations daily.

– Since the start of “Israeli” enemy aggression on Lebanon and the launch of The Formidable in Might operations on September 17, 2024, the resistance has executed 1,666 diverse military operations, averaging 23 operations daily. These targeted “Israeli” army sites, barracks, bases, cities, and settlements, ranging from the Lebanese-Palestinian border to beyond Tel Aviv. The operations also included heroic confrontations against ground incursions into Lebanese territories.

– Within the framework of The Formidable in Might operations, the resistance conducted 105 military operations under the qualitative Khaibar series. These targeted dozens of strategic military and security bases, many for the first time in the enemy’s history, employing qualitative ballistic and qualitative missiles and advanced drones, reaching depths of 150 km into occupied Palestinian territory, beyond Tel Aviv.

– Cumulative losses inflicted on the “Israeli” enemy army since its ground advance into Lebanese territories on October 1, 2024, until the issuance of this statement include:

– Over 130 soldiers and officers were killed, with more than 1,250 wounded.

– Destruction of 59 Merkava tanks, 11 military bulldozers, 2 Hummers, 2 armored vehicles, and 2 personnel carriers.

– Downing of 6 Hermes 450 drones, 2 Hermes 900 drones, and one quadcopter glider.

It should be noted that these figures do not include losses at military bases, sites, settlements, and occupied cities.

The Islamic Resistance Operations Room emphasizes the following:

– During the “Israeli” enemy ground operation into Lebanese territories since October 1, 2024, and due to the steadfastness of our fighters, the invading forces failed to occupy or secure any of the first-tier frontline towns—despite continuous aggression since the start of Al-Aqsa Flood. They also failed to establish a military-security buffer zone as they had hoped and were unable to prevent rocket and drone launches into occupied territory. Even on the last day of aggression, our fighters continued targeting the enemy’s depth from within border towns.

– The second phase of the ground operation was merely a political and media announcement. The enemy failed to advance into second-tier frontline towns, suffering heavy losses in Al-Khiam (which it withdrew from thrice), Ainatha, Tallousa, Bint Jbeil, and Al-Qawzah. The sole attempt to advance into Al-Bayyadah and Shamaa in the western sector turned into a graveyard for the tanks and elite troops of the “Israeli” enemy army, who were forced to retreat under the resistance’s blows.

– The resistance’s defensive strategy is based on area-specific defense. It has prepared over 300 defensive lines south of the Litani River, each fully equipped in terms of manpower, equipment, and readiness. The outcomes in Al-Bayyadah and Al-Khiam stand as clear proof.

– The Islamic Resistance Operations Room reaffirms that its fighters across all military specializations remain fully prepared to confront “Israeli” enemy ambitions and aggression. Their eyes remain fixed on the movements and withdrawals of enemy forces beyond the borders, with their hands ready on the trigger, in defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty and for the honor and dignity of its people.

To Our Honorable People

O most noble, pure, and honorable of people, our dear and steadfast nation, free sons and daughters of our homeland, who, with your legendary resilience and limitless sacrifices, shattered the enemy’s illusions. Victory, by Allah’s grace, has been the ally of the righteous cause you have embraced and carried, returning to your villages and homes with pride and dignity. You roam the world with triumph, bearing the steadfast and elevated banner, rooted in the battlefield and conscience, a banner that will forever resist oppression and aggression.

The Islamic Resistance, which has sacrificed its finest leaders and fighters in the path of Allah, in defense of its land and people, and in support of the oppressed in Palestine, addresses you today, as well as all the free people of the world and the fighters in the fields, with a salute of arms, fight, martyrdom, and victory. It pledges, in the name of its fighters and knights, to honor every drop of pure blood and every sacred soul by continuing the path of resistance with even greater determination. It vows to remain steadfast in standing by the oppressed, the vulnerable, and the fighters in Palestine, with its capital, the Sacred Al-Quds, which will remain a symbol and a path for generations yearning for freedom and liberation.

{And victory is not but from Allah, the Almighty, the Wise.}

Wednesday, November 27, 2024
24 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12774

#alAqsaFlood #ceasefire #hezbollah #lebanon #palestine #resistance #westAsia

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Beacon of Victory: Hezbollah’s Operations Room Iissues Statement on Ceasefire

The Hezbollah Operations Room issued on Wednesday a statement which affirmed that, in support of the steadfast Palestinian people as well as their valiant and honorable resistance, and in defense of Lebanon and its resilient people, the Islamic Resistance continues its journey, answering the call of its Secretary-General and supreme martyr, His Eminence Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, may Allah sanctify his soul, and under the banner of his successor, His Eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem, may Allah preserve him.

Over more than 13 months, the resistance has maintained its pledge and fight, achieving victory over the delusional enemy that has failed to break its resolve or will, according to the statement which added that it is the battlefield that has spoken, with steadfast fighters relying on Allah to thwart the enemy’s goals, defeat its army, and pen with their blood epics of resilience and defiance during the battles of Al-Aqsa Flood and The Formidable in Might.

On this momentous occasion, the Resistance announced the following:

Statement No. 4638 Issued by the Islamic Resistance Operations Room

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

{Permission [to fight] has been granted to those who are being fought because they have been wronged, and indeed Allah is capable of granting them victory.}

Allah Almighty is Truthful

In support of our steadfast Palestinian people, in backing their valiant and honorable resistance, and in defense of Lebanon and its resilient people, the Islamic Resistance continues its journey, answering the call of its Secretary-General and supreme martyr, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, may Allah sanctify his soul, and under the banner of his successor, His Eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem, may Allah preserve him. Over more than 13 months, the resistance has maintained its pledge and fight, achieving victory over the delusional enemy that has failed to break its resolve or will. It is the battlefield that has spoken, with steadfast fighters relying on Allah to thwart the enemy’s goals, defeat its army, and pen with their blood epics of resilience and defiance during the battles of Al-Aqsa Flood and The Formidable in Might.

On this momentous occasion, the Resistance announces the following:

– Since the launch of Al-Aqsa Flood operations on October 8, 2023, the Islamic Resistance has conducted more than 4,637 [announced] military operations over 417 days, averaging 11 operations daily.

– Since the start of “Israeli” enemy aggression on Lebanon and the launch of The Formidable in Might operations on September 17, 2024, the resistance has executed 1,666 diverse military operations, averaging 23 operations daily. These targeted “Israeli” army sites, barracks, bases, cities, and settlements, ranging from the Lebanese-Palestinian border to beyond Tel Aviv. The operations also included heroic confrontations against ground incursions into Lebanese territories.

– Within the framework of The Formidable in Might operations, the resistance conducted 105 military operations under the qualitative Khaibar series. These targeted dozens of strategic military and security bases, many for the first time in the enemy’s history, employing qualitative ballistic and qualitative missiles and advanced drones, reaching depths of 150 km into occupied Palestinian territory, beyond Tel Aviv.

– Cumulative losses inflicted on the “Israeli” enemy army since its ground advance into Lebanese territories on October 1, 2024, until the issuance of this statement include:

– Over 130 soldiers and officers were killed, with more than 1,250 wounded.

– Destruction of 59 Merkava tanks, 11 military bulldozers, 2 Hummers, 2 armored vehicles, and 2 personnel carriers.

– Downing of 6 Hermes 450 drones, 2 Hermes 900 drones, and one quadcopter glider.

It should be noted that these figures do not include losses at military bases, sites, settlements, and occupied cities.

The Islamic Resistance Operations Room emphasizes the following:

– During the “Israeli” enemy ground operation into Lebanese territories since October 1, 2024, and due to the steadfastness of our fighters, the invading forces failed to occupy or secure any of the first-tier frontline towns—despite continuous aggression since the start of Al-Aqsa Flood. They also failed to establish a military-security buffer zone as they had hoped and were unable to prevent rocket and drone launches into occupied territory. Even on the last day of aggression, our fighters continued targeting the enemy’s depth from within border towns.

– The second phase of the ground operation was merely a political and media announcement. The enemy failed to advance into second-tier frontline towns, suffering heavy losses in Al-Khiam (which it withdrew from thrice), Ainatha, Tallousa, Bint Jbeil, and Al-Qawzah. The sole attempt to advance into Al-Bayyadah and Shamaa in the western sector turned into a graveyard for the tanks and elite troops of the “Israeli” enemy army, who were forced to retreat under the resistance’s blows.

– The resistance’s defensive strategy is based on area-specific defense. It has prepared over 300 defensive lines south of the Litani River, each fully equipped in terms of manpower, equipment, and readiness. The outcomes in Al-Bayyadah and Al-Khiam stand as clear proof.

– The Islamic Resistance Operations Room reaffirms that its fighters across all military specializations remain fully prepared to confront “Israeli” enemy ambitions and aggression. Their eyes remain fixed on the movements and withdrawals of enemy forces beyond the borders, with their hands ready on the trigger, in defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty and for the honor and dignity of its people.

To Our Honorable People

O most noble, pure, and honorable of people, our dear and steadfast nation, free sons and daughters of our homeland, who, with your legendary resilience and limitless sacrifices, shattered the enemy’s illusions. Victory, by Allah’s grace, has been the ally of the righteous cause you have embraced and carried, returning to your villages and homes with pride and dignity. You roam the world with triumph, bearing the steadfast and elevated banner, rooted in the battlefield and conscience, a banner that will forever resist oppression and aggression.

The Islamic Resistance, which has sacrificed its finest leaders and fighters in the path of Allah, in defense of its land and people, and in support of the oppressed in Palestine, addresses you today, as well as all the free people of the world and the fighters in the fields, with a salute of arms, fight, martyrdom, and victory. It pledges, in the name of its fighters and knights, to honor every drop of pure blood and every sacred soul by continuing the path of resistance with even greater determination. It vows to remain steadfast in standing by the oppressed, the vulnerable, and the fighters in Palestine, with its capital, the Sacred Al-Quds, which will remain a symbol and a path for generations yearning for freedom and liberation.

{And victory is not but from Allah, the Almighty, the Wise.}

Wednesday, November 27, 2024
24 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12774

#alAqsaFlood #ceasefire #hezbollah #lebanon #palestine #resistance #westAsia

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Resistance Axis Lauds Hezbollah, Lebanon for Victory, Sacrifice

Palestinian Resistance factions and factions from the larger Resistance coalition hailed the steadfastness of both the Lebanese Resistance and the Lebanese people, which led to the cessation of  the Zionist aggression on Lebanon. Below we share their statements:

—

Hamas:
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

On the Ceasefire Agreement Between Lebanon and the Zionist Enemy

We commend the pivotal role played by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon in supporting Gaza and the Palestinian resistance, as well as the immense sacrifices made by Hezbollah and its leadership, foremost among them the martyred Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. We value the steadfastness of the Lebanese people and their ongoing solidarity with the Palestinian people in facing the zionist occupation and its brutal aggression. We ask Allah to safeguard Lebanon and its people from all harm.

The enemy’s acceptance of the agreement with Lebanon without achieving the conditions it had set represents a significant milestone in shattering Netanyahu’s illusions of reshaping the Middle East by force and his delusions of defeating the forces of resistance or disarming them.

We affirm that this agreement would not have been possible without the steadfastness of the resistance and the popular cradle that surrounds it. We are confident in the continued support of the Axis of Resistance for our people and their struggle through all possible means.

As we in Hamas closely follow the developments of this agreement in Lebanon, we express our commitment to cooperating with any efforts to establish a ceasefire in Gaza. We are keen to end the aggression against our people within the framework of the national terms agreed upon, which include a ceasefire, the withdrawal of occupation forces, the return of displaced persons, and the realization of a genuine and comprehensive prisoner exchange deal.

We take pride in and salute the epic steadfastness and resilience of our steadfast people in Gaza, who, for over a year, have been writing with their blood and sacrifices shining pages in the continuous history of our people’s struggle. We stand with them as one body in the trenches of defending our land and confronting the enemy’s schemes, pledging loyalty to them until the aggression ends.

We call on Arab and Islamic nations and the free forces of the world to launch serious and concerted efforts to pressure Washington and the zionist occupation to end its brutal aggression against our Palestinian people and halt the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

We reaffirm that the Palestinian people and their valiant resistance will remain on the covenant, adhering to our national principles and legitimate rights, defending their land and sanctities until the occupation is defeated, removed, and the independent Palestinian state is established with Al-Quds as its capital.

The Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas
Wednesday, 25 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446 AH
Corresponding to November 27, 2024

—

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
—
We salute the steadfastness of the Lebanese people and the heroism of their resistance in defense of Lebanon and in support of Palestine.

The Front extended its greetings to the steadfast people of Lebanon and their brave and courageous resistance, emphasizing the importance of the ceasefire that ended the aggression and crimes of the occupation against the people of Lebanon. It confirmed that the criminal occupation sought to destroy Lebanon and its resistance and to expand its genocide campaign to include the brotherly Lebanese people.

The Front affirmed that the cessation of the aggression against Lebanon came after a long period of steadfastness and tremendous sacrifices made by the people of Lebanon and Hezbollah, who courageously confronted the zionist killing and destruction machine without breaking or raising the white flag.

The Front viewed Hezbollah’s firm stance and its heroism in facing the aggression, as well as its courageous initiative to support our Palestinian people and the brave resistance in Gaza, as proof of the unity of struggle against the zionist enemy. It also highlighted the role of the resistance in defending just causes, with the Palestinian cause at the forefront, despite the wide zionist assault.

The Front praised the ability of the Lebanese resistance to confront the ground invasion and prevent the occupation from making any advances or field gains, inflicting heavy losses on it. It considered that this steadfastness proved to the world that the will of the resistance is stronger than the zionist war machine, and that the Lebanese people, with their resistance and unity, provide an inspiring example in struggle and steadfastness.

The Front stressed that the brotherly Lebanon, its people and resistance, and the brothers in Hezbollah are the best support for the people of Palestine and their resistance, in the past, present, and future. It confirmed that this battle renewed the affirmation of a long history of joint struggle against the zionist enemy, where Palestinian blood mixed with Lebanese blood.

The Front renewed its call for all Arabs to rise to their duties in facing the comprehensive zionist aggression against the Arab peoples, and for the importance of mobilizing the Arab popular stance in defense of the Palestinian people in the face of the genocide war.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Media Bureau
November 27, 2024

—

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
—
We congratulate Lebanon and its resistance on the heroic steadfastness and victory over “israeli” fascism and the failure of its colonialist goals

The Democratic Front issued a statement in which it congratulated the brotherly Lebanon and its heroic resistance for the heroic steadfastness it demonstrated during the past weeks in facing the “israeli” fascism and its military arsenal, foiling its evil objectives, and forcing it to cease fire without achieving any of its alleged goals.

The Front said that the Lebanese people, through their unity with their brave resistance, presented an honorable image confirming their commitment to their national dignity and sovereignty over their land, and their rejection of all forms of political blackmail or external pressure. It also stated that the Lebanese people and their resistance provided another honorable image in supporting and backing our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in facing the barbaric occupation and its colonial projects.

The Front extended its sincere condolences to the families of the martyrs who fell victim to the brutal actions of the “israeli” aggression, which failed in its battle against the resistance, so it resorted to revenge against civilians, in the southern suburbs, the Gaza Strip, the Lebanese capital, and other areas.

It also wished a speedy recovery to the wounded of the aggression, and confirmed its standing, along with our Palestinian people, alongside Lebanon and its resistance, and its firm support for our people, in all possible and available forms.

The Front concluded by reaffirming that history records once again the humiliating withdrawal of the occupying army from southern Lebanon, carrying its dead and wounded, leaving behind its vehicles and tanks that were destroyed by the heroes of the resistance in southern Lebanon, and the stain of shame follows its Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is wanted by international justice for committing a war crime and a criminal against humanity for leading the genocide war against our people.

Military Media
27/11/2024

—

Kataeb Hezbollah in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq:
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
“Fighting has been enjoined upon you while it is hateful to you. But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you do not know.”

The ceasefire between the fronts of the struggle in Lebanon and the zionist entity would not have been possible without the steadfastness of the fighters of Hezbollah and the inability of the zionists to achieve their objectives. The decision was, without doubt, a purely Lebanese one.

The American enemy is a partner of the zionist entity in all its treacherous crimes of murder, destruction, and displacement, and it must pay the price for these crimes sooner or later.

A pause in action by any party within the Axis of Resistance will not weaken the unity of the fields. On the contrary, new parties will join, strengthening the sacred front to confront the enemies of Allah, His Messenger, and the believers.

We reaffirm our firm stance on the Palestinian cause, which remains a core issue for which precious blood is sacrificed, as it has been in Lebanon and throughout the Axis. We, in the Kataeb Hezbollah, will not abandon our people in Gaza, no matter how great sacrifices required. We remain undeterred by the threats, treachery, or criminal methods of the enemy.
“And it is incumbent upon Us to aid the believers.”

The Islamic Resistance
Kataeb Hezbollah

⚫️ Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Ziyad Al-Nakhaleh:
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
“So do not weaken and do not grieve, and you will be superior if you are [true] believers.”

A congratulatory message from the Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Commander Mujahid Ziyad Al-Nakhala, to the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon

To His Eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, may Allah protect him
Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you

From Palestine to Lebanon, from steadfast Gaza with its men and resistance fighters to the fighting Dahiye (southern suburb) and its people, and from the brave fighters and resistance forces of Palestine to the fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon,

Glory be to you as you continue to demonstrate steadfastness and pride, raising the banner of resistance high with dignity and honor despite wounds and the relentless onslaught of enemies, led by America and its allies.

You have fought, endured, and supported your brothers in Palestine, offering precious and pure blood while others could not even provide a sip of water to the thirsty and hungry people of Palestine.

I commend your steadfastness and that of the dear Lebanese people. I celebrate your martyrs who ascended in defense of faith, dignity, and homeland. I also salute your brave and courageous fighters everywhere in Lebanon, especially the fighters on the southern frontlines who remain steadfast in their positions with their hands on the trigger.

By Allah’s will, we will remain united as one front and one resistance until victory, with Allah’s help.

I echo the immortal words of the martyr of the path to Al-Quds, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah: “We do not lose! We either achieve victory or achieve victory.”

Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine,
Ziyad Al-Nakhaleh
Wednesday, 25 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446 AH, 27 November 2024 AD

—

Mujahideen Movement:
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

We commend the steadfastness and sacrifices of the Lebanese people and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, who have supported the Palestinian people and offered great sacrifices and caravans of honorable martyrs amidst significant betrayal and conspiracy. The fighters have endured and delivered painful blows to the usurping entity, which is backed unconditionally by America and the forces of evil in the world.

The immense sacrifices and the noble martyrs offered by the Resistance in Lebanon, led by His Eminence the martyred Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, have strengthened the roots of resistance, deepened its resolve, and affirmed its commitment to continuing on the path of resistance until victory is achieved, Allah willing.

We stress the necessity of mobilizing the entire nation with all its components to stop the genocide being perpetrated by the zionist entity’s government against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The peoples of our nation must break the silence and inaction and play their role in supporting Palestine, the holy sites of the nation, and our people, who stand at the front lines of defending the entire nation.

The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement
Central Media
Wednesday, 25 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446 AH
Corresponding to 27 November 2024 AD

—

Popular Resistance Committees:
—
We commend the significant central jihadi role played by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon in supporting the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and all of Palestine since the beginning of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle.

Hezbollah made great and immense sacrifices that history will record in letters of light. Thousands of martyrs, leaders, and fighters were offered, foremost among them the martyred Secretary-General, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and a large group of pure martyr leaders.

We extend our greetings and pride to the brotherly Lebanese people, appreciating their stance, support, and solidarity with the Palestinian people, in facing the zionist enemy and the genocide war being committed by the zionist entity and its outlawed leaders, along with their supporters from the American administration and the unjust West.

The submission of the zionist enemy and its acceptance of the ceasefire would not have happened had it not been for the steadfastness of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon and Hezbollah, their great sacrifices, and their determination in the face of the savage zionist-American assault, as well as the resistance environment rallying around them.

The steadfastness of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon and its exceptional ability to deliver strong and qualitative strikes against the zionist entity and its criminal leaders, foremost among them the pursuit of the criminal Netanyahu in his home, the bombing of “Tel Aviv”, the “Kriya” base of the zionist Ministry of War, and dozens of military and intelligence bases, shattered Netanyahu’s illusions of changing the Middle East, bending it, and subjugating the resistance forces. It proved that resistance is the only way to break and thwart all the expansionist schemes and conspiracies of the zionist entity.

Popular Resistance Committees in Palestine
Wednesday, November 27, 2024

—

Ansarallah spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam:
—
We salute the great steadfastness of Hezbollah and the dear Lebanese people in the face of the brutal “israeli” aggression. Thanks to this steadfastness and the unity of the people, army, and resistance, Lebanon has been able to achieve a new victory by repelling this aggression and foiling its malicious objectives.

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon has only become more rooted, stronger, and more resilient through its great sacrifices. It has excelled in its jihadi operations, which have escalated both in quantity and quality, forcing the zionist enemy and its American sponsor to move toward a ceasefire agreement that preserves the security, sovereignty, and independence of Lebanon.

We trust in the choices of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon and believe that its wise leadership has managed to regain the initiative in record time, despite the great wounds inflicted on the body of the resistance, especially after the assassination of the high-ranking martyr, the martyr of Islam and Muslims, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, may Allah have mercy on him. The “israeli” enemy would not have been able to yield and accept the ceasefire had it not collided with a solid resistance that did not break in the face of treacherous assassination crimes. This resistance rose with greater ferocity and is capable of waging a long-term war of attrition, something a weak and fragile entity cannot endure. Indeed, in its weakness and fragility, it is weaker than a spider’s web, according to the description of the martyred leader, Sayyed Nasrallah.

The martyrs of Hezbollah are martyrs who ascended on the road to Al-Quds. Hezbollah has performed admirably on this difficult path, and has continued to bear its supporting front for Gaza and Palestine, despite the shameful and disgraceful Arab and Islamic reluctance, except for a few rare instances.

The struggle with the zionist enemy is an inevitable struggle, and wars with it are rounds in a conflict that will inevitably end with its demise, Allah willing.

—

Fatah Al-Intifada:
—
We congratulate the brothers of blood and struggle in Hezbollah and the Lebanese resistance and all the free people of the world on this supportive victory. We confirm that this victory is a victory for the entire Axis of Resistance. This victory is the victory of truth over falsehood. Today, the blood of the martyrs blossoms, headed by the owner of the honest promise, the supporter of the Palestinian people, the martyr leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, a historic victory after the legendary steadfastness of the Islamic resistance and with it all the power of the resistance taught this zionist enemy and its Nazi government a lesson in steadfastness and resistance and broke the nose of this enemy and this defeated army. We confirm that the steadfastness of Gaza and the resistance of Gaza and the popular incubator of the resistance in all parts of Palestine, with the support of all the free people and the Axis of Resistance, will blossom into victory soon, Allah willing.

It is a revolution until victory.
Fatah Al-Intifada Movement – Occupied Palestine.

27-11-2024

—

Palestinian Islamic Jihad:
—
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

We highly value the great heroism, steadfastness and precious sacrifices that our brothers in the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon have offered and are offering in support of our Palestinian people in the face of the war crimes and genocide committed against them by the zionist enemy.

We consider the ceasefire agreement, which the enemy submitted to in the face of the steadfastness and heroism of Hezbollah’s heroes and its incubating environment, an important achievement that breaks the path of arrogance and savagery and the enemy government’s efforts to create a Middle East tailored to its delusions at the expense of the peoples of our nation, our sanctities, and our rights in our homelands.

We emphasize the unity of blood, the strength of will, and the steadfastness of vision that unite the resistance forces in Palestine, Lebanon, and the rest of the forces in the region. We ask Allah Almighty to bestow His vast mercy upon the martyrs of the resistance in all arenas, foremost among them, His Eminence the Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and the brother, the leader and fighter Yahya Sinwar, and to grant the wounded a speedy recovery and for the Lebanese people to enjoy peace.

It is a indeed a jihad…victory or martyrdom

Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
Wednesday 25 Jumada Al-Awwal, 1446 AH
November 27, 2024

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12770

#alAqsaFlood #ansarAllah #axisOfResistance #dflp #hamas #hezbollah #iraq #palestine #pflp #pij #westAsia #westBank #yemen

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Resistance Axis Lauds Hezbollah, Lebanon for Victory, Sacrifice

Palestinian Resistance factions and factions from the larger Resistance coalition hailed the steadfastness of both the Lebanese Resistance and the Lebanese people, which led to the cessation of  the Zionist aggression on Lebanon. Below we share their statements:

—

Hamas:
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

On the Ceasefire Agreement Between Lebanon and the Zionist Enemy

We commend the pivotal role played by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon in supporting Gaza and the Palestinian resistance, as well as the immense sacrifices made by Hezbollah and its leadership, foremost among them the martyred Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. We value the steadfastness of the Lebanese people and their ongoing solidarity with the Palestinian people in facing the zionist occupation and its brutal aggression. We ask Allah to safeguard Lebanon and its people from all harm.

The enemy’s acceptance of the agreement with Lebanon without achieving the conditions it had set represents a significant milestone in shattering Netanyahu’s illusions of reshaping the Middle East by force and his delusions of defeating the forces of resistance or disarming them.

We affirm that this agreement would not have been possible without the steadfastness of the resistance and the popular cradle that surrounds it. We are confident in the continued support of the Axis of Resistance for our people and their struggle through all possible means.

As we in Hamas closely follow the developments of this agreement in Lebanon, we express our commitment to cooperating with any efforts to establish a ceasefire in Gaza. We are keen to end the aggression against our people within the framework of the national terms agreed upon, which include a ceasefire, the withdrawal of occupation forces, the return of displaced persons, and the realization of a genuine and comprehensive prisoner exchange deal.

We take pride in and salute the epic steadfastness and resilience of our steadfast people in Gaza, who, for over a year, have been writing with their blood and sacrifices shining pages in the continuous history of our people’s struggle. We stand with them as one body in the trenches of defending our land and confronting the enemy’s schemes, pledging loyalty to them until the aggression ends.

We call on Arab and Islamic nations and the free forces of the world to launch serious and concerted efforts to pressure Washington and the zionist occupation to end its brutal aggression against our Palestinian people and halt the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

We reaffirm that the Palestinian people and their valiant resistance will remain on the covenant, adhering to our national principles and legitimate rights, defending their land and sanctities until the occupation is defeated, removed, and the independent Palestinian state is established with Al-Quds as its capital.

The Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas
Wednesday, 25 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446 AH
Corresponding to November 27, 2024

—

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
—
We salute the steadfastness of the Lebanese people and the heroism of their resistance in defense of Lebanon and in support of Palestine.

The Front extended its greetings to the steadfast people of Lebanon and their brave and courageous resistance, emphasizing the importance of the ceasefire that ended the aggression and crimes of the occupation against the people of Lebanon. It confirmed that the criminal occupation sought to destroy Lebanon and its resistance and to expand its genocide campaign to include the brotherly Lebanese people.

The Front affirmed that the cessation of the aggression against Lebanon came after a long period of steadfastness and tremendous sacrifices made by the people of Lebanon and Hezbollah, who courageously confronted the zionist killing and destruction machine without breaking or raising the white flag.

The Front viewed Hezbollah’s firm stance and its heroism in facing the aggression, as well as its courageous initiative to support our Palestinian people and the brave resistance in Gaza, as proof of the unity of struggle against the zionist enemy. It also highlighted the role of the resistance in defending just causes, with the Palestinian cause at the forefront, despite the wide zionist assault.

The Front praised the ability of the Lebanese resistance to confront the ground invasion and prevent the occupation from making any advances or field gains, inflicting heavy losses on it. It considered that this steadfastness proved to the world that the will of the resistance is stronger than the zionist war machine, and that the Lebanese people, with their resistance and unity, provide an inspiring example in struggle and steadfastness.

The Front stressed that the brotherly Lebanon, its people and resistance, and the brothers in Hezbollah are the best support for the people of Palestine and their resistance, in the past, present, and future. It confirmed that this battle renewed the affirmation of a long history of joint struggle against the zionist enemy, where Palestinian blood mixed with Lebanese blood.

The Front renewed its call for all Arabs to rise to their duties in facing the comprehensive zionist aggression against the Arab peoples, and for the importance of mobilizing the Arab popular stance in defense of the Palestinian people in the face of the genocide war.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Media Bureau
November 27, 2024

—

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
—
We congratulate Lebanon and its resistance on the heroic steadfastness and victory over “israeli” fascism and the failure of its colonialist goals

The Democratic Front issued a statement in which it congratulated the brotherly Lebanon and its heroic resistance for the heroic steadfastness it demonstrated during the past weeks in facing the “israeli” fascism and its military arsenal, foiling its evil objectives, and forcing it to cease fire without achieving any of its alleged goals.

The Front said that the Lebanese people, through their unity with their brave resistance, presented an honorable image confirming their commitment to their national dignity and sovereignty over their land, and their rejection of all forms of political blackmail or external pressure. It also stated that the Lebanese people and their resistance provided another honorable image in supporting and backing our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in facing the barbaric occupation and its colonial projects.

The Front extended its sincere condolences to the families of the martyrs who fell victim to the brutal actions of the “israeli” aggression, which failed in its battle against the resistance, so it resorted to revenge against civilians, in the southern suburbs, the Gaza Strip, the Lebanese capital, and other areas.

It also wished a speedy recovery to the wounded of the aggression, and confirmed its standing, along with our Palestinian people, alongside Lebanon and its resistance, and its firm support for our people, in all possible and available forms.

The Front concluded by reaffirming that history records once again the humiliating withdrawal of the occupying army from southern Lebanon, carrying its dead and wounded, leaving behind its vehicles and tanks that were destroyed by the heroes of the resistance in southern Lebanon, and the stain of shame follows its Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is wanted by international justice for committing a war crime and a criminal against humanity for leading the genocide war against our people.

Military Media
27/11/2024

—

Kataeb Hezbollah in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq:
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
“Fighting has been enjoined upon you while it is hateful to you. But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you do not know.”

The ceasefire between the fronts of the struggle in Lebanon and the zionist entity would not have been possible without the steadfastness of the fighters of Hezbollah and the inability of the zionists to achieve their objectives. The decision was, without doubt, a purely Lebanese one.

The American enemy is a partner of the zionist entity in all its treacherous crimes of murder, destruction, and displacement, and it must pay the price for these crimes sooner or later.

A pause in action by any party within the Axis of Resistance will not weaken the unity of the fields. On the contrary, new parties will join, strengthening the sacred front to confront the enemies of Allah, His Messenger, and the believers.

We reaffirm our firm stance on the Palestinian cause, which remains a core issue for which precious blood is sacrificed, as it has been in Lebanon and throughout the Axis. We, in the Kataeb Hezbollah, will not abandon our people in Gaza, no matter how great sacrifices required. We remain undeterred by the threats, treachery, or criminal methods of the enemy.
“And it is incumbent upon Us to aid the believers.”

The Islamic Resistance
Kataeb Hezbollah

⚫️ Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Ziyad Al-Nakhaleh:
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
“So do not weaken and do not grieve, and you will be superior if you are [true] believers.”

A congratulatory message from the Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Commander Mujahid Ziyad Al-Nakhala, to the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon

To His Eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, may Allah protect him
Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you

From Palestine to Lebanon, from steadfast Gaza with its men and resistance fighters to the fighting Dahiye (southern suburb) and its people, and from the brave fighters and resistance forces of Palestine to the fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon,

Glory be to you as you continue to demonstrate steadfastness and pride, raising the banner of resistance high with dignity and honor despite wounds and the relentless onslaught of enemies, led by America and its allies.

You have fought, endured, and supported your brothers in Palestine, offering precious and pure blood while others could not even provide a sip of water to the thirsty and hungry people of Palestine.

I commend your steadfastness and that of the dear Lebanese people. I celebrate your martyrs who ascended in defense of faith, dignity, and homeland. I also salute your brave and courageous fighters everywhere in Lebanon, especially the fighters on the southern frontlines who remain steadfast in their positions with their hands on the trigger.

By Allah’s will, we will remain united as one front and one resistance until victory, with Allah’s help.

I echo the immortal words of the martyr of the path to Al-Quds, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah: “We do not lose! We either achieve victory or achieve victory.”

Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine,
Ziyad Al-Nakhaleh
Wednesday, 25 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446 AH, 27 November 2024 AD

—

Mujahideen Movement:
—
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

We commend the steadfastness and sacrifices of the Lebanese people and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, who have supported the Palestinian people and offered great sacrifices and caravans of honorable martyrs amidst significant betrayal and conspiracy. The fighters have endured and delivered painful blows to the usurping entity, which is backed unconditionally by America and the forces of evil in the world.

The immense sacrifices and the noble martyrs offered by the Resistance in Lebanon, led by His Eminence the martyred Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, have strengthened the roots of resistance, deepened its resolve, and affirmed its commitment to continuing on the path of resistance until victory is achieved, Allah willing.

We stress the necessity of mobilizing the entire nation with all its components to stop the genocide being perpetrated by the zionist entity’s government against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The peoples of our nation must break the silence and inaction and play their role in supporting Palestine, the holy sites of the nation, and our people, who stand at the front lines of defending the entire nation.

The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement
Central Media
Wednesday, 25 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446 AH
Corresponding to 27 November 2024 AD

—

Popular Resistance Committees:
—
We commend the significant central jihadi role played by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon in supporting the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and all of Palestine since the beginning of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle.

Hezbollah made great and immense sacrifices that history will record in letters of light. Thousands of martyrs, leaders, and fighters were offered, foremost among them the martyred Secretary-General, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and a large group of pure martyr leaders.

We extend our greetings and pride to the brotherly Lebanese people, appreciating their stance, support, and solidarity with the Palestinian people, in facing the zionist enemy and the genocide war being committed by the zionist entity and its outlawed leaders, along with their supporters from the American administration and the unjust West.

The submission of the zionist enemy and its acceptance of the ceasefire would not have happened had it not been for the steadfastness of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon and Hezbollah, their great sacrifices, and their determination in the face of the savage zionist-American assault, as well as the resistance environment rallying around them.

The steadfastness of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon and its exceptional ability to deliver strong and qualitative strikes against the zionist entity and its criminal leaders, foremost among them the pursuit of the criminal Netanyahu in his home, the bombing of “Tel Aviv”, the “Kriya” base of the zionist Ministry of War, and dozens of military and intelligence bases, shattered Netanyahu’s illusions of changing the Middle East, bending it, and subjugating the resistance forces. It proved that resistance is the only way to break and thwart all the expansionist schemes and conspiracies of the zionist entity.

Popular Resistance Committees in Palestine
Wednesday, November 27, 2024

—

Ansarallah spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam:
—
We salute the great steadfastness of Hezbollah and the dear Lebanese people in the face of the brutal “israeli” aggression. Thanks to this steadfastness and the unity of the people, army, and resistance, Lebanon has been able to achieve a new victory by repelling this aggression and foiling its malicious objectives.

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon has only become more rooted, stronger, and more resilient through its great sacrifices. It has excelled in its jihadi operations, which have escalated both in quantity and quality, forcing the zionist enemy and its American sponsor to move toward a ceasefire agreement that preserves the security, sovereignty, and independence of Lebanon.

We trust in the choices of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon and believe that its wise leadership has managed to regain the initiative in record time, despite the great wounds inflicted on the body of the resistance, especially after the assassination of the high-ranking martyr, the martyr of Islam and Muslims, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, may Allah have mercy on him. The “israeli” enemy would not have been able to yield and accept the ceasefire had it not collided with a solid resistance that did not break in the face of treacherous assassination crimes. This resistance rose with greater ferocity and is capable of waging a long-term war of attrition, something a weak and fragile entity cannot endure. Indeed, in its weakness and fragility, it is weaker than a spider’s web, according to the description of the martyred leader, Sayyed Nasrallah.

The martyrs of Hezbollah are martyrs who ascended on the road to Al-Quds. Hezbollah has performed admirably on this difficult path, and has continued to bear its supporting front for Gaza and Palestine, despite the shameful and disgraceful Arab and Islamic reluctance, except for a few rare instances.

The struggle with the zionist enemy is an inevitable struggle, and wars with it are rounds in a conflict that will inevitably end with its demise, Allah willing.

—

Fatah Al-Intifada:
—
We congratulate the brothers of blood and struggle in Hezbollah and the Lebanese resistance and all the free people of the world on this supportive victory. We confirm that this victory is a victory for the entire Axis of Resistance. This victory is the victory of truth over falsehood. Today, the blood of the martyrs blossoms, headed by the owner of the honest promise, the supporter of the Palestinian people, the martyr leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, a historic victory after the legendary steadfastness of the Islamic resistance and with it all the power of the resistance taught this zionist enemy and its Nazi government a lesson in steadfastness and resistance and broke the nose of this enemy and this defeated army. We confirm that the steadfastness of Gaza and the resistance of Gaza and the popular incubator of the resistance in all parts of Palestine, with the support of all the free people and the Axis of Resistance, will blossom into victory soon, Allah willing.

It is a revolution until victory.
Fatah Al-Intifada Movement – Occupied Palestine.

27-11-2024

—

Palestinian Islamic Jihad:
—
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

We highly value the great heroism, steadfastness and precious sacrifices that our brothers in the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon have offered and are offering in support of our Palestinian people in the face of the war crimes and genocide committed against them by the zionist enemy.

We consider the ceasefire agreement, which the enemy submitted to in the face of the steadfastness and heroism of Hezbollah’s heroes and its incubating environment, an important achievement that breaks the path of arrogance and savagery and the enemy government’s efforts to create a Middle East tailored to its delusions at the expense of the peoples of our nation, our sanctities, and our rights in our homelands.

We emphasize the unity of blood, the strength of will, and the steadfastness of vision that unite the resistance forces in Palestine, Lebanon, and the rest of the forces in the region. We ask Allah Almighty to bestow His vast mercy upon the martyrs of the resistance in all arenas, foremost among them, His Eminence the Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and the brother, the leader and fighter Yahya Sinwar, and to grant the wounded a speedy recovery and for the Lebanese people to enjoy peace.

It is a indeed a jihad…victory or martyrdom

Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
Wednesday 25 Jumada Al-Awwal, 1446 AH
November 27, 2024

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12770

#alAqsaFlood #ansarAllah #axisOfResistance #dflp #hamas #hezbollah #iraq #palestine #pflp #pij #westAsia #westBank #yemen

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Argentina: Judges Order Release of Leonardo Bertulazzi, Former Red Brigades Member

Judges Alejandro Slokar and Ángela Ledesma ordered the release of a former member of the Red Brigades whom the Argentine State recognized as a political refugee 20 years ago and who was imprisoned for more than three months due to an operation by the minister.

The Federal Court of Criminal Cassation dismantled, at least temporarily, a staging by Minister Patricia Bullrich and her chief of staff Carlos Manfroni by which they kept imprisoned for almost three months a former member of the Red Brigades whom the Argentine State recognized as a political refugee 20 years ago. Judges Alejandro Slokar and Ángela Ledesma ordered his release by annulling the resolution of the Federal Court that validated the press operation of the libertarian government, criticizing it because the Italian citizen’s roots in Argentina had not been weighed and his refugee status was still in force.

Leonardo Bertulazzi, 72, was accused of participating in the 1977 kidnapping of businessman Piero Costa, who was released after paying a million-dollar ransom. That same year he was detained until the end of 1979, so he had no connection with the assassination of Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978, as was erroneously reported. He managed to escape from Italy, where he was convicted in absentia, and in July 2003 he was discovered in Buenos Aires. He was detained for eight months but Judge María Servini released him because Argentine law does not provide for extradition in cases of conviction in absentia. In 2004 he was considered a political refugee by the National Commission for Refugees (CONARE). In 2018, the Italian Court of Cassation confirmed the extinction of the sentence by statute of limitations, so he could return to his country without risk of being arrested, but months later the Court of Appeal of Genoa determined that the statute of limitations had not occurred because his detention in Argentina had restarted the counting of the term from zero. None of this affected his freedom in Argentina, not only because of the recognition as a refugee but also because of the rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice against the extradition of people convicted in absentia.

His situation changed abruptly on August 29, two days after Vice President Victoria Villarruel promised to reopen the trials of former Montoneros militants. That Thursday, CONARE – in which the government of Javier Milei, in use of the powers delegated by the Bases Law, included by decree a member of the Ministry of Security and eliminated the position corresponding to INADI – declared the cessation of Bertulazzi’s refugee status and, in record time, his arrest was ordered, which Bullrich publicized on anti-social networks: “We arrested a terrorist former Red Brigades of Italy,” she headlined. She accused him of having “been part of the gang that kidnapped and murdered former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro,” which took place while Bertulazzi was in prison, and fantasized that “we caught him” (sic) thanks to “deep intelligence work by the Ministry of Security, the DNIC (read National Directorate of Criminal Intelligence), the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior.” The dangerous terrorist was in the house where he has lived for twenty years.

Chamber 2 of the Federal Court confirmed the rejection of his release on September 12, a resolution on which Cassation has now ruled. With the votes of Slokar and Ledesma, and the dissent of Guillermo Yacobucci, it allowed the appeal filed by the official defense, regarding the freedom of the refugee. Slokar, who led the agreement, argued that the Federal Court’s decision had not evaluated the applicant’s personal circumstances, which would be conducive to granting freedom. He recalled that on October 7, 2004 “he was recognized as a refugee by the Executive Branch” and highlighted the existence of the defendant’s roots in our country, based on the fact that “he has lived with his wife for twenty years in the same home, of which – by the way – he is the owner.”

In his opinion, referring to the suspensive effect of the administrative and judicial appeals against the resolution of August 29 – which had his status as a political refugee terminated – he highlighted the appellant’s allegations: “since we are within the period of 180 days prior to its filing […] until it is complied with, the guarantee of non-refoulement must be respected while the cessation is not final,” according to the General Law on Refugee Recognition and Protection, number 26,165. Slokar and Ledesma decided to admit the appeal filed by the official defense and order the court to issue a new resolution, in accordance with the established criteria.

Source: Página 12

(Resumen Latinoamericano)

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12768

#argentina #PoliticalPrisoners #redBrigades #southAmerica

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Argentina: Judges Order Release of Leonardo Bertulazzi, Former Red Brigades Member

Judges Alejandro Slokar and Ángela Ledesma ordered the release of a former member of the Red Brigades whom the Argentine State recognized as a political refugee 20 years ago and who was imprisoned for more than three months due to an operation by the minister.

The Federal Court of Criminal Cassation dismantled, at least temporarily, a staging by Minister Patricia Bullrich and her chief of staff Carlos Manfroni by which they kept imprisoned for almost three months a former member of the Red Brigades whom the Argentine State recognized as a political refugee 20 years ago. Judges Alejandro Slokar and Ángela Ledesma ordered his release by annulling the resolution of the Federal Court that validated the press operation of the libertarian government, criticizing it because the Italian citizen’s roots in Argentina had not been weighed and his refugee status was still in force.

Leonardo Bertulazzi, 72, was accused of participating in the 1977 kidnapping of businessman Piero Costa, who was released after paying a million-dollar ransom. That same year he was detained until the end of 1979, so he had no connection with the assassination of Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978, as was erroneously reported. He managed to escape from Italy, where he was convicted in absentia, and in July 2003 he was discovered in Buenos Aires. He was detained for eight months but Judge María Servini released him because Argentine law does not provide for extradition in cases of conviction in absentia. In 2004 he was considered a political refugee by the National Commission for Refugees (CONARE). In 2018, the Italian Court of Cassation confirmed the extinction of the sentence by statute of limitations, so he could return to his country without risk of being arrested, but months later the Court of Appeal of Genoa determined that the statute of limitations had not occurred because his detention in Argentina had restarted the counting of the term from zero. None of this affected his freedom in Argentina, not only because of the recognition as a refugee but also because of the rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice against the extradition of people convicted in absentia.

His situation changed abruptly on August 29, two days after Vice President Victoria Villarruel promised to reopen the trials of former Montoneros militants. That Thursday, CONARE – in which the government of Javier Milei, in use of the powers delegated by the Bases Law, included by decree a member of the Ministry of Security and eliminated the position corresponding to INADI – declared the cessation of Bertulazzi’s refugee status and, in record time, his arrest was ordered, which Bullrich publicized on anti-social networks: “We arrested a terrorist former Red Brigades of Italy,” she headlined. She accused him of having “been part of the gang that kidnapped and murdered former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro,” which took place while Bertulazzi was in prison, and fantasized that “we caught him” (sic) thanks to “deep intelligence work by the Ministry of Security, the DNIC (read National Directorate of Criminal Intelligence), the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior.” The dangerous terrorist was in the house where he has lived for twenty years.

Chamber 2 of the Federal Court confirmed the rejection of his release on September 12, a resolution on which Cassation has now ruled. With the votes of Slokar and Ledesma, and the dissent of Guillermo Yacobucci, it allowed the appeal filed by the official defense, regarding the freedom of the refugee. Slokar, who led the agreement, argued that the Federal Court’s decision had not evaluated the applicant’s personal circumstances, which would be conducive to granting freedom. He recalled that on October 7, 2004 “he was recognized as a refugee by the Executive Branch” and highlighted the existence of the defendant’s roots in our country, based on the fact that “he has lived with his wife for twenty years in the same home, of which – by the way – he is the owner.”

In his opinion, referring to the suspensive effect of the administrative and judicial appeals against the resolution of August 29 – which had his status as a political refugee terminated – he highlighted the appellant’s allegations: “since we are within the period of 180 days prior to its filing […] until it is complied with, the guarantee of non-refoulement must be respected while the cessation is not final,” according to the General Law on Refugee Recognition and Protection, number 26,165. Slokar and Ledesma decided to admit the appeal filed by the official defense and order the court to issue a new resolution, in accordance with the established criteria.

Source: Página 12

(Resumen Latinoamericano)

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12768

#argentina #PoliticalPrisoners #redBrigades #southAmerica

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Burning Barricades After Police Murder in Milan, Italy

Everyone hates the police

On Sunday night [November 24, in Milan] Ramy Elgaml died after falling from the scooter on which he was traveling with a friend chased by the carabinieri for several kilometers.
Ramy was a 19-year-old boy who lived in Corvetto.
Since his death became known, numerous boys and girls, his friends, have found themselves in the street at the crash site, next to his family.
Soon the pain of his death turned into anger and thirst for the truth about what happened.
On the night between Sunday and Monday there were moments of clash with the police in the streets of the popular neighborhood where he lived where someone had started to set fire to bins and waste.
Even on Monday evening, for a few hours, normality stopped and in its place appeared burning barricades and groups of people clashed with the police, who responded by throwing numerous tear gas canisters in an attempt to disperse the people who instead did not allow themselves to be intimidated.
Ramy’s death is probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. Those who come from working-class neighborhoods have to deal with the police every day, for one reason or another. They know the arrogance and violence of the cops and know well what a police stop means.

And that’s how the anger increases.

At the end of Monday evening a 21-year-old boy was arrested and taken to San Vittore while in Corvetto the anger and melted plastic of the bins on the asphalt remain.
Ramy will live in the hearts of his family and friends, in the rage that will set the streets ablaze.
Cops out of the neighborhoods.
Freedom for everyone.

[Taken from the Galipettes Milano facebook page and republished in https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2024/11/26/tout-le-monde-deteste-la-police/]

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12765

#antiPolice #barricades #europe #italy #milan #policeViolence

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Burning Barricades After Police Murder in Milan, Italy

Everyone hates the police

On Sunday night [November 24, in Milan] Ramy Elgaml died after falling from the scooter on which he was traveling with a friend chased by the carabinieri for several kilometers.
Ramy was a 19-year-old boy who lived in Corvetto.
Since his death became known, numerous boys and girls, his friends, have found themselves in the street at the crash site, next to his family.
Soon the pain of his death turned into anger and thirst for the truth about what happened.
On the night between Sunday and Monday there were moments of clash with the police in the streets of the popular neighborhood where he lived where someone had started to set fire to bins and waste.
Even on Monday evening, for a few hours, normality stopped and in its place appeared burning barricades and groups of people clashed with the police, who responded by throwing numerous tear gas canisters in an attempt to disperse the people who instead did not allow themselves to be intimidated.
Ramy’s death is probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. Those who come from working-class neighborhoods have to deal with the police every day, for one reason or another. They know the arrogance and violence of the cops and know well what a police stop means.

And that’s how the anger increases.

At the end of Monday evening a 21-year-old boy was arrested and taken to San Vittore while in Corvetto the anger and melted plastic of the bins on the asphalt remain.
Ramy will live in the hearts of his family and friends, in the rage that will set the streets ablaze.
Cops out of the neighborhoods.
Freedom for everyone.

[Taken from the Galipettes Milano facebook page and republished in https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2024/11/26/tout-le-monde-deteste-la-police/]

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12765

#antiPolice #barricades #europe #italy #milan #policeViolence

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Political Prisoner Xinachtli’s 2024 “Thanksgiving” Statement

For those who do not know, Xinachtli (s/n: Alvaro Hernandez) may currently hold the record for being the Native American political prisoner in solitary confinement for the longest–over 22 years.

To all people enduring colonization and to the anarchists,

The campaign to free Texas Native American political prisoner Xinachtli is unusually busy with good progress this November, which is likely why Xinachtli has been unable to comment on the occasion as many radical Natives do.[*] Coming across some revolutionary Native American peers’ social media, I thought this “statement” in a similar vein would be appropriate.

If you’re looking for something pro-Indigenous to do on “Thanksgiving”, consider donating to Indigenous organizations in your locality and, or to the Xinachtli campaign, bearing in mind the following scattered points:

The Xinachtli campaign is a great place to donate to in order to support Indigenous prisoner organizing and Indigenous jailhouse lawyering. Xinachtli is a jailhouse lawyer and helps so many Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoners for free. Anything donated to Xinachtli’s campaign directly and indirectly supports one or more types of Indigenous betterment and survival.

Beware of non-Indigenous people who pose as Indigenous people in even “well regarded” organizations.

Understand that some Native Americans and Native American groups are severely colonized and collude in many ways with the occupations we Native folks are enduring. These are difficult matters to understand and navigate and often non-Indigenous people cannot get involved in them. But the least non-Indigenous people can do is not exploit and complicate these matters more, especially to benefit their own career, social standing, etc. I think the best way to navigate this is to not harm Indigenous people, to partake in repair if you have harmed them, and see about how you might be able to build trust with Indigenous people on their terms. In this way you may be able to see who’s who.

Money and other donations can be helpful. But we must never ignore the central question of #LandBack, a matter that ought to be approached carefully and creatively, bearing in mind the points made in this writing. The occupations we endure will always want to disenfranchise and make invisible the most revolutionary and righteous Native Americans.

I personally do not want to see Xinachtli paying rent or a mortgage if he gets out, an offer I am not happy to hear about from people who say they want to support. He is a person certainly appropriate to be a recipient of #LandBack without such unnecessary indebtedness.

Much of the above also applies to Indigenous people who find themselves in the ancestral lands of others–many times we can and should be in better solidarity with our bigger Native family, but we are not; we ought to work together to fix this and to be excellent examples to others.

More complex forms of solidarity are important and exceed capacity at the moment for me to go in deeply about. I will write, though: be careful, take your time to make wise decisions, learn from your mistakes, pass what you learn onto the youth if appropriate, and learn from your elders. Like Xinachtli often says, COINTELPRO never ended. And as I often see, many people, including “radicals”, do the governments’ and colonizers’ work for free (or by default) and in the name of “de-colonization” and helping us out. Know who you’re really benefiting and whether you’re really trying to empower others or tend to your ego (which can mean feeding into inferiority and superiority complexes many of us have). The broader war is more complex than the few battles we are made aware of or might be lucky to have great, direct insights about. Sometimes you’d never imagine who’s really pulling the strings.

Below are ways to donate to the Xinachtli campaign, which was mentioned earlier this month.

As was written in that page,

“Please circulate the […] fundraiser and be cautious about scams that fake Xinachtli accounts out there could pull any day now. The only accounts connected to the campaign are here.

We have no problem working with you one-on-one to ensure your donation is received correctly.

Please be on the lookout for a bank or credit union that can accept the power of attorney that the campaign has for Xinachtli to open a checking or savings account in his name. No bank or credit union that the campaign has tried is able to open an account because Xinachtli has been in prison for so long (many require that he had an account with them prior to incarceration). This is why funds are being received in their current way until we figure out a solution.

The campaign is in need of friendly attorneys in case legal action is required if Xinachtli is denied parole in 2024 or 2025.”

Prax
27 November 2024

[*] I should also note that the past month had a lot of disrupted communication and wasted energies in between Xinachtli and his support team due to “software issues” in the securus communication system.

source: Free Alvaro

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12762

#AlvaroHernandez #LandBack #northAmerica #politicalPrisoner #repression #us #Xinachtli

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Political Prisoner Xinachtli’s 2024 “Thanksgiving” Statement

For those who do not know, Xinachtli (s/n: Alvaro Hernandez) may currently hold the record for being the Native American political prisoner in solitary confinement for the longest–over 22 years.

To all people enduring colonization and to the anarchists,

The campaign to free Texas Native American political prisoner Xinachtli is unusually busy with good progress this November, which is likely why Xinachtli has been unable to comment on the occasion as many radical Natives do.[*] Coming across some revolutionary Native American peers’ social media, I thought this “statement” in a similar vein would be appropriate.

If you’re looking for something pro-Indigenous to do on “Thanksgiving”, consider donating to Indigenous organizations in your locality and, or to the Xinachtli campaign, bearing in mind the following scattered points:

The Xinachtli campaign is a great place to donate to in order to support Indigenous prisoner organizing and Indigenous jailhouse lawyering. Xinachtli is a jailhouse lawyer and helps so many Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoners for free. Anything donated to Xinachtli’s campaign directly and indirectly supports one or more types of Indigenous betterment and survival.

Beware of non-Indigenous people who pose as Indigenous people in even “well regarded” organizations.

Understand that some Native Americans and Native American groups are severely colonized and collude in many ways with the occupations we Native folks are enduring. These are difficult matters to understand and navigate and often non-Indigenous people cannot get involved in them. But the least non-Indigenous people can do is not exploit and complicate these matters more, especially to benefit their own career, social standing, etc. I think the best way to navigate this is to not harm Indigenous people, to partake in repair if you have harmed them, and see about how you might be able to build trust with Indigenous people on their terms. In this way you may be able to see who’s who.

Money and other donations can be helpful. But we must never ignore the central question of #LandBack, a matter that ought to be approached carefully and creatively, bearing in mind the points made in this writing. The occupations we endure will always want to disenfranchise and make invisible the most revolutionary and righteous Native Americans.

I personally do not want to see Xinachtli paying rent or a mortgage if he gets out, an offer I am not happy to hear about from people who say they want to support. He is a person certainly appropriate to be a recipient of #LandBack without such unnecessary indebtedness.

Much of the above also applies to Indigenous people who find themselves in the ancestral lands of others–many times we can and should be in better solidarity with our bigger Native family, but we are not; we ought to work together to fix this and to be excellent examples to others.

More complex forms of solidarity are important and exceed capacity at the moment for me to go in deeply about. I will write, though: be careful, take your time to make wise decisions, learn from your mistakes, pass what you learn onto the youth if appropriate, and learn from your elders. Like Xinachtli often says, COINTELPRO never ended. And as I often see, many people, including “radicals”, do the governments’ and colonizers’ work for free (or by default) and in the name of “de-colonization” and helping us out. Know who you’re really benefiting and whether you’re really trying to empower others or tend to your ego (which can mean feeding into inferiority and superiority complexes many of us have). The broader war is more complex than the few battles we are made aware of or might be lucky to have great, direct insights about. Sometimes you’d never imagine who’s really pulling the strings.

Below are ways to donate to the Xinachtli campaign, which was mentioned earlier this month.

As was written in that page,

“Please circulate the […] fundraiser and be cautious about scams that fake Xinachtli accounts out there could pull any day now. The only accounts connected to the campaign are here.

We have no problem working with you one-on-one to ensure your donation is received correctly.

Please be on the lookout for a bank or credit union that can accept the power of attorney that the campaign has for Xinachtli to open a checking or savings account in his name. No bank or credit union that the campaign has tried is able to open an account because Xinachtli has been in prison for so long (many require that he had an account with them prior to incarceration). This is why funds are being received in their current way until we figure out a solution.

The campaign is in need of friendly attorneys in case legal action is required if Xinachtli is denied parole in 2024 or 2025.”

Prax
27 November 2024

[*] I should also note that the past month had a lot of disrupted communication and wasted energies in between Xinachtli and his support team due to “software issues” in the securus communication system.

source: Free Alvaro

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12762

#AlvaroHernandez #LandBack #northAmerica #politicalPrisoner #repression #us #Xinachtli

# orderedItems[].object.content
Daniel Andreas San Diego Arrested in North Wales, Wanted for Two Animal Liberation Attacks in 2003

Daniel Andreas San Diego has been wanted by the FBI in connection with two bombings which took place in San Francisco in 2003 claimed by Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade, simliar to the Animal Rights Militia in the UK, that ignores the Animal Liberation Front’s policy of taking all necessary precautions to avoid harm to human life. The two bombs were placed at the offices of biotechnology corporation Chiron Inc. in Emeryville, California, in August 2003. The first bomb detonated early in the morning, while the second, which was set to detonate an hour after the initial blast, was found and defused before it went off. Chiron Inc. was targetted for its links to Huntingdon Life Sciences (now Inotiv), the animal torturers and killers who were targetted by the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.) and campaigned against by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).

A month later, another bomb filled with nails went off at a nutritional products corporation, Shaklee Corporation, which makes nutritional supplements and eco-friendly shampoos and lotions – in Pleasanton, Calififornia. Nobody was killed or injured in the blast. It was targeted because its parent company, Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical, who does/did business also with HLS.

Communique of the Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade bomb attack on Shaklee :

“On the night of September 25th volunteers from the Revolutionary Cells attacked a subsidiary of a notorious HLS client, Yamanouchi. We left an approximately 10lb ammonium nitrate bomb strapped with nails outside of Shaklee Inc, whose CEO is both the CEO for Shaklee and Yamanouchi Consumer Inc. We gave all of the customers the chance, the choice, to withdraw their business from HLS. Now you all will have to reap what you have sown. All customers and their families are considered legitimate targets.

Hey Sean Lance, and the rest of the Chiron team, how are you sleeping? You never know when your house, your car even, might go boom. Who knows, that new car in the parking lot may be packed with explosives. Or maybe it will be a shot in the dark.

We have given all of the collaborators a chance to withdraw from their relations from HLS. We will now be doubling the size of every device we make. Today it is 10lbs, tomorrow 20….until your buildings are nothing more than rubble. It is time for this war to truely have two sides. No more will all of the killing be done by the oppressors, now the oppressed will strike back. We will be non-violent when the these people are non-violent to the animal nations.

In memory of all of those fallen before us in the war for liberation: Jill Phipps (animal activist), Barry Horne (ALF), Olaia Kastresana (ETA), Arkaitz Otazua (ETA), Angayarkanni (LTTE), Babu (LTTE), Bobby Sands (IRA), Patsy O’Hara (INLA), Carlos Guiliani (anti-globilization martyr), Lee Kyung-hae (farmer and anti-globablization victim), and many more on numerous other fronts. We won’t forget you, we won’t let your deaths be in vain.

Gora Euskadi Ta Askatasuna!
Up the Real IRA!
Long live the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine!
Viva La Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia!
Long live the Frontu Di Liberazione Naziunalista Corsu!
For the creation of Revolutionary Cells!
For Humyn, Earth & Animal Liberation!

Bringing the bomb and the bullet back into amerikan politics, Revolutionary
Cells –animal liberation brigade

—-

The revolutionary cells exists as a front group for militants across the liberationary movement spectrum. We are anarchists, communists, anti-racists, animal liberationists, earth liberationists, luddites, feminists, queer liberationists, and many more things across various other fronts. Where ever there is oppression there are those unwilling to idly stand by and let it occur, and those people make up the nucleus of the revolutionary cells.

Who are the revolutionary cells? It is an anti-gmo activist destroying a gmo crop, it is a basque youth driving a car packed with explosives destined for a spanish politician, it is a queer bashing back, a rape victim putting a bullet in the rapist, a corsican nationalist planting a bomb at a french bank, it is a cincinatti riot in response to police brutality, an animal liberationist shooting a vivisector dead on his doorstep. In short it is the spirit of resistance realized. It is moving from politics to praxis.

Anyone who takes part in the war against the oppressive heirarchies in this world can consider themselves a member of the Revolutionary Cells.

Revolutionary Cells Guidelines:

1. To take strategic direct action (be it non-violent or not) against the oppressive institutions that permeate the world.

2. Make every effort to minimize non-target casualties, be they human or non-human.

3. Respect a diversity of tactics, whether they be non-violent or not.

4. Any underground activist fighting for the liberation of the humyn, earth or animal nations may consider themselves a Revolutionary Cells volunteer.”

San Diego was later put on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2009. He was arrested at a property in a rural area next to woodland. Following his capture, San Diego appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court as the process to extradite him to the US to face charges begins.

Solidarity and complicity to Daniel Andreas San Diego who had the strength to take the eco struggle to the belly of the beast.

source: Dark Nights

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12759

#animalLiberation #ecoStruggle #northAmerica #repression #uk #us

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
Daniel Andreas San Diego Arrested in North Wales, Wanted for Two Animal Liberation Attacks in 2003

Daniel Andreas San Diego has been wanted by the FBI in connection with two bombings which took place in San Francisco in 2003 claimed by Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade, simliar to the Animal Rights Militia in the UK, that ignores the Animal Liberation Front’s policy of taking all necessary precautions to avoid harm to human life. The two bombs were placed at the offices of biotechnology corporation Chiron Inc. in Emeryville, California, in August 2003. The first bomb detonated early in the morning, while the second, which was set to detonate an hour after the initial blast, was found and defused before it went off. Chiron Inc. was targetted for its links to Huntingdon Life Sciences (now Inotiv), the animal torturers and killers who were targetted by the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.) and campaigned against by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).

A month later, another bomb filled with nails went off at a nutritional products corporation, Shaklee Corporation, which makes nutritional supplements and eco-friendly shampoos and lotions – in Pleasanton, Calififornia. Nobody was killed or injured in the blast. It was targeted because its parent company, Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical, who does/did business also with HLS.

Communique of the Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade bomb attack on Shaklee :

“On the night of September 25th volunteers from the Revolutionary Cells attacked a subsidiary of a notorious HLS client, Yamanouchi. We left an approximately 10lb ammonium nitrate bomb strapped with nails outside of Shaklee Inc, whose CEO is both the CEO for Shaklee and Yamanouchi Consumer Inc. We gave all of the customers the chance, the choice, to withdraw their business from HLS. Now you all will have to reap what you have sown. All customers and their families are considered legitimate targets.

Hey Sean Lance, and the rest of the Chiron team, how are you sleeping? You never know when your house, your car even, might go boom. Who knows, that new car in the parking lot may be packed with explosives. Or maybe it will be a shot in the dark.

We have given all of the collaborators a chance to withdraw from their relations from HLS. We will now be doubling the size of every device we make. Today it is 10lbs, tomorrow 20….until your buildings are nothing more than rubble. It is time for this war to truely have two sides. No more will all of the killing be done by the oppressors, now the oppressed will strike back. We will be non-violent when the these people are non-violent to the animal nations.

In memory of all of those fallen before us in the war for liberation: Jill Phipps (animal activist), Barry Horne (ALF), Olaia Kastresana (ETA), Arkaitz Otazua (ETA), Angayarkanni (LTTE), Babu (LTTE), Bobby Sands (IRA), Patsy O’Hara (INLA), Carlos Guiliani (anti-globilization martyr), Lee Kyung-hae (farmer and anti-globablization victim), and many more on numerous other fronts. We won’t forget you, we won’t let your deaths be in vain.

Gora Euskadi Ta Askatasuna!
Up the Real IRA!
Long live the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine!
Viva La Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia!
Long live the Frontu Di Liberazione Naziunalista Corsu!
For the creation of Revolutionary Cells!
For Humyn, Earth & Animal Liberation!

Bringing the bomb and the bullet back into amerikan politics, Revolutionary
Cells –animal liberation brigade

—-

The revolutionary cells exists as a front group for militants across the liberationary movement spectrum. We are anarchists, communists, anti-racists, animal liberationists, earth liberationists, luddites, feminists, queer liberationists, and many more things across various other fronts. Where ever there is oppression there are those unwilling to idly stand by and let it occur, and those people make up the nucleus of the revolutionary cells.

Who are the revolutionary cells? It is an anti-gmo activist destroying a gmo crop, it is a basque youth driving a car packed with explosives destined for a spanish politician, it is a queer bashing back, a rape victim putting a bullet in the rapist, a corsican nationalist planting a bomb at a french bank, it is a cincinatti riot in response to police brutality, an animal liberationist shooting a vivisector dead on his doorstep. In short it is the spirit of resistance realized. It is moving from politics to praxis.

Anyone who takes part in the war against the oppressive heirarchies in this world can consider themselves a member of the Revolutionary Cells.

Revolutionary Cells Guidelines:

1. To take strategic direct action (be it non-violent or not) against the oppressive institutions that permeate the world.

2. Make every effort to minimize non-target casualties, be they human or non-human.

3. Respect a diversity of tactics, whether they be non-violent or not.

4. Any underground activist fighting for the liberation of the humyn, earth or animal nations may consider themselves a Revolutionary Cells volunteer.”

San Diego was later put on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2009. He was arrested at a property in a rural area next to woodland. Following his capture, San Diego appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court as the process to extradite him to the US to face charges begins.

Solidarity and complicity to Daniel Andreas San Diego who had the strength to take the eco struggle to the belly of the beast.

source: Dark Nights

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12759

#animalLiberation #ecoStruggle #northAmerica #repression #uk #us

# orderedItems[].object.content
The Anti-Imperialist Surge in the Sahel and the Historic Conference in Niamey

The Black Alliance for Peace and U.S. Out of Africa Network provided this report following their participation in the “Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel”.

Introduction

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and the U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) participated in the historic “Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel” from November 19-21, 2024, in Niamey, Niger, through the presence of USOAN Steering Committee member Imani Umoja and BAP Africa Team member Tunde Osazua. This gathering, organized by Pan Africanism Today and the West African People’s Organization , convened a global convergence of grassroots movements, unions, and revolutionary organizations to confront the forces of imperialism and militarization in Africa.

The conference was a momentous event, with over 2,300 people attending the opening plenary and more than 120 formations represented from across the globe, including Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The attendees reflected a rich demographic tapestry, ranging from seasoned revolutionary leaders to vibrant youth activists, all united by a shared commitment to dismantling neocolonial structures and advancing African sovereignty. This broad and diverse participation underscored the global significance of the Sahel’s revolutionary transformation and the collective determination to resist imperialism and promote self-determination.

The atmosphere at the Mahatma Gandhi International Conference Centre was electric, with a palpable spirit of defiance and determination. The delegates embodied the resilience and revolutionary zeal that has characterized the Sahel’s anti-imperialist movement. Niger’s Prime Minister, Ali Lamine Zeine, officially inaugurated the event on behalf of Brigadier General Abdourahamane Tchiani, Head of State and Chairman of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) Government of the Republic of Niger, emphasizing the significance of the moment. The gathering buzzed with impassioned discussions, cultural performances, and a shared resolve to transform Africa into a continent free of foreign exploitation and domination.

For BAP, this conference offered a critical platform to advance its campaign to shut down the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and forge new bonds of solidarity with Sahelian formations and people leading the anti-imperialist movement in Africa. Delegates from various formations expressed keen interest in learning about BAP’s work, while discussions revealed a growing alignment between the goals of the Shut Down AFRICOM campaign and the demands of the Sahelian people.

At the heart of the conference—and the region’s revolutionary transformation—was the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a confederation of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso that has boldly rejected foreign militarization and neocolonial domination. The AES represents a powerful regional bloc in the ongoing struggle for self-determination and Pan-Africanism, embodying a vision of sovereignty rooted in the collective aspirations of its people. The AES’s defiance of U.S., French, and NATO-led domination was a recurring theme, and its approach to grassroots mobilization, resource sovereignty, and unified defense served as an inspiration to attendees.

Challenges and Opportunities

Despite the momentum, the Sahel faces significant challenges as it seeks to establish economic and political independence:

1. Economic Dependency

The region’s economies remain heavily reliant on raw material exports, particularly uranium and gold. Plans to industrialize, including building gold refineries and scaling up oil production, aim to reduce dependency and increase state revenues.

2. Sanctions and Isolation

Sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West have caused significant economic hardship, limiting access to essential goods and services. However, solidarity among AES countries has mitigated some of the impact.

3. Security Concerns

Terrorism remains a pressing issue. The Sahel’s leaders now seek to tackle this issue on their own terms, free from foreign interference. Much of the terrorism in the Sahel can be traced to the destabilization caused by foreign military interventions, particularly the 2011 NATO-led invasion of Libya. This intervention created a power vacuum that unleashed heavily armed groups and fighters across the region, particularly into Mali and Niger.

These destabilizing forces were further exacerbated by the presence of foreign militaries, including AFRICOM and France’s Operation Barkhane, which often failed to neutralize extremist groups and instead fueled local grievances through civilian casualties, resource exploitation, and neocolonial control. Local communities have repeatedly pointed out that these foreign interventions have done little to eliminate the root causes of violence, such as economic inequality, disenfranchisement, and the manipulation of ethnic tensions for political gain.

4. Class Struggle

Among the AES member states, Mali has faced the most vocal internal opposition to the recent anti-imperialist transformation, much of it rooted in entrenched elite interests opposed to the revolutionary government. This tension was recently highlighted by the removal of Mali’s civilian prime minister by the transitional government, an act that underscored the revolutionary leadership’s commitment to addressing class contradictions.

The Coups as Products of Mass Struggle

One of the most significant takeaways from these anti-imperialist developments is the recognition that the coups in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso were not isolated or purely elite-driven events but were deeply rooted in mass struggle. These coups were the culmination of years of popular mobilization against neocolonialism, exploitation, and the devastating effects of foreign militarization.

Niger’s Popular Resistance: The coup in Niger, led by the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), emerged from a groundswell of anger against the French-backed government of Mohamed Bazoum. The Bazoum regime, seen as a puppet of Western interests, faced relentless protests for its complicity in perpetuating neocolonial exploitation and its invitation to French troops fleeing Mali to reestablish themselves in Niger. Popular support for the coup was immediate and widespread, with celebrations erupting across the country and the rapid organization of movements like the Convergence for the Nations of the Sahel (COSNAS), which played a critical role in mobilizing public resistance against French and U.S. military presence.

Mali and Burkina Faso’s Revolutionary Roots: In both Mali and Burkina Faso, the masses demanded an end to foreign military interventions disguised as counterterrorism operations. These interventions, such as France’s Operation Barkhane and the U.S.’s AFRICOM drone programs, only exacerbated violence and entrenched dependency. The coups, far from being “anti-democratic,” were products of popular pressure to break free from these cycles of domination.

While much remains to be done toward the complete liberation of the Sahel states, we are optimistic that these governments, by continuing to listen to their people, will fulfill their objectives for total national liberation and contribute to the broader goal of a unified and free Africa. The popular movements in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso represent the beating heart of this revolution, and their alignment with military leaders willing to act on anti-imperialist principles creates a unique opportunity to defend the AES.

The AES as a Vanguard

The Alliance of Sahel States’ bold stance against foreign militarization, including the expulsion of U.S. and French troops, positions it as a beacon of hope for the continent and a rallying point for anti-imperialist forces globally.

Defending Sovereignty: The AES’s actions—such as ending French military agreements, shutting down U.S. bases, and rejecting the neocolonial frameworks of ECOWAS and the G5 Sahel—demonstrate a collective commitment to sovereignty. These decisions, rooted in mass resistance, challenge the legitimacy of AFRICOM and other foreign military operations in Africa. The AES’s ability to hold firm against external pressure is a testament to the strength of its popular support and its unified vision.

Inspiring Continental Resistance: The AES is not only a regional bloc but also a blueprint for liberation across Africa. Its rejection of foreign domination and its commitment to self-reliance resonate with oppressed peoples across the continent and beyond. As the AES dismantles the structures of imperialism, it paves the way for other nations to follow suit.

Building Momentum for the Shut Down AFRICOM Campaign

The expulsion of AFRICOM from Niger and the broader anti-imperialist revolution in the Sahel mark a turning point in Africa’s struggle for sovereignty. As the first region to remove AFRICOM, Niger/AES offers a tangible example of what is possible when popular movements and revolutionary leadership unite. To effectively prioritize Niger and the AES, BAP can take several steps:

Deepening Engagement with Sahelian Movements: BAP should strengthen its ties with grassroots organizations, unions, and political movements in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

Expanding Public Awareness: The AES’s revolution is a powerful story that challenges Western narratives about Africa and imperialism. BAP should work to amplify this story through media campaigns, public education, and collaborations with like-minded organizations.

Advocating for International Support: The AES faces significant challenges, including economic sanctions, security threats, and diplomatic isolation. BAP should mobilize its networks to advocate for international support for the AES, emphasizing the importance of its success for the global anti-imperialist movement.

Conclusion

Toward the end of the conference, delegates adopted the Niamey Declaration , expressing unwavering support for the resolute peoples and leaders of the Alliance of Sahel States. On Thursday, November 21, conference attendees united in a powerful march against Israel’s ongoing genocide. The march concluded at the iconic Thomas Sankara Memorial, a fitting culmination to the three-day Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel.

The expulsion of AFRICOM from Niger and the broader anti-imperialist revolution in the Sahel mark a turning point in Africa’s struggle for sovereignty. As the first region to remove AFRICOM, Niger/AES offers a tangible example of what is possible when popular movements and revolutionary leadership unite. These developments signal a new era in the struggle for African liberation.

Next Steps for BAP/USOAN

Deepen Engagement with the AES/Africa

Establish Working Relationships:

Schedule follow-up meetings with key contacts made at the conference

Formalize communication channels with contacts to ensure consistent dialogue and collaboration.

Support AES’s Revolutionary Achievements:

Develop and release public statements and publications highlighting the AES’s successes, framing them as examples of revolutionary resistance to imperialism.

Advocate for international solidarity campaigns that recognize and defend the sovereignty of AES states, focusing on resisting sanctions and foreign intervention.

Strengthen the Shut Down AFRICOM Campaign and U.S. Out of Africa Network

Use Niger’s Success as a Rallying Point:

Produce a detailed report or case study on Niger’s expulsion of AFRICOM, focusing on its implications for anti-imperialist struggles across Africa.

Organize public forums, media appearances, and workshops to expose AFRICOM’s destabilizing impact and highlight the Sahel’s alternative model of resistance.

Expand the USOAN and its Steering Committee:

Recruit organizations and individuals from the African continent into the USOAN and identify and onboard additional USOAN Steering Committee members

Prepare for the 2025 Month of Action Against AFRICOM

Collaborate on Coordinated Actions:

Begin consultations with African anti-imperialist movements to align strategies and identify key themes for the 2025 campaign.

Develop a unified calendar of actions to ensure cohesive messaging and impactful demonstrations across multiple regions.

Campaign Messaging on Sovereignty and Self-Determination:

Produce media content, educational toolkits, and social media campaigns emphasizing the need for African sovereignty, drawing lessons from AES achievements.

Ensure the campaign highlights the role of grassroots resistance in forcing AFRICOM’s retreat and demonstrates how these efforts can be replicated elsewhere.

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12755

#africa #antiColonialism #antiImperialism #burkinaFaso #mali #niger #sahel

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
The Anti-Imperialist Surge in the Sahel and the Historic Conference in Niamey

The Black Alliance for Peace and U.S. Out of Africa Network provided this report following their participation in the “Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel”.

Introduction

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and the U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) participated in the historic “Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel” from November 19-21, 2024, in Niamey, Niger, through the presence of USOAN Steering Committee member Imani Umoja and BAP Africa Team member Tunde Osazua. This gathering, organized by Pan Africanism Today and the West African People’s Organization , convened a global convergence of grassroots movements, unions, and revolutionary organizations to confront the forces of imperialism and militarization in Africa.

The conference was a momentous event, with over 2,300 people attending the opening plenary and more than 120 formations represented from across the globe, including Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The attendees reflected a rich demographic tapestry, ranging from seasoned revolutionary leaders to vibrant youth activists, all united by a shared commitment to dismantling neocolonial structures and advancing African sovereignty. This broad and diverse participation underscored the global significance of the Sahel’s revolutionary transformation and the collective determination to resist imperialism and promote self-determination.

The atmosphere at the Mahatma Gandhi International Conference Centre was electric, with a palpable spirit of defiance and determination. The delegates embodied the resilience and revolutionary zeal that has characterized the Sahel’s anti-imperialist movement. Niger’s Prime Minister, Ali Lamine Zeine, officially inaugurated the event on behalf of Brigadier General Abdourahamane Tchiani, Head of State and Chairman of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) Government of the Republic of Niger, emphasizing the significance of the moment. The gathering buzzed with impassioned discussions, cultural performances, and a shared resolve to transform Africa into a continent free of foreign exploitation and domination.

For BAP, this conference offered a critical platform to advance its campaign to shut down the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and forge new bonds of solidarity with Sahelian formations and people leading the anti-imperialist movement in Africa. Delegates from various formations expressed keen interest in learning about BAP’s work, while discussions revealed a growing alignment between the goals of the Shut Down AFRICOM campaign and the demands of the Sahelian people.

At the heart of the conference—and the region’s revolutionary transformation—was the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a confederation of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso that has boldly rejected foreign militarization and neocolonial domination. The AES represents a powerful regional bloc in the ongoing struggle for self-determination and Pan-Africanism, embodying a vision of sovereignty rooted in the collective aspirations of its people. The AES’s defiance of U.S., French, and NATO-led domination was a recurring theme, and its approach to grassroots mobilization, resource sovereignty, and unified defense served as an inspiration to attendees.

Challenges and Opportunities

Despite the momentum, the Sahel faces significant challenges as it seeks to establish economic and political independence:

1. Economic Dependency

The region’s economies remain heavily reliant on raw material exports, particularly uranium and gold. Plans to industrialize, including building gold refineries and scaling up oil production, aim to reduce dependency and increase state revenues.

2. Sanctions and Isolation

Sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West have caused significant economic hardship, limiting access to essential goods and services. However, solidarity among AES countries has mitigated some of the impact.

3. Security Concerns

Terrorism remains a pressing issue. The Sahel’s leaders now seek to tackle this issue on their own terms, free from foreign interference. Much of the terrorism in the Sahel can be traced to the destabilization caused by foreign military interventions, particularly the 2011 NATO-led invasion of Libya. This intervention created a power vacuum that unleashed heavily armed groups and fighters across the region, particularly into Mali and Niger.

These destabilizing forces were further exacerbated by the presence of foreign militaries, including AFRICOM and France’s Operation Barkhane, which often failed to neutralize extremist groups and instead fueled local grievances through civilian casualties, resource exploitation, and neocolonial control. Local communities have repeatedly pointed out that these foreign interventions have done little to eliminate the root causes of violence, such as economic inequality, disenfranchisement, and the manipulation of ethnic tensions for political gain.

4. Class Struggle

Among the AES member states, Mali has faced the most vocal internal opposition to the recent anti-imperialist transformation, much of it rooted in entrenched elite interests opposed to the revolutionary government. This tension was recently highlighted by the removal of Mali’s civilian prime minister by the transitional government, an act that underscored the revolutionary leadership’s commitment to addressing class contradictions.

The Coups as Products of Mass Struggle

One of the most significant takeaways from these anti-imperialist developments is the recognition that the coups in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso were not isolated or purely elite-driven events but were deeply rooted in mass struggle. These coups were the culmination of years of popular mobilization against neocolonialism, exploitation, and the devastating effects of foreign militarization.

Niger’s Popular Resistance: The coup in Niger, led by the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), emerged from a groundswell of anger against the French-backed government of Mohamed Bazoum. The Bazoum regime, seen as a puppet of Western interests, faced relentless protests for its complicity in perpetuating neocolonial exploitation and its invitation to French troops fleeing Mali to reestablish themselves in Niger. Popular support for the coup was immediate and widespread, with celebrations erupting across the country and the rapid organization of movements like the Convergence for the Nations of the Sahel (COSNAS), which played a critical role in mobilizing public resistance against French and U.S. military presence.

Mali and Burkina Faso’s Revolutionary Roots: In both Mali and Burkina Faso, the masses demanded an end to foreign military interventions disguised as counterterrorism operations. These interventions, such as France’s Operation Barkhane and the U.S.’s AFRICOM drone programs, only exacerbated violence and entrenched dependency. The coups, far from being “anti-democratic,” were products of popular pressure to break free from these cycles of domination.

While much remains to be done toward the complete liberation of the Sahel states, we are optimistic that these governments, by continuing to listen to their people, will fulfill their objectives for total national liberation and contribute to the broader goal of a unified and free Africa. The popular movements in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso represent the beating heart of this revolution, and their alignment with military leaders willing to act on anti-imperialist principles creates a unique opportunity to defend the AES.

The AES as a Vanguard

The Alliance of Sahel States’ bold stance against foreign militarization, including the expulsion of U.S. and French troops, positions it as a beacon of hope for the continent and a rallying point for anti-imperialist forces globally.

Defending Sovereignty: The AES’s actions—such as ending French military agreements, shutting down U.S. bases, and rejecting the neocolonial frameworks of ECOWAS and the G5 Sahel—demonstrate a collective commitment to sovereignty. These decisions, rooted in mass resistance, challenge the legitimacy of AFRICOM and other foreign military operations in Africa. The AES’s ability to hold firm against external pressure is a testament to the strength of its popular support and its unified vision.

Inspiring Continental Resistance: The AES is not only a regional bloc but also a blueprint for liberation across Africa. Its rejection of foreign domination and its commitment to self-reliance resonate with oppressed peoples across the continent and beyond. As the AES dismantles the structures of imperialism, it paves the way for other nations to follow suit.

Building Momentum for the Shut Down AFRICOM Campaign

The expulsion of AFRICOM from Niger and the broader anti-imperialist revolution in the Sahel mark a turning point in Africa’s struggle for sovereignty. As the first region to remove AFRICOM, Niger/AES offers a tangible example of what is possible when popular movements and revolutionary leadership unite. To effectively prioritize Niger and the AES, BAP can take several steps:

Deepening Engagement with Sahelian Movements: BAP should strengthen its ties with grassroots organizations, unions, and political movements in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

Expanding Public Awareness: The AES’s revolution is a powerful story that challenges Western narratives about Africa and imperialism. BAP should work to amplify this story through media campaigns, public education, and collaborations with like-minded organizations.

Advocating for International Support: The AES faces significant challenges, including economic sanctions, security threats, and diplomatic isolation. BAP should mobilize its networks to advocate for international support for the AES, emphasizing the importance of its success for the global anti-imperialist movement.

Conclusion

Toward the end of the conference, delegates adopted the Niamey Declaration , expressing unwavering support for the resolute peoples and leaders of the Alliance of Sahel States. On Thursday, November 21, conference attendees united in a powerful march against Israel’s ongoing genocide. The march concluded at the iconic Thomas Sankara Memorial, a fitting culmination to the three-day Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel.

The expulsion of AFRICOM from Niger and the broader anti-imperialist revolution in the Sahel mark a turning point in Africa’s struggle for sovereignty. As the first region to remove AFRICOM, Niger/AES offers a tangible example of what is possible when popular movements and revolutionary leadership unite. These developments signal a new era in the struggle for African liberation.

Next Steps for BAP/USOAN

Deepen Engagement with the AES/Africa

Establish Working Relationships:

Schedule follow-up meetings with key contacts made at the conference

Formalize communication channels with contacts to ensure consistent dialogue and collaboration.

Support AES’s Revolutionary Achievements:

Develop and release public statements and publications highlighting the AES’s successes, framing them as examples of revolutionary resistance to imperialism.

Advocate for international solidarity campaigns that recognize and defend the sovereignty of AES states, focusing on resisting sanctions and foreign intervention.

Strengthen the Shut Down AFRICOM Campaign and U.S. Out of Africa Network

Use Niger’s Success as a Rallying Point:

Produce a detailed report or case study on Niger’s expulsion of AFRICOM, focusing on its implications for anti-imperialist struggles across Africa.

Organize public forums, media appearances, and workshops to expose AFRICOM’s destabilizing impact and highlight the Sahel’s alternative model of resistance.

Expand the USOAN and its Steering Committee:

Recruit organizations and individuals from the African continent into the USOAN and identify and onboard additional USOAN Steering Committee members

Prepare for the 2025 Month of Action Against AFRICOM

Collaborate on Coordinated Actions:

Begin consultations with African anti-imperialist movements to align strategies and identify key themes for the 2025 campaign.

Develop a unified calendar of actions to ensure cohesive messaging and impactful demonstrations across multiple regions.

Campaign Messaging on Sovereignty and Self-Determination:

Produce media content, educational toolkits, and social media campaigns emphasizing the need for African sovereignty, drawing lessons from AES achievements.

Ensure the campaign highlights the role of grassroots resistance in forcing AFRICOM’s retreat and demonstrates how these efforts can be replicated elsewhere.

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12755

#africa #antiColonialism #antiImperialism #burkinaFaso #mali #niger #sahel

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Call for Week of Agitation for Marcelo Villarroel

Appeal for internationalist solidarity for the release of comrade Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda, an anti-authoritarian prisoner in Chilean prisons still kidnapped by Pinochet’s military laws.

Week of Agitation from December 9 to 16, 2024.

– From the Red Solidaria Antikarcelaria Marcelo Villarroel a la kalle ★RSAMVALK in Chile together with a group of Like-Minded Individuals in different places and territories of the planet we make this call that seeks to maintain the visibility of a very serious legal and political situation since it expresses all the hatred and revenge of the power that, above its own legality, is holding our brother and comrade hostage, who since December 2023 should already be on the streets for having served the full 14 years of sentence imposed on him for two bank robberies that occurred in 2007.

Let us remember that Marcelo was arrested in Argentine territory on March 15, 2008 and expelled to Chile on December 15, 2009 and from then until today his captivity has been maintained under the excuse of having to pay the sentences for which he lived another period of imprisonment between 1992 and 2005 when he was granted conditional release.

“Marcelo’s state kidnapping, which is specifically a covert life sentence, is sustained in the most rotten filth of dictatorial legacies: Pinochet’s rotten Military Justice even in 2024. Something that seems unthinkable 51 years after the military coup and the beginning of the civic-military dictatorship.”

Today’s call is in order to put the efforts and emphasis of each one to end one of the most aberrant situations from the legal and political point of view that affects one of our own.

A comrade who is part of that list of brothers and sisters who in different territories of the planet have had to pay with long decades of confinement for their decision to fight with arms in hand the disastrous social order imposed by the ruling class, never renouncing their ties and convictions rooted in the multiform anti-authoritarian fringe, anarchic subversiveness that unites it in different languages but with the same language of war against the world of power, hierarchies and all authority.

We make the urgent call to express and mobilize all wills and initiatives to bring our brother to the streets and thus end the disastrous legal legacy of the late Pinochet still in force in Chilean society.

May all Active Minds be able to express gestures wherever they are for the achievement of this desired goal.

For the annulment of the convictions of the military justice of Pinochet, Marcelo Villarroel to the kalle now!!

As long as there is misery there will be rebellion!!

Anti-authoritarian revolutionary prisoners of all tendencies to the kalle!!

– End of November 2024- different territories.
-Affinity Individualities
★Red Solidaria Antikarcelaria Marcelo Villarroel a la kalle!!

(Paxton Orglot)

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12746

#AnarchistPrisoners #chile #marceloVillaroel #southAmerica

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Call for Week of Agitation for Marcelo Villarroel

Appeal for internationalist solidarity for the release of comrade Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda, an anti-authoritarian prisoner in Chilean prisons still kidnapped by Pinochet’s military laws.

Week of Agitation from December 9 to 16, 2024.

– From the Red Solidaria Antikarcelaria Marcelo Villarroel a la kalle ★RSAMVALK in Chile together with a group of Like-Minded Individuals in different places and territories of the planet we make this call that seeks to maintain the visibility of a very serious legal and political situation since it expresses all the hatred and revenge of the power that, above its own legality, is holding our brother and comrade hostage, who since December 2023 should already be on the streets for having served the full 14 years of sentence imposed on him for two bank robberies that occurred in 2007.

Let us remember that Marcelo was arrested in Argentine territory on March 15, 2008 and expelled to Chile on December 15, 2009 and from then until today his captivity has been maintained under the excuse of having to pay the sentences for which he lived another period of imprisonment between 1992 and 2005 when he was granted conditional release.

“Marcelo’s state kidnapping, which is specifically a covert life sentence, is sustained in the most rotten filth of dictatorial legacies: Pinochet’s rotten Military Justice even in 2024. Something that seems unthinkable 51 years after the military coup and the beginning of the civic-military dictatorship.”

Today’s call is in order to put the efforts and emphasis of each one to end one of the most aberrant situations from the legal and political point of view that affects one of our own.

A comrade who is part of that list of brothers and sisters who in different territories of the planet have had to pay with long decades of confinement for their decision to fight with arms in hand the disastrous social order imposed by the ruling class, never renouncing their ties and convictions rooted in the multiform anti-authoritarian fringe, anarchic subversiveness that unites it in different languages but with the same language of war against the world of power, hierarchies and all authority.

We make the urgent call to express and mobilize all wills and initiatives to bring our brother to the streets and thus end the disastrous legal legacy of the late Pinochet still in force in Chilean society.

May all Active Minds be able to express gestures wherever they are for the achievement of this desired goal.

For the annulment of the convictions of the military justice of Pinochet, Marcelo Villarroel to the kalle now!!

As long as there is misery there will be rebellion!!

Anti-authoritarian revolutionary prisoners of all tendencies to the kalle!!

– End of November 2024- different territories.
-Affinity Individualities
★Red Solidaria Antikarcelaria Marcelo Villarroel a la kalle!!

(Paxton Orglot)

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12746

#AnarchistPrisoners #chile #marceloVillaroel #southAmerica

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Arm the Spirit Interview With Safiya Bukhari for International Women’s Day: 1995

Interview conducted in New York City, September 27, 1992 and distributed by Arm the Spirit via e-mail for International Women’s Day 1995.

Q: The first question I have is, how did you get involved with the Black Panther Party (BPP)?

I was going to college to be a doctor. The first year in college I was just into my studies. But it was right here in Brooklyn, actually, in New York City College, and the people on campus thought that I was stuck up because I didn’t associate – I was studying a lot. And so the second year, in order to break that mode, I pledged for a sorority called Hamilton House. That same year the sorority became integrated. We elected the first Black president. And one of the projects of the sorority was to adopt underprivileged children in foreign countries. Our President that year said we didn’t have to go any further than the United States to find underprivileged children. A lot of people didn’t believe that there were hungry children that needed to be fed right here in the U.S., even in New York.

So three of us were assigned to go investigate the situation and we ended up going to Harlem to see if there were really hungry children. It was Yvonne Smallwood, Wanda Davis and myself. And the first people we ran into when we got there were the Panthers. Wanda got totally involved from the beginning; she fell in love with a Panther and joined the Party and everything. I didn’t go that route. I simply didn’t believe the things that the Panthers were saying.

About the hungry children: we went back and reported that the result was that there were a lot of people who were eating out of garbage cans, that there were indecent conditions that they were living in, etc. The next question was what to do about it. Should we start our own program or should we get involved in the things that already went on – because the Panthers already had the Free Breakfast Program. So, in essence we elected to just assign various members of our sorority to work with the free Breakfast Program. We would collect the food, we cooked the food, we would help the children with their homework, things like that, but I still didn’t believe in what the Panthers were saying. I didn’t think that the violence was happening. I didn’t think that the conspiracies were going on. I didn’t believe that the police were doing what they said they were doing, etc.

Two incidents happened that made me start to think seriously about what the ideology of the Party was and take the rhetoric of the Party seriously. With the Breakfast Program, the police started putting out rumours. The children stopped coming to the breakfast program. And I wondered why – so I found out from talking to some of the parents that the police kept telling them that we were feeding the children poisoned food – so they were stopped from bringing their children to the program and that made me angry. I mean, we were getting up at outrageous hours in the morning to take care of this before going to school – I was still going to school full-time – I was cooking the food and we were eating it right along with the children. They didn’t have a breakfast program in the schools themselves, they were not making an effort to feed the children, but they didn’t want us to feed the children. And I was incensed about that.

Then, myself and my friend Wanda were walking on 42nd Street – I still hadn’t joined the Party, that still didn’t make me angry enough to join the Party – well, there we were on 42nd Street one day and going to times Square we saw this big crowd on the corner and so we went rushing to see what was going on. A Panther was on the corner selling papers and the police were harassing him. So, believing whole-heartedly in the Constitution, I asked him what he was doing. And the police said if I didn’t stop that they were going to arrest me, too. I said he had a constitutional right to sell the papers, actually, I said he had a constitutional right to disseminate political literature, and he didn’t take that too kindly. He asked me for my ID and told me to get up against the car and that he was going to arrest me for obstructing governmental process and inciting a riot. He handcuffed me, handcuffed the Panther, handcuffed Wanda and threw us into the police car and took us down to the 14th Precinct. In the back of the car they told my friend Wanda that if she didn’t shut up – she was just running off at the mouth, calling them a bunch of names – they were going to ram the night-stick right up her. That was their behaviour and when we got to the Precinct itself they talked about holding court in the Precinct. They did a search, threw us in a holding cell and kept talking … then they had a female guard come and strip-search us and they told her she should wear gloves and make sure she washes her hands afterwards because she could catch something from touching us. It was that experience that when they let me out, I called my mother and father at home and told them I was going to join the BPP. Because of the police, I told them that the police convinced me of the legitimacy of the truth of what the Panthers were saying.

I didn’t get arrested for anything from that point on. I never got arrested for anything trivial. But my friend Wanda, she never learned not to get arrested for talking, I was with her when she got arrested for selling wolf tickets and murdermouthing the police. But to me it was much more serious than that. It was more serious because they had this authority and they had the badges and they had the guns and they abused their power. And it’s what they say and what they do that carries more weight in a court of law than what the individual does. It was that kind of corruption that made me make the decision to join the BPP.

Q: When was that?

1969.

Q: And then you worked with the Panthers in New York?

I worked with the Panthers, I worked out of the Harlem office of the BPP, from then until I went underground in 1974.

Q: Why did you go underground?

From 1969 until 1971, before the split in the BPP, I had a section. My responsibility was for organizing and politicizing that section, selling papers, organizing the various cell units and just politically educating that community. I did everything from selling papers and handing out leaflets, drug-detox work and everything else. By 1971 when the split came down, right after the split, I became in charge of Information and Communications for the East Coast Panthers. One of my responsibilities was to hold the press conferences and release communiqués from the Black Liberation Army.

And so I became a direct threat to the establishment. They thought I had the information they needed to capture BLA members. So they subpoenaed me. But even prior to this they had done a number of articles on the fact that I was the only ranking member in the Party without a felony conviction. And since I had no felony conviction, I had a license to carry arms. And I carried arms openly in public because the law allowed you to. You could carry long arms or have a Paratrooper A-1. I had an 8mm Mauser and I had these long arms whenever we had a press conference. Or I kept it at home and walked with it, carried it back and forth to the office, in a holster on the street. So the media played it up like “the Panthers with guns”, but they didn’t bother to investigate that it was licensed. When they finally got to the point that they realized I was legal, then I was the only ranking Party member without a felony conviction.

I had done my work in the community so well that I had a lot of community support and so on that level had organized my base area and also had the political astuteness to in order to play the media. They thought the fact that I had the diplomacy to play the media made me a political threat. Then in 1970/71 we started the National Committee for the defense of Political Prisoners, in response to all the arrests across the country of Panthers and BLA members. I was working with the people in prison and they put the letters that I was sending inside to the prisoners. Our political stance was very clear, we were not about reformism or anything like that. It was about revolutionary political power and how it comes to revolution, and means a qualitative change in the living conditions of the people with us, and it was not about the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People – oldest liberal Black civil rights organization in the U.S.) style politics or anything like that.

The Senate Committee in the US held hearings on the kind of political literature that was going into the prisons, so that part was a threat to them also. It was basically a lot of the political work that I was doing – back and forth to the prisons – myself and Yuri Kochiyama and many others like us. And in November 1973, myself and three other people who were part of the Harriet Tubman Brigade of the BLA were arrested for trying to break out some six members of the BLA out of the Tombs (pretrial detention prison in NYC). But the arrest was premature because even though they played it up to the media like “Great Tombs Escape Fails At The sewer”, they were not able to hold us because we weren’t doing anything. The only thing they could charge us with was third degree burglary on a sewer, which was laughed out of court. And they were very angry.

Outside the legitimate system, the Police Department put a $10,000 contract on me that I wasn’t supposed to be captured. I had gotten into the position to be killed on sight. That was outside the normal system. And inside it, I got a subpoena by the Federal government to the grand Jury – about 11 other people and myself. But the difference with my subpoena was that if I showed up at the Grand Jury I couldn’t take the Fifth Amendment and therefore for any question that I refused to answer I was facing felony contempt which carried a prison sentence.

So we discussed it, myself and Nuh (Nuh Washington – now one of the New York Three) and some other people and we decided that I shouldn’t go before the Grand Jury in April 1974, that I should go underground. And at that point I went underground with the Amistad Collective of the Black Liberation Army.

Q: In order to end the chronology – when did you get captured?

I was the unit coordinator of the Amistad Collective. So, basically I was the only female coordinator in a BLA unit. We were captured in a shoot-out in Norfolk, Virginia, on January 25, 1975. One of my co-defendants, Komposi Amistad, was killed and another one was shot in the face. For the first 30 days we were facing the electric chair for felony murder. The only reason why we got out from the electric chair is that the federal government and the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in Virginia at that time, saying it was unconstitutional. So we didn’t have to go to trial facing the death penalty.

But the state of Virginia asked for 900 years on the paratrooper A-1 I told you about, they didn’t care that I had a federal license. It was a one day trial, my bail was set at 1 million dollars on each count – we had five counts, which came to 5 million dollars.

They told them not to touch the bail issue, they picked the jury, they had the trial and they sentenced us all in one day and took us off to prison in one day. When they had the trial they threw me out of court before they started the trial. So I understand well Mumia not being in court during his trial, because I was not in court either.

I was in a cell in the back and it was cold and it had a loud-speaker, but I didn’t hear a thing, because it was nothing but static. But they brought me back in court for the sentencing phase and I was given 40 years. The jury wanted to run the time concurrently – I got 10, 10, and 20 – because it was the minimum on all the charges. And the judge told them they couldn’t do it, it was not up to them to determine how high it ran on the term on what I got and he ran it consecutive, and he told me I had to do every day of it. I told him, his momma was going to do it. (laughs) They sent us off to prison that night.

We both went together because they sent me to the penitentiary for men where my co-defendant was, and then I was taken by caravan to the women’s institution in Richmond, Virginia, and spent the next 21 days in maximum security segregation, because they didn’t want me on the outside where the other population was.

Q: How did you get out of segregation?

According to their own rules the only reason why you are supposed to be on maximum security segregation is when you violate one of their rules. So, I hadn’t violated a rule, So, when they took me down there I asked them why I was down there and they said because they didn’t have an empty room in the quarantine hall. And I asked them for a manual of their rules. I read it all and I told them, if that’s the case, in 21 days then you don’t have to worry about the room in the quarantine. Just that either I’ll be out of maximum security segregation or you’ll be in court.

And so on the 19th day they sent this correctional officer down there who said that she would accept me on her hall. She asked me what my intentions were while I was in prison and I told here that my intention was to do two years and leave. (laughs).

And she said they were concerned about me organizing in prison recruiting for the BLA, and I told them I had no intentions to recruit because I don’t really believe in recruiting. I believe if a person is going to do anything they need to make the decision based on their own conditions. If you have to recruit them, they haven’t made a decision on their own and if they don’t make it on their own they’re susceptible to back out and say somebody forced them to do things and stuff like that. But if they make a conscious decision on their own that the want to be involved in something then they have nobody to blame for anything that happens.

So, I told her I had no intention of recruiting. And she said then that she didn’t have any problems with me being in her hall. And so on the 21st day they moved me to the building where this correctional officer was, but I wasn’t allowed to go out into general population without handcuffs on and an armed guard with me. I wasn’t allowed to go to school. I wasn’t allowed to work in the kitchen or in the laundry or any other place where the women were working because they said I was a security risk. So, the only place I could be was in the hall, on the tier, in the cottage where I was housed. For everything you had to be right there at that complex.

After the first year I had to do the psychological evaluation, so that they could determine how they should handle you. The psychologist that I had to go see decided that I didn’t have to do all those little stupid tests, putting blocks together, etc. He asked a bunch of questions and then he said that he understood my political “beliefs”; at least how determined I was and stuff like that. And then he wrote this paper talking about that I believed wholeheartedly in the movement and that I was adamant about that, but I would not be a disciplinary problem if they called me by my Islamic name and dealt with me in a respectful manner and then he called me “paranoid” (laughs) – that I believed that people were out to get me. But he did say that I had no need for rehabilitation – rehabilitate from what, anyway. So he told them that they had to call me by my Islamic name or Ms. Bukhari and there will be no problems. But if they try to deal with me in any other manner then they did have a problem with me. And that was the psychological evaluation.

Anyways, after almost two years exactly I escaped. It was New Years Eve 1976. And the escape was really for two reasons. First, was that I just believed as a prisoner of war that a prisoner of war’s responsibility is to escape. So, from the very beginning we took the position that we were prisoners of war, and at the time of our capture we were soldiers in the Black Liberation Army. We gave a name, rank and serial number only and invoked that the court had no jurisdiction to try us. Therefore on that premise alone that the prisons had no jurisdiction over us and it is our responsibility as prisoners of war to escape – on that level I escaped. And that was one of the reasons.

The other reason was – one of the reasons why I was going South in the first place prior to the capture was because I had medical problems and I needed surgery. At the time of the capture I made known to them that I needed to have a surgery. They kept telling me that when I go over to the state custody it would be handled then. When I got to the prison they told me – after the examination – that I had fibroids the size of oranges or grapefruits in my uterus and asked me how much time I had. I told them I had 40 years. They then told me to come back in 10 years. I filed suit. The court said that it was just a difference of opinion between me and the doctor about how the medical treatment should be. I had asked to be able to pay for my own medical care, to have a doctor from the outside, etc. And they said no.

The month before my escape I started haemorrhaging so bad that at the time of my escape I was wearing three big sanitary napkins at the time. And I would have to change them every 2 hours. I was having my menstrual cycle for two weeks at the time, every other week. I was just bleeding horrendously. That day, when I made the decision that I couldn’t wait any longer to get medical care I was standing up in the middle of the floor in the unit where I was housed and all of a sudden – I mean nothing special happened – I just started haemorrhaging from the vagina. And I went to the clinic hall in the institution and they gave me Urgatrade, that was a medication to control the bleeding and told me to go and put my feet up. That was the extent of it – there was no recommendation for to take me to a doctor, to the hospital or anything. I just felt that they were not concerned about my health at all.

The doctor at the institution was not qualified to deal with women. And he had been so bad that in once case for example he had diagnosed just a sore throat when a woman had cancer. This other woman had one ovary left and he told here she had tumours on her right ovary – she didn’t have any right ovary. There was no way that you could have faith in the competency of this doctor. So, when they told me about this Urgatrade for the control of the bleeding and go and put my feet up, I decided that I had to make arrangements to take care of my own medical care.

Those of us who were in the BLA and who were incarcerated, we had a secure communication channel, so that we were still involved in what we called consolidation, organizing, structuring and stuff like that. I was in charge of Area 2 of the consolidation work in the unit and for the country. And as being in charge of Area 2 I was responsible for all the consolidation work in that area around BLA and BPP members, and outside building that whole network in that area. My second was Mark Holder who was in prison at Marion; and he was responsible for that area. So, between the two of us we had the whole Southern regional area of the East Coast in terms of our organizing efforts. Even while we were in prison, mind you…

Part of the CC, the Central Committee of the BLA, were on the streets. There were also members of the CC that were in prison and some were underground.

When I made the decision to escape I notified through secure channels the Central Committee that I was making a move. I notified my area coordinator and I notified the people in the area who needed to know that I was not going to be where they thought I was going to be. The night of the actual escape, we left and we made contact with the underground, and I was out roughly two months. I was captured on February 27th, 1977, and returned to prison in Virginia and went to trial where I was my own attorney at this point in the trial.

During the course of the trial I raised the issue of inadequate medical care and I pleaded not guilty for the reason of “duress and necessity” – that in order to save my own life I had to escape because of the medical conditions. That was also a way of raising the lack of adequate medical care for the women in the prison itself. The jury was very sympathetic and in the town a lot of the correctional officers and the head nurse for the correctional facility were very sympathetic because they knew this man was not qualified; that people in the town where the prison was located would not use him for anything. The only place he could practice was in the women’s institution, because nobody would allow him to practice on them. So during the course of the trial this was brought out.

By the time the trial was over, the judge had to threaten the jury with contempt charges if they didn’t find me guilty, because he said escape is like murder. And so they found me guilty of escape and they sentenced me to the minimum time which was one year. I was already doing 40 years, so one year didn’t make a difference. And the jury stood outside the courtroom and apologized when I was going out … (laughs). The upshot of it was that I was given a choice at that point about doctors – they picked three doctors outside that were not part of the prison system. And they took me to a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, and I picked a woman doctor and we talked about it and they did the examination. By this time it was two years after going into prison, my condition had worsened to the point where they said there strings all across that had pulled my uterus, the tubes and the ovaries all together. And Wanda said – my doctors’s name was Wanda too – that she would do everything possible to save something, but it would be a major piece of surgery. The upshot was that I ended up having a hysterectomy and that I have only one ovary left – and it’s because of the malpractice of that doctor.

I suffered severe postpartum depression. For whole year I was out of it. I was still in maximum security segregation for the escape. I spent three years and 7 months in maximum security segregation – that was the longest time anyone ever did for escape; before that the maximum for escape was 6 months in maximum security segregation. I had to go to court to come out of it and the court ordered me out of it at the end of the three years and 7 months, they had to phase me out. But during the course of the trial the Warden said that I was a threat to the security of the free world if the were releasing me from maximum security segregation. For a minute there I thought I was Russian (laughs) …

Anyway, I came out of maximum security segregation in 1981. After I came out of maximum security segregation we founded a little organization in prisons called “Mothers Inside Loving Kids” for people with a long time, to try to bridge that gap between the children and so that they can keep their family and that continuity with their children going. And then I made parole in 1983, and in August 1983 I was already free.

Q: Did they give you conditions for parole?

Yeah. I wasn’t supposed to associate with anybody – I wasn’t supposed to associate with folks. I wasn’t supposed to ever have a gun in my hands again. I wasn’t supposed to associate with any BLA or Panthers or anything like that. They asked me questions like: “Do you believe in violence or would you do what you did again?” And I told them that based on the conditions – no right-thinking person believes in violence for the sake of violence. But there are certain instances when you have no alternative, when you have exhausted everything else – then you have to resort to violence. And then they asked me: “Would I deal with things the same way again?” And I told them, no, I wouldn’t do it particularly that, because one of the things that is very clear is that we haven’t done the necessary education and organizational work in the streets in order to deal with a movement in the ways that we moved then. We were young, we were idealistic and we were impatient.

We have to build a foundation. And we have to organize not just 30,000 people. This country has 240 to almost 300 million people in it. And a lot of people in the rural areas, and even in some of the major cities and in the suburbs, don’t even know anything is happening because they are not exposed to the conditions – they just don’t know about it. It’s like when we talk about Mumia’s situation – people have never even heard his name – and we are talking about a major situation.

So, the educational phase has to be so that when you move from one level to the next in the struggle, that it is understood that the people know what we are doing. And you lay the foundation to the point where you are not leading the people to a slaughter. And they talked about not being around people who were in the BLA and the BPP and convicted felons. And I told them that it isn’t possible to live in the Black community and not be around convicted felons. To say that I won’t do that I’d be lying to you.

And the other part is that these people of the BPP and the BLA are not just comrades, they are my family. And to tell me that I cannot associate with my family is something I will not accept. So I told them if you give me parole be clear about the fact that I am going to associate with my family. (laughs) And I did from day one when I was walking out of the prison. I was shocked – everyone was shocked – that I made parole. (laughs) The consistence was that the state of Virginia just wanted to get rid of me because it was costing them too much money lately.

The only times I did a law suit against them was when they pushed me to the point where I had no other choice but to file a suit against them. At the last when I left the prison in Virginia they had just written the first infraction ticket that I had since my escape. I was on work release and they had written the ticket because I went outside on the ground of the place where I worked at to sit down to eat lunch on the bench. And the woman who was in charge of the house, the workpolice, wrote the ticket – she was already crazy about the fact that I was a Muslim and she was a Christian and she thought that everybody in the house should be Christian …

And I didn’t eat pork, and how could you be Black in the South without eating pork? She was really ridiculous with “this is my house” and this is a prison. But when she gave me the ticket, she confined me to the house, and the only thing I could come out for were meals. I didn’t mind because at this point I had already made parole, I was just waiting for the date. But at the same time I didn’t like that she had denied me religious freedom.

And I filed a law suit – I told her the next time she will talk to me, talk to my lawyer. I made parole and came home and the suit was still pending. Then I got a call from the lawyer to tell me that they had settled; they had fired her, they had settled the lawsuit and I hadn’t even asked for damages … I just wanted them to tell her that this was not her house and she couldn’t run it as if it were her house and that she couldn’t dictate what religion people could be … I just wanted to tell her that. Because other women were scared to say anything because she was threatening with taking their rights and privileges and they were not ready to deal with that. And I just didn’t think that these people should get away with running their own little prisons.

Anyway, I didn’t mean for her to get fired, because she was the only Black woman in that position. But she got herself into a position that there was nothing to do but to deal with it. And anyway, they gave me money damages and fired her.

Q: Can you talk about how it was to be the only woman unit leader underground?

(laughs) Sexism is regardless of how political you are – in the United States sexism is part of the culture of the U.S. and this is a sexist society.

In the Black Liberation movement sexism is a strong factor not only because of the sexist society in America, but because of the African culture itself, sexism is there. And it’s there in the black culture, because of the denial of their manhood in the acculturation and deculturation that came with slavery and everything else. When the Black Power movement cam into being in the 60s and even through the Garveyites (Marcus Garvey – Black nationalist leader in the 20s and 30s with a strong slogan “Back to Africa”), the Garvey movement and the Nation of Islam and all that other prior to that, there was a search for their manhood. You know, “Rise up you mighty Black men”, Garvey said, or in the BPP the slogan was “Stand up to be Men” and so forth. So, in the Black Power movement and the cultural nationalist movement they were really blatant by saying that the place of women was in the kitchen or on their backs and having children for building the Nation and so on.

One of the things that had developed in the Panther Party and in the BLA – for us, the BLA came out of the BPP because no Party member was allowed to join any armed force other than the Black Liberation Army – was the whole machismo thing. But at the same time there was an organizational position that was anti-sexist. But the individuals themselves still had a lot of sexism within. The Party only existed for about 7 years … there was never time. You had a cultural thing that never did have time to be dealt with.

So you had all the “leaders”, even though Kathleen Cleaver was on the Central Committee, she was just there, a figure-head most on the CC She was Eldridge Cleaver’s wife. So her role was not as a Communications Secretary in the sense that she was viable and working ahead, having an independent voice .. . her role was that of – since she was married to Eldridge Cleaver and he was Minister of Information, she was the Communication Secretary. And women were still viewed more or less as secretaries. There were a few of us on the political front and at political stands and doing the same work. We were basically doing the same work in the BPP. There were a few of us who not only would do the same work, but we would not accept the sexism.

And in the years when I joined the party in 1969, one of the things I tried to make clear was that I did not come into the Party to become somebody’s sexual toy. That, if I wanted to do that I could do it outside of the BPP. Also, I was in my second year at college when I joined the Party – I had already made determinations. I was raised in a family of six brothers and endless uncles … and my mother was very strong. So there was always that leadership position.

And when I made the determination that I was going underground, it was a determination that was based on that I knew this was the next step, this is what I wanted to do. And I had the experience of the collectives that I worked with. First it was the Harriet Tubman Brigade – their sole responsibility was to liberate P.O.W.s, and then it was the “Wretched of the Earth” – and we still wanted the liberation of the P.O.W.s. We saw ourselves as a collective in the sense of a collective. There were no real unit coordinators in those years.

By the time the Amistad Collective came together we decided that we wanted to organize it. We wanted responsibilities and discipline whereas a lot of other units did not have that organization. We wanted to set us a pattern. We had election based on qualifications – qualification and not sexuality – did we decide on who got what position. We had political education classes and we had everything – we even had “r and r” (rest and relaxation) because we found it was necessary that you had time to rest and recuperate.

Having the responsibility of a unit coordinator was more like keeping it all together and trying to make sure that decisions were made not on an emotional basis, that we looked at everything objectively in making those decisions. And making sure that there was a distribution of the work that didn’t see the women in the cell doing the “female” work and being seen as sex objects in the cells. That didn’t develop so we were able to maintain a position in our cell that we were comrades. We were comrades, we respected each other’s individuality and each other’s capabilities and we had the discipline that we didn’t violate no drug rules and not being intoxicated while carrying out our business and stuff like that. That was a very bad part of the movement, in the underground also, that developed in this country.

We had analyzed these things prior to us forming a cell. I think, that’s one of the things that came with being a female unit coordinator – it’s because women have a practical, a more practical approach to things than men do. (laughs). And that’s what I think made our cell different. Even though I was captured and my co- defendant was captured and the other unit member was killed – our unit was made up of 8 people – no one else ever got captured that was in our unit. And the person who talked, who allowed us to be captured, was eventually dealt with, so the person was incapable to put anybody else in the position to be captured. You know, my co-defendant was captured and a woman was killed and I was captured, but 5 other people survived it and were capable of moving.

And even though I didn’t particularly like being in prison, we, we were able to do work. And during the course of the trial, we were able to educate the community. The community was the support network that we had, and even when it came down to the escapes and everything else that happened in Virginia during that time – the people were there because the unit was able to continue to do the work and put the thing together.

Q: What happened to your co-defendant?

He’s out. He’s in Chicago. Yeah, after I got out first, the work to get him out was a thing that we continued. I carried it on – because one of the things I told people is that I was out, but as long as he was in, I really wasn’t out yet, you know. And that’s the kind of cohesiveness that we maintained. Because in a lot of other cases people who were co-defendants came out and they went on about their business and forgot about their co-defendants, the people that went in with them, and I think on that end our unit set a very good example, that we didn’t just walk away from the situation.

Q: And how was it for you – you already had your child before you went underground?

Yes, she was 4 years old when I went underground. Her father was killed during the split in the party. There were two casualties directly involved in the split. That was Robert Webb and Sam Napier on the East Coast, on the New York side of the split. Robert Webb, who is my daughter’s father, had been a body guard to Huey Newton. And when the split went down, because he surfaced – he had been underground – he was a liability for them. He was ordered assassinated by crews from that end.

In retaliation, people from the outside assassinated [Sam Napier]. The fratricide was the most .. the police just sat back and laughed; their thing was they didn’t have to get Panthers, the Panthers kill each other. That was a very crucial time for a lot of us. And when we look back at it – Sam was a loss to the movement itself because he was the circulation manager of the paper. And he lived and died for the paper. And Robert was a loss – just personally he was a loss, because of our relationship, but politically he was a loss, because he knew how to put together an apparatus. He had been in the armed forces of the U.S., he had come out and he was working for the liberation of our people. He had the information and the connections in order to do it; and he had the security mind – he was Deputy Field Marshal in the BPP. Anyway, at the time just before the split, my mother had taken custody of my daughter. I let her go and stay with my mother. And when Robert came back, we had intentions at the point to go back from the underground to get Wanda, my daughter – I named her Wanda too (laughs) – and to bring her back to stay with us and then he got killed, so it was very appropriate that she stayed with my mother. So, she stayed there and I would go and see her.

Robert was dead and I was in a very insecure position. By the time 1974 came around I and I already had the $10,000 contract on me, I had the Grand Jury subpoena and I had been busted in November 1973 for the other things. So I called my mother up and I told her that I wanted her to keep my daughter. And I signed guardianship over to her. One of the things the state was trying to do was to take Panther children away from their parents because they were unfit parents, etc. I didn’t want to take a chance, so I signed legal guardianship over to my mother. And I made arrangements for her schooling and everything else, and I went underground.

When I got captured, I could still see her and I had a lot of dealings with her schooling, etc. But even at that point, when the state found out about her they tried to take her, at one point just tried to kidnap her and use her for leverage against me to make me talk while I was in prison. In a lot of cases I would just call and make sure that my mother didn’t let her go with strangers or someone. One time this woman came by the house and told my mother that she will bring toys for Wanda, she will come and visit and stuff like that, told my mother that she was one of my best friends, and I had told her that Wanda could come spend the weekend with her. And it just so happened that that particular weekend I called home and Momma told me about it, and I told her that I had never heard that woman’s name before in my life. It was incidents like these that made us decide that she could go nowhere by herself, that she had to be taken to school and be picked up from school, and she couldn’t be allowed to just have a normal life really, because they were at the point where they were using children to get information from the parents. So it was very hard to do time in prison knowing that my daughter was the target for a whole lot of things.

Q: Did she understand what was happening?

She never understood. On a lot of levels she was angry because she thought my being in prison was an abandonment of her. And then she never really understood why she had to be kept under such strict surveillance or control. And even now, I tell her now it hasn’t really changed. I mean, I will get messages where someone has seen her here or done this. There is no place that she can go that people don’t know that she is my daughter, and so she has to watch herself very carefully about what she does and where she is and stuff like that.

Q: When we first started learning about the Black Panther Party and the BLA, the only woman’s name that was mentioned was Assata and no one else. Why is that?

That’s because of the media stuff. (laughs) I think the reason why you hear so much about Assata is basically because in 1973 with the shoot-out and everything that happened, the publicity was very high. So the media when they were looking for her, they called her the “soul of the BLA” and stuff like that. It was a lot of media hype and people have a tendency to deal with the media….

You know, she has survived a lot, she has learned a lot and she has studied and she has developed.

And I think on that end too, I have a real problem with the fact that people deal with Assata and there are a lot of other people out there in exile that no one ever mentions.

And then you have a bunch of them in various places that nobody knows their names. And that really works with me, because we have a tendency to build superstars and the superstars get the play. And the soldiers in the rank and file and the workhorses, whose names were never known, they languish on their own. That is not the way you build movements, if you don’t support the people in your movements who made the sacrifices then what incentive is there to anybody else to get involved. I have a real problem with that.

You know the names of Dhoruba bin-Wahad, or Geronimo ji-Jaga Pratt and the New York Three, but all the other ones who are languishing in the prisons sit there with no attorneys, no nothing and no one knows their names. You can mention their names, and it goes in one ear and out the other. A lot of times they have no commissary, they don’t get visits, not even from their families do they get visits. But the families that weren’t involved in the struggles that they’re in prison for, they didn’t make the commitments. But the people who were involved in those struggles with them, they don’t even remember the names anymore.

Do you see anyone out there right now who is trying to rebuild the contacts with those comrades? It seems there are so many who need to come out just on the case that they’ve been involved in the struggle?

Well, that’s one of the reasons why we do the New York Three Freedom Campaign Newsletter, we mention those people every time we get information about them, where they are and their cases, what’s happening with them, we try to bring it up and build networking for different struggles around different political prisoners. We try and educate the people to get involved, educate them about the rank and file. And we try to raise not to get involved with the personality cult and deal with the whole issue of support for political prisoners rather than support for an individual political prisoner.

And even like dealing with the brothers inside right now – because it’s predominantly brothers that are inside, except for the MOVE prisoners and white anti-imperialists, there are more brothers; in the Black movement there are basically men that were involved at that time, especially Panthers and BLA members – to cross those boundaries and deal with the whole issue of political prisoners. They are pushing that now, too, that they went into prison as members of organizations and that they should be dealt with as members of organizations rather than as individuals.

There is a lot of work that has to be done – attorneys have to be found and our responsibility to ourselves is in building that foundation, because all of that is building foundations.

When you get involved in movements there should be a legal defense fund set up consistently and there. So when a bust goes down, there is an attorney available for the incarcerated comrade. There should be no question about having to raise defense money. It should be there. By the same token there should be a mechanism to liberate political prisoners. So, that if there is nothing to be won through the courts, there is an alternative already in place.

And for those that have done their time, there should be a fund or something set up for them. I know after 8 years and 8 months there was a lot of psychological damage done to myself personally in the time that I spent in prison. There has to be a mechanism set up so you have time to cool out and deprogram. Because that’s what time in prison is – it’s a time of programming. And so you have to be de-programmed. And after almost 9 years, it happened to me then … and those people who have done 15 and 17 and 20 or more years, they need it much more than I did – you know, to train them for things. And we don’t have those mechanisms in place.

So when I talk about the foundations that we need to build for the struggle I this country, we talk about the basic, elementary foundations to fill a military apparatus and a political struggle. On the political level, we need to have our own communication centres, so we don’t have to keep worrying and wondering about how we get information printed or how we are going to get this done or that done. Right now we should have the people with the necessary skills to put information out from the radio and television. And we have not pulled that together.

Q: This foundation, do you see it coming from people like yourself and people with a history in the BPP, or do you think there is that whole new generation that starts that on their own, or does the Nation of Islam do it? Who does it right now?

I don’t see it coming from the Nation of Islam. I don’t see it coming from any organised formation that is in existence at this point. Because there is a whole new level of thinking, a kind of way of thinking, that has to be developed. I think there are people within all those structures who have the innovative ideas and who have the foresight and who are capable of putting things together that are necessary and do it. But the question is whether or not they really know what they want.

There are a lot of times when we get thrown back in our community. In the years between elections our people see how bad the situation is and they get disenchanted with the elections and there comes along somebody saying all you have to do is to change the administration and things will be better. So they fall back into the same thing. Or you start off with leaders who are strong and audacious and they’re revolutionary or they mouth revolutionary slogans and then they find out that somebody offers them a piece of the pie and then they dilute their message. Like Sister Souljah recently, when she was busy talking about the need for a black army and so on, and then Bill Clinton attacked her about her statement about white people, that she said black people should have a week of killing white people. And her first thing was that she never had a gun, that she never advocated violence. Her whole spiel watered down to the point that we should build our own independent political party and with a technological approach to the situation.

So, even though I am not equating her with the revolutionary leaders, I am saying at that point where you have a voice and once you get attacked or anything like that or you get offered an entree into areas where you maintain your position and you can make a difference in what’s happening, you find out it was all about “this is the best for me at this point” and the amount of dollars, and it becomes different. I think we have a history of that. We have history of – when I made the door open for me, I am going through the door and then you forget about the other persons on the other side.

So, I really think that this new movement is going to be a mixture of people from the old school whose minds are open enough to recognize that they are not the end, that people do not have to come to them before they can move forward. They don’t have the absolute answer. Because some people who were in the Party think that if it isn’t done the way the party was doing it, then it ain’t rational. But it ain’t true. The Party made a lot of mistakes too.

A lot of us inside talked about how there was a need to find new blood. And if we don’t find that new blood and learn from our mistakes and build on them and move forward, then there is no hope for the struggle in this country. And if we continue to try to hold on to it and say: this is my struggle and nobody else can determine how and in which direction it goes, and you can’t do this without permission from me or this is my territory and you can’t walk on my territory. With that game turf mentality we are defeating our own purpose. I think, one of the things we have to do is to consolidate a lot of these organizations and we haven’t done this because egos are in the way.

Egos are a very, very large part of why we have such fragmentations in this movement and we are now moving apart, not moving further. And if you look at the heads of these organizations – they are all men and they splinter off from each other and form little groups with about 30 people in them and they speak to about the same constituency. We have to get past that.

What really gets me is that I hear the people saying that people are ready for this and people are ready for that and the same people who are ready for this and ready for that are the same people that they have been speaking to all the time and they haven’t educated anyone else. When you go outside a certain sector – you can’t even say all of Harlem knows what is going on. Just those people at that rally, or just those who listen to WLIB (NYC radio station) or just those people who call in might be ready. And they might be ready just to talk. And they are ready to do anything concrete. And then they assume just by listening to those few people that the masses are ready for armed struggle, which is not true. Because when you go out to the community, when I go to my mother’s house in Richmond Hill which is right here in Queens, I know they are not ready. But they travel in these little groups, these call these little demonstrations and these people come and they think that they are ready for armed struggle – it’s not true.

A lot of these people would not even know – if armed struggle broke out today – where would they go, how should you deal with treating the wounded, how would you deal with keeping the police from busting down the doors.

So, what you need to do is make those people find a way to take a victory out of the defeat. To turn it around and let people know that you don’t have to be a super-hero to be involved in the movement. But everyone wants people to believe that they’re such strong revolutionaries, that they never feel pain, they never cry, they never want to chuck it all and want to go up to the mountains and read a book or something. But it’s not true.

Jalil will tell you, with this New York Three case, I have been out of prison since 1983 and I have been on this case ever since, and on other cases and working on this and that. And sometimes I am going to say, I need a break, I am not going to do another day’s work on this. And I say that to them and I’m gone. And now, when I say that to them, they leave me alone for a couple of weeks and then they call back and say “are you ok now?” (laughs) Because you are human. You need to do these things in order to continue to be strong enough to handle the struggle. But we want people to believe that we are superhuman. We are not like everyone else…but we are. And we have to recognize that ourselves. And we need recharging. So, if I know that I am coming to the end of my rope, then I can take those precautions, so that I don’t fall a victim to the things that are out there.

Q: Is it really true that there has been no BLA since the 80s?

Not actually since, I would say, 1977/78. And what makes it so bad is that the government knew that. The government knew at that point that there was no political BLA happening out there, whose reason for being there was strictly to wage political and armed struggle in this country, where it was basically the military apparatus of the BPP.

I think you will get to the point where you recognize that in order to build a new movement that you have to expose the mistakes of the prior one, so that you don’t make those same mistakes again; that when you get to that point then we will be ready to move forward again.

Q: What happened to the women, I mean the other women, who were not under so much repression. Did they go back?

A lot of them got involved in community programs, community based work. A lot of us are in touch with each other when we do stuff around the different cases, etc. The women do the majority of that work from one end of the country to the other. Women are raising the children and making sure that they get the education, taking care of the families of the political prisoners, just surviving themselves, because they have been the victims of a lot of these conditions. And now they are educating the youth – in the schools, colleges, universities. So they are continuing the work through the community organizations, like homeless shelters, children’s programs, etc. And when we move from one point to the other we are in touch. And we talk about the women getting together and doing what need to be done. (laughs) We are starting to write books, we are doing more political speaking…

Q: It reminds me of a visit by a women comrade from the Tupamaros who came to the FRG in April, who described a similar development in Uruguay where the women are doing the community work and the men are mostly involved in the strategy discussions.

Because the real work is done by the women on a lot of occasions. The whole theory and sitting back and doing the armchair theory end – that ain’t giving anything to the children, it’s not educating them, that ain’t keeping them out of prison, it’s not doing that. And we have to keep our feet on the ground and keep moving and keep them alive while we build the movement.

Q: You said that you are involved with Islam. Does it interfere with your work at all?

I became a Muslim before I went into prison. I became a Muslim in 1971. It was in the Quran that said it was incumbent upon a Muslim to wage a struggle against tyranny and oppression wherever it may be found. That gave me the license to be a revolutionary and a Muslim at the same time.

And I take it to the extreme, to the extreme I think it is meant to be taken, that a true Muslim will not sit idly by and allow tyranny and oppression in whatever form to happen without waging struggle against it. So, I see no contradiction between being muslim and a revolutionary. I see a contradiction in the way that Islam is practiced in the world. I remember that when I was captured in Virginia, the Islamic community sent a representative to see me and told me that they would not support me as long as I did not veer my case from my co-defendant’s case. There was something totally wrong with them taking a position like that.

I know I came in a lot of conflict with people who thought because I was a woman and a Muslim that I shouldn’t do this and shouldn’t do that. And when someone is asking about my political beliefs and affiliations and how it’s not been according to the Quran, I refer right back to Sura 23.

Q: Well, I think in Europe we hear very little about the revolutionary writings in the Quran.

Well, that’s because they don’t want to do anything. The Muslims even here – for them it’s a way of separating themselves from society without taking on society. So they become different and say they are not governed by the laws, etc.

The worst thing that has ever happened is having four wives. It isn’t based on Islam, Islam is explained by men in the religion. And the women don’t read the Quran for themselves, so they are victimized by Islam. So, they don’t understand that the men cannot have four wives without the permission of the woman, you know. (laughs) So, if she doesn’t go along with it, it ain’t happening. That in order to have four wives, they have to be taken care of economically, psychologically, physically and spiritually. And I mean, I don’t know too many men who can deal with more than one woman and take care of her. (laughs) And that’s the case, and then there shouldn’t be four wives happening anyway. But these men get the women, put them on welfare and call themselves Muslims they have no understanding for themselves for they have never read the Quran.

Q: Do you want to add something to the interview?

Yes, I just want to reiterate the fact that everyone of us has weaknesses. So, the weakness that people fell into after the “leadership of the movement” went to prison or were wiped out – what you had left was a lot of people who could not function without organization. The organizations were destroyed, they were out there by themselves and then they got caught up in a lot of negative stuff.

Q: Actually, I have one more question. Do you feel you can work at all with what’s left of the white feminist movement or the white women’s movement? Is there any kind of working relationship or do you just say they don’t have a revolutionary program and so you can’t work with them?

It depends. I think in the beginning of the feminist movement in this country it was fairly progressive. Now the feminist movement in this country has just as many right-wing elements as you have revolutionary elements. As a matter of fact, I would say the right-wing elements outnumber the revolutionary elements in the feminist movement in the U.S.

And not just in the white feminist movement, but in the Black/Third World feminist movement also. Sometimes I think that they equate their individual issues with revolutionary struggle, which is not one and the same.

And even with the lesbian and gay community’s struggle in this country – a lot of them are just as conservative as their counterparts in the heterosexual community. And they don’t understand that the issue of sexuality itself is not a revolutionary issue. A lot of people don’t see the difference. They don’t see that that is not a revolutionary issue and that it is not an issue that you can impose and make it an issue of the Black Liberation movement.

When I address the issue of oppression based on sexuality, I make clear that oppression in and of itself, regardless of what reason you oppress people, is wrong. So, to oppress a person because of their sexuality, that in itself is something that we can’t contend to deal with.

Now, once you get past that, then it’s your personal choices. And I think that it doesn’t fall on the level of racism and it doesn’t on class oppression.

And then dealing with the feminist movement they have the question of reproductive rights or pro-choice, choice, and no choice. That is a movement by itself. On the Left, we take the position that a person’s body is their own; that there is a choice that they should make about themselves.

But when you get to the big question, you got just as many cops, female cops, and female judges, and female prosecuting attorneys and oppressive forces who are pro-choice and anything else. So, being pro-choice is not a revolutionary position. And so you can’t continue to equate and allow ourselves to be put in a position that we get dictated to by people who are in one-issue forces.

Q: Thank you for the interview.

Text taken from ATS-L Archives; e-mail Wed, 8 Mar 1995 17:22:29 -0500 (EST) from ats@etext.org, Subject: IWD: Interview With Safiya Bukhari-Alston

More:

Safiya: Lioness for Liberation, by Mumia Abu-Jamal

Tribute to Safiya on her passing, from the NYC Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition

Reminiscence of Safiya Bukhari from the Provisional Government, Republic of New Afrika

Tributes from Assata Shakur, Nehanda Abiodun, Sally O’Brien, and Yuri Kochiyama

Defending Kamau Sadiki, Safiya’s last project

Safiya Bukhari, “Coming of Age: A Black Revolutionary,” Notes from a New Afrikan P.O.W. Journal, Book 7 (Spear & Shield Publications, 1979). Reprinted with updates in Joy James, ed., Imprisoned Intellectuals (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).

Page maintained by Jericho Amnesty Movement, SF Bay Area. Updated October 12, 2003

source: Jericho Movement

Attached is a zine for printing.
Letter
A4

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12747

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Arm the Spirit Interview With Safiya Bukhari for International Women’s Day: 1995

Interview conducted in New York City, September 27, 1992 and distributed by Arm the Spirit via e-mail for International Women’s Day 1995.

Q: The first question I have is, how did you get involved with the Black Panther Party (BPP)?

I was going to college to be a doctor. The first year in college I was just into my studies. But it was right here in Brooklyn, actually, in New York City College, and the people on campus thought that I was stuck up because I didn’t associate – I was studying a lot. And so the second year, in order to break that mode, I pledged for a sorority called Hamilton House. That same year the sorority became integrated. We elected the first Black president. And one of the projects of the sorority was to adopt underprivileged children in foreign countries. Our President that year said we didn’t have to go any further than the United States to find underprivileged children. A lot of people didn’t believe that there were hungry children that needed to be fed right here in the U.S., even in New York.

So three of us were assigned to go investigate the situation and we ended up going to Harlem to see if there were really hungry children. It was Yvonne Smallwood, Wanda Davis and myself. And the first people we ran into when we got there were the Panthers. Wanda got totally involved from the beginning; she fell in love with a Panther and joined the Party and everything. I didn’t go that route. I simply didn’t believe the things that the Panthers were saying.

About the hungry children: we went back and reported that the result was that there were a lot of people who were eating out of garbage cans, that there were indecent conditions that they were living in, etc. The next question was what to do about it. Should we start our own program or should we get involved in the things that already went on – because the Panthers already had the Free Breakfast Program. So, in essence we elected to just assign various members of our sorority to work with the free Breakfast Program. We would collect the food, we cooked the food, we would help the children with their homework, things like that, but I still didn’t believe in what the Panthers were saying. I didn’t think that the violence was happening. I didn’t think that the conspiracies were going on. I didn’t believe that the police were doing what they said they were doing, etc.

Two incidents happened that made me start to think seriously about what the ideology of the Party was and take the rhetoric of the Party seriously. With the Breakfast Program, the police started putting out rumours. The children stopped coming to the breakfast program. And I wondered why – so I found out from talking to some of the parents that the police kept telling them that we were feeding the children poisoned food – so they were stopped from bringing their children to the program and that made me angry. I mean, we were getting up at outrageous hours in the morning to take care of this before going to school – I was still going to school full-time – I was cooking the food and we were eating it right along with the children. They didn’t have a breakfast program in the schools themselves, they were not making an effort to feed the children, but they didn’t want us to feed the children. And I was incensed about that.

Then, myself and my friend Wanda were walking on 42nd Street – I still hadn’t joined the Party, that still didn’t make me angry enough to join the Party – well, there we were on 42nd Street one day and going to times Square we saw this big crowd on the corner and so we went rushing to see what was going on. A Panther was on the corner selling papers and the police were harassing him. So, believing whole-heartedly in the Constitution, I asked him what he was doing. And the police said if I didn’t stop that they were going to arrest me, too. I said he had a constitutional right to sell the papers, actually, I said he had a constitutional right to disseminate political literature, and he didn’t take that too kindly. He asked me for my ID and told me to get up against the car and that he was going to arrest me for obstructing governmental process and inciting a riot. He handcuffed me, handcuffed the Panther, handcuffed Wanda and threw us into the police car and took us down to the 14th Precinct. In the back of the car they told my friend Wanda that if she didn’t shut up – she was just running off at the mouth, calling them a bunch of names – they were going to ram the night-stick right up her. That was their behaviour and when we got to the Precinct itself they talked about holding court in the Precinct. They did a search, threw us in a holding cell and kept talking … then they had a female guard come and strip-search us and they told her she should wear gloves and make sure she washes her hands afterwards because she could catch something from touching us. It was that experience that when they let me out, I called my mother and father at home and told them I was going to join the BPP. Because of the police, I told them that the police convinced me of the legitimacy of the truth of what the Panthers were saying.

I didn’t get arrested for anything from that point on. I never got arrested for anything trivial. But my friend Wanda, she never learned not to get arrested for talking, I was with her when she got arrested for selling wolf tickets and murdermouthing the police. But to me it was much more serious than that. It was more serious because they had this authority and they had the badges and they had the guns and they abused their power. And it’s what they say and what they do that carries more weight in a court of law than what the individual does. It was that kind of corruption that made me make the decision to join the BPP.

Q: When was that?

1969.

Q: And then you worked with the Panthers in New York?

I worked with the Panthers, I worked out of the Harlem office of the BPP, from then until I went underground in 1974.

Q: Why did you go underground?

From 1969 until 1971, before the split in the BPP, I had a section. My responsibility was for organizing and politicizing that section, selling papers, organizing the various cell units and just politically educating that community. I did everything from selling papers and handing out leaflets, drug-detox work and everything else. By 1971 when the split came down, right after the split, I became in charge of Information and Communications for the East Coast Panthers. One of my responsibilities was to hold the press conferences and release communiqués from the Black Liberation Army.

And so I became a direct threat to the establishment. They thought I had the information they needed to capture BLA members. So they subpoenaed me. But even prior to this they had done a number of articles on the fact that I was the only ranking member in the Party without a felony conviction. And since I had no felony conviction, I had a license to carry arms. And I carried arms openly in public because the law allowed you to. You could carry long arms or have a Paratrooper A-1. I had an 8mm Mauser and I had these long arms whenever we had a press conference. Or I kept it at home and walked with it, carried it back and forth to the office, in a holster on the street. So the media played it up like “the Panthers with guns”, but they didn’t bother to investigate that it was licensed. When they finally got to the point that they realized I was legal, then I was the only ranking Party member without a felony conviction.

I had done my work in the community so well that I had a lot of community support and so on that level had organized my base area and also had the political astuteness to in order to play the media. They thought the fact that I had the diplomacy to play the media made me a political threat. Then in 1970/71 we started the National Committee for the defense of Political Prisoners, in response to all the arrests across the country of Panthers and BLA members. I was working with the people in prison and they put the letters that I was sending inside to the prisoners. Our political stance was very clear, we were not about reformism or anything like that. It was about revolutionary political power and how it comes to revolution, and means a qualitative change in the living conditions of the people with us, and it was not about the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People – oldest liberal Black civil rights organization in the U.S.) style politics or anything like that.

The Senate Committee in the US held hearings on the kind of political literature that was going into the prisons, so that part was a threat to them also. It was basically a lot of the political work that I was doing – back and forth to the prisons – myself and Yuri Kochiyama and many others like us. And in November 1973, myself and three other people who were part of the Harriet Tubman Brigade of the BLA were arrested for trying to break out some six members of the BLA out of the Tombs (pretrial detention prison in NYC). But the arrest was premature because even though they played it up to the media like “Great Tombs Escape Fails At The sewer”, they were not able to hold us because we weren’t doing anything. The only thing they could charge us with was third degree burglary on a sewer, which was laughed out of court. And they were very angry.

Outside the legitimate system, the Police Department put a $10,000 contract on me that I wasn’t supposed to be captured. I had gotten into the position to be killed on sight. That was outside the normal system. And inside it, I got a subpoena by the Federal government to the grand Jury – about 11 other people and myself. But the difference with my subpoena was that if I showed up at the Grand Jury I couldn’t take the Fifth Amendment and therefore for any question that I refused to answer I was facing felony contempt which carried a prison sentence.

So we discussed it, myself and Nuh (Nuh Washington – now one of the New York Three) and some other people and we decided that I shouldn’t go before the Grand Jury in April 1974, that I should go underground. And at that point I went underground with the Amistad Collective of the Black Liberation Army.

Q: In order to end the chronology – when did you get captured?

I was the unit coordinator of the Amistad Collective. So, basically I was the only female coordinator in a BLA unit. We were captured in a shoot-out in Norfolk, Virginia, on January 25, 1975. One of my co-defendants, Komposi Amistad, was killed and another one was shot in the face. For the first 30 days we were facing the electric chair for felony murder. The only reason why we got out from the electric chair is that the federal government and the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in Virginia at that time, saying it was unconstitutional. So we didn’t have to go to trial facing the death penalty.

But the state of Virginia asked for 900 years on the paratrooper A-1 I told you about, they didn’t care that I had a federal license. It was a one day trial, my bail was set at 1 million dollars on each count – we had five counts, which came to 5 million dollars.

They told them not to touch the bail issue, they picked the jury, they had the trial and they sentenced us all in one day and took us off to prison in one day. When they had the trial they threw me out of court before they started the trial. So I understand well Mumia not being in court during his trial, because I was not in court either.

I was in a cell in the back and it was cold and it had a loud-speaker, but I didn’t hear a thing, because it was nothing but static. But they brought me back in court for the sentencing phase and I was given 40 years. The jury wanted to run the time concurrently – I got 10, 10, and 20 – because it was the minimum on all the charges. And the judge told them they couldn’t do it, it was not up to them to determine how high it ran on the term on what I got and he ran it consecutive, and he told me I had to do every day of it. I told him, his momma was going to do it. (laughs) They sent us off to prison that night.

We both went together because they sent me to the penitentiary for men where my co-defendant was, and then I was taken by caravan to the women’s institution in Richmond, Virginia, and spent the next 21 days in maximum security segregation, because they didn’t want me on the outside where the other population was.

Q: How did you get out of segregation?

According to their own rules the only reason why you are supposed to be on maximum security segregation is when you violate one of their rules. So, I hadn’t violated a rule, So, when they took me down there I asked them why I was down there and they said because they didn’t have an empty room in the quarantine hall. And I asked them for a manual of their rules. I read it all and I told them, if that’s the case, in 21 days then you don’t have to worry about the room in the quarantine. Just that either I’ll be out of maximum security segregation or you’ll be in court.

And so on the 19th day they sent this correctional officer down there who said that she would accept me on her hall. She asked me what my intentions were while I was in prison and I told here that my intention was to do two years and leave. (laughs).

And she said they were concerned about me organizing in prison recruiting for the BLA, and I told them I had no intentions to recruit because I don’t really believe in recruiting. I believe if a person is going to do anything they need to make the decision based on their own conditions. If you have to recruit them, they haven’t made a decision on their own and if they don’t make it on their own they’re susceptible to back out and say somebody forced them to do things and stuff like that. But if they make a conscious decision on their own that the want to be involved in something then they have nobody to blame for anything that happens.

So, I told her I had no intention of recruiting. And she said then that she didn’t have any problems with me being in her hall. And so on the 21st day they moved me to the building where this correctional officer was, but I wasn’t allowed to go out into general population without handcuffs on and an armed guard with me. I wasn’t allowed to go to school. I wasn’t allowed to work in the kitchen or in the laundry or any other place where the women were working because they said I was a security risk. So, the only place I could be was in the hall, on the tier, in the cottage where I was housed. For everything you had to be right there at that complex.

After the first year I had to do the psychological evaluation, so that they could determine how they should handle you. The psychologist that I had to go see decided that I didn’t have to do all those little stupid tests, putting blocks together, etc. He asked a bunch of questions and then he said that he understood my political “beliefs”; at least how determined I was and stuff like that. And then he wrote this paper talking about that I believed wholeheartedly in the movement and that I was adamant about that, but I would not be a disciplinary problem if they called me by my Islamic name and dealt with me in a respectful manner and then he called me “paranoid” (laughs) – that I believed that people were out to get me. But he did say that I had no need for rehabilitation – rehabilitate from what, anyway. So he told them that they had to call me by my Islamic name or Ms. Bukhari and there will be no problems. But if they try to deal with me in any other manner then they did have a problem with me. And that was the psychological evaluation.

Anyways, after almost two years exactly I escaped. It was New Years Eve 1976. And the escape was really for two reasons. First, was that I just believed as a prisoner of war that a prisoner of war’s responsibility is to escape. So, from the very beginning we took the position that we were prisoners of war, and at the time of our capture we were soldiers in the Black Liberation Army. We gave a name, rank and serial number only and invoked that the court had no jurisdiction to try us. Therefore on that premise alone that the prisons had no jurisdiction over us and it is our responsibility as prisoners of war to escape – on that level I escaped. And that was one of the reasons.

The other reason was – one of the reasons why I was going South in the first place prior to the capture was because I had medical problems and I needed surgery. At the time of the capture I made known to them that I needed to have a surgery. They kept telling me that when I go over to the state custody it would be handled then. When I got to the prison they told me – after the examination – that I had fibroids the size of oranges or grapefruits in my uterus and asked me how much time I had. I told them I had 40 years. They then told me to come back in 10 years. I filed suit. The court said that it was just a difference of opinion between me and the doctor about how the medical treatment should be. I had asked to be able to pay for my own medical care, to have a doctor from the outside, etc. And they said no.

The month before my escape I started haemorrhaging so bad that at the time of my escape I was wearing three big sanitary napkins at the time. And I would have to change them every 2 hours. I was having my menstrual cycle for two weeks at the time, every other week. I was just bleeding horrendously. That day, when I made the decision that I couldn’t wait any longer to get medical care I was standing up in the middle of the floor in the unit where I was housed and all of a sudden – I mean nothing special happened – I just started haemorrhaging from the vagina. And I went to the clinic hall in the institution and they gave me Urgatrade, that was a medication to control the bleeding and told me to go and put my feet up. That was the extent of it – there was no recommendation for to take me to a doctor, to the hospital or anything. I just felt that they were not concerned about my health at all.

The doctor at the institution was not qualified to deal with women. And he had been so bad that in once case for example he had diagnosed just a sore throat when a woman had cancer. This other woman had one ovary left and he told here she had tumours on her right ovary – she didn’t have any right ovary. There was no way that you could have faith in the competency of this doctor. So, when they told me about this Urgatrade for the control of the bleeding and go and put my feet up, I decided that I had to make arrangements to take care of my own medical care.

Those of us who were in the BLA and who were incarcerated, we had a secure communication channel, so that we were still involved in what we called consolidation, organizing, structuring and stuff like that. I was in charge of Area 2 of the consolidation work in the unit and for the country. And as being in charge of Area 2 I was responsible for all the consolidation work in that area around BLA and BPP members, and outside building that whole network in that area. My second was Mark Holder who was in prison at Marion; and he was responsible for that area. So, between the two of us we had the whole Southern regional area of the East Coast in terms of our organizing efforts. Even while we were in prison, mind you…

Part of the CC, the Central Committee of the BLA, were on the streets. There were also members of the CC that were in prison and some were underground.

When I made the decision to escape I notified through secure channels the Central Committee that I was making a move. I notified my area coordinator and I notified the people in the area who needed to know that I was not going to be where they thought I was going to be. The night of the actual escape, we left and we made contact with the underground, and I was out roughly two months. I was captured on February 27th, 1977, and returned to prison in Virginia and went to trial where I was my own attorney at this point in the trial.

During the course of the trial I raised the issue of inadequate medical care and I pleaded not guilty for the reason of “duress and necessity” – that in order to save my own life I had to escape because of the medical conditions. That was also a way of raising the lack of adequate medical care for the women in the prison itself. The jury was very sympathetic and in the town a lot of the correctional officers and the head nurse for the correctional facility were very sympathetic because they knew this man was not qualified; that people in the town where the prison was located would not use him for anything. The only place he could practice was in the women’s institution, because nobody would allow him to practice on them. So during the course of the trial this was brought out.

By the time the trial was over, the judge had to threaten the jury with contempt charges if they didn’t find me guilty, because he said escape is like murder. And so they found me guilty of escape and they sentenced me to the minimum time which was one year. I was already doing 40 years, so one year didn’t make a difference. And the jury stood outside the courtroom and apologized when I was going out … (laughs). The upshot of it was that I was given a choice at that point about doctors – they picked three doctors outside that were not part of the prison system. And they took me to a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, and I picked a woman doctor and we talked about it and they did the examination. By this time it was two years after going into prison, my condition had worsened to the point where they said there strings all across that had pulled my uterus, the tubes and the ovaries all together. And Wanda said – my doctors’s name was Wanda too – that she would do everything possible to save something, but it would be a major piece of surgery. The upshot was that I ended up having a hysterectomy and that I have only one ovary left – and it’s because of the malpractice of that doctor.

I suffered severe postpartum depression. For whole year I was out of it. I was still in maximum security segregation for the escape. I spent three years and 7 months in maximum security segregation – that was the longest time anyone ever did for escape; before that the maximum for escape was 6 months in maximum security segregation. I had to go to court to come out of it and the court ordered me out of it at the end of the three years and 7 months, they had to phase me out. But during the course of the trial the Warden said that I was a threat to the security of the free world if the were releasing me from maximum security segregation. For a minute there I thought I was Russian (laughs) …

Anyway, I came out of maximum security segregation in 1981. After I came out of maximum security segregation we founded a little organization in prisons called “Mothers Inside Loving Kids” for people with a long time, to try to bridge that gap between the children and so that they can keep their family and that continuity with their children going. And then I made parole in 1983, and in August 1983 I was already free.

Q: Did they give you conditions for parole?

Yeah. I wasn’t supposed to associate with anybody – I wasn’t supposed to associate with folks. I wasn’t supposed to ever have a gun in my hands again. I wasn’t supposed to associate with any BLA or Panthers or anything like that. They asked me questions like: “Do you believe in violence or would you do what you did again?” And I told them that based on the conditions – no right-thinking person believes in violence for the sake of violence. But there are certain instances when you have no alternative, when you have exhausted everything else – then you have to resort to violence. And then they asked me: “Would I deal with things the same way again?” And I told them, no, I wouldn’t do it particularly that, because one of the things that is very clear is that we haven’t done the necessary education and organizational work in the streets in order to deal with a movement in the ways that we moved then. We were young, we were idealistic and we were impatient.

We have to build a foundation. And we have to organize not just 30,000 people. This country has 240 to almost 300 million people in it. And a lot of people in the rural areas, and even in some of the major cities and in the suburbs, don’t even know anything is happening because they are not exposed to the conditions – they just don’t know about it. It’s like when we talk about Mumia’s situation – people have never even heard his name – and we are talking about a major situation.

So, the educational phase has to be so that when you move from one level to the next in the struggle, that it is understood that the people know what we are doing. And you lay the foundation to the point where you are not leading the people to a slaughter. And they talked about not being around people who were in the BLA and the BPP and convicted felons. And I told them that it isn’t possible to live in the Black community and not be around convicted felons. To say that I won’t do that I’d be lying to you.

And the other part is that these people of the BPP and the BLA are not just comrades, they are my family. And to tell me that I cannot associate with my family is something I will not accept. So I told them if you give me parole be clear about the fact that I am going to associate with my family. (laughs) And I did from day one when I was walking out of the prison. I was shocked – everyone was shocked – that I made parole. (laughs) The consistence was that the state of Virginia just wanted to get rid of me because it was costing them too much money lately.

The only times I did a law suit against them was when they pushed me to the point where I had no other choice but to file a suit against them. At the last when I left the prison in Virginia they had just written the first infraction ticket that I had since my escape. I was on work release and they had written the ticket because I went outside on the ground of the place where I worked at to sit down to eat lunch on the bench. And the woman who was in charge of the house, the workpolice, wrote the ticket – she was already crazy about the fact that I was a Muslim and she was a Christian and she thought that everybody in the house should be Christian …

And I didn’t eat pork, and how could you be Black in the South without eating pork? She was really ridiculous with “this is my house” and this is a prison. But when she gave me the ticket, she confined me to the house, and the only thing I could come out for were meals. I didn’t mind because at this point I had already made parole, I was just waiting for the date. But at the same time I didn’t like that she had denied me religious freedom.

And I filed a law suit – I told her the next time she will talk to me, talk to my lawyer. I made parole and came home and the suit was still pending. Then I got a call from the lawyer to tell me that they had settled; they had fired her, they had settled the lawsuit and I hadn’t even asked for damages … I just wanted them to tell her that this was not her house and she couldn’t run it as if it were her house and that she couldn’t dictate what religion people could be … I just wanted to tell her that. Because other women were scared to say anything because she was threatening with taking their rights and privileges and they were not ready to deal with that. And I just didn’t think that these people should get away with running their own little prisons.

Anyway, I didn’t mean for her to get fired, because she was the only Black woman in that position. But she got herself into a position that there was nothing to do but to deal with it. And anyway, they gave me money damages and fired her.

Q: Can you talk about how it was to be the only woman unit leader underground?

(laughs) Sexism is regardless of how political you are – in the United States sexism is part of the culture of the U.S. and this is a sexist society.

In the Black Liberation movement sexism is a strong factor not only because of the sexist society in America, but because of the African culture itself, sexism is there. And it’s there in the black culture, because of the denial of their manhood in the acculturation and deculturation that came with slavery and everything else. When the Black Power movement cam into being in the 60s and even through the Garveyites (Marcus Garvey – Black nationalist leader in the 20s and 30s with a strong slogan “Back to Africa”), the Garvey movement and the Nation of Islam and all that other prior to that, there was a search for their manhood. You know, “Rise up you mighty Black men”, Garvey said, or in the BPP the slogan was “Stand up to be Men” and so forth. So, in the Black Power movement and the cultural nationalist movement they were really blatant by saying that the place of women was in the kitchen or on their backs and having children for building the Nation and so on.

One of the things that had developed in the Panther Party and in the BLA – for us, the BLA came out of the BPP because no Party member was allowed to join any armed force other than the Black Liberation Army – was the whole machismo thing. But at the same time there was an organizational position that was anti-sexist. But the individuals themselves still had a lot of sexism within. The Party only existed for about 7 years … there was never time. You had a cultural thing that never did have time to be dealt with.

So you had all the “leaders”, even though Kathleen Cleaver was on the Central Committee, she was just there, a figure-head most on the CC She was Eldridge Cleaver’s wife. So her role was not as a Communications Secretary in the sense that she was viable and working ahead, having an independent voice .. . her role was that of – since she was married to Eldridge Cleaver and he was Minister of Information, she was the Communication Secretary. And women were still viewed more or less as secretaries. There were a few of us on the political front and at political stands and doing the same work. We were basically doing the same work in the BPP. There were a few of us who not only would do the same work, but we would not accept the sexism.

And in the years when I joined the party in 1969, one of the things I tried to make clear was that I did not come into the Party to become somebody’s sexual toy. That, if I wanted to do that I could do it outside of the BPP. Also, I was in my second year at college when I joined the Party – I had already made determinations. I was raised in a family of six brothers and endless uncles … and my mother was very strong. So there was always that leadership position.

And when I made the determination that I was going underground, it was a determination that was based on that I knew this was the next step, this is what I wanted to do. And I had the experience of the collectives that I worked with. First it was the Harriet Tubman Brigade – their sole responsibility was to liberate P.O.W.s, and then it was the “Wretched of the Earth” – and we still wanted the liberation of the P.O.W.s. We saw ourselves as a collective in the sense of a collective. There were no real unit coordinators in those years.

By the time the Amistad Collective came together we decided that we wanted to organize it. We wanted responsibilities and discipline whereas a lot of other units did not have that organization. We wanted to set us a pattern. We had election based on qualifications – qualification and not sexuality – did we decide on who got what position. We had political education classes and we had everything – we even had “r and r” (rest and relaxation) because we found it was necessary that you had time to rest and recuperate.

Having the responsibility of a unit coordinator was more like keeping it all together and trying to make sure that decisions were made not on an emotional basis, that we looked at everything objectively in making those decisions. And making sure that there was a distribution of the work that didn’t see the women in the cell doing the “female” work and being seen as sex objects in the cells. That didn’t develop so we were able to maintain a position in our cell that we were comrades. We were comrades, we respected each other’s individuality and each other’s capabilities and we had the discipline that we didn’t violate no drug rules and not being intoxicated while carrying out our business and stuff like that. That was a very bad part of the movement, in the underground also, that developed in this country.

We had analyzed these things prior to us forming a cell. I think, that’s one of the things that came with being a female unit coordinator – it’s because women have a practical, a more practical approach to things than men do. (laughs). And that’s what I think made our cell different. Even though I was captured and my co- defendant was captured and the other unit member was killed – our unit was made up of 8 people – no one else ever got captured that was in our unit. And the person who talked, who allowed us to be captured, was eventually dealt with, so the person was incapable to put anybody else in the position to be captured. You know, my co-defendant was captured and a woman was killed and I was captured, but 5 other people survived it and were capable of moving.

And even though I didn’t particularly like being in prison, we, we were able to do work. And during the course of the trial, we were able to educate the community. The community was the support network that we had, and even when it came down to the escapes and everything else that happened in Virginia during that time – the people were there because the unit was able to continue to do the work and put the thing together.

Q: What happened to your co-defendant?

He’s out. He’s in Chicago. Yeah, after I got out first, the work to get him out was a thing that we continued. I carried it on – because one of the things I told people is that I was out, but as long as he was in, I really wasn’t out yet, you know. And that’s the kind of cohesiveness that we maintained. Because in a lot of other cases people who were co-defendants came out and they went on about their business and forgot about their co-defendants, the people that went in with them, and I think on that end our unit set a very good example, that we didn’t just walk away from the situation.

Q: And how was it for you – you already had your child before you went underground?

Yes, she was 4 years old when I went underground. Her father was killed during the split in the party. There were two casualties directly involved in the split. That was Robert Webb and Sam Napier on the East Coast, on the New York side of the split. Robert Webb, who is my daughter’s father, had been a body guard to Huey Newton. And when the split went down, because he surfaced – he had been underground – he was a liability for them. He was ordered assassinated by crews from that end.

In retaliation, people from the outside assassinated [Sam Napier]. The fratricide was the most .. the police just sat back and laughed; their thing was they didn’t have to get Panthers, the Panthers kill each other. That was a very crucial time for a lot of us. And when we look back at it – Sam was a loss to the movement itself because he was the circulation manager of the paper. And he lived and died for the paper. And Robert was a loss – just personally he was a loss, because of our relationship, but politically he was a loss, because he knew how to put together an apparatus. He had been in the armed forces of the U.S., he had come out and he was working for the liberation of our people. He had the information and the connections in order to do it; and he had the security mind – he was Deputy Field Marshal in the BPP. Anyway, at the time just before the split, my mother had taken custody of my daughter. I let her go and stay with my mother. And when Robert came back, we had intentions at the point to go back from the underground to get Wanda, my daughter – I named her Wanda too (laughs) – and to bring her back to stay with us and then he got killed, so it was very appropriate that she stayed with my mother. So, she stayed there and I would go and see her.

Robert was dead and I was in a very insecure position. By the time 1974 came around I and I already had the $10,000 contract on me, I had the Grand Jury subpoena and I had been busted in November 1973 for the other things. So I called my mother up and I told her that I wanted her to keep my daughter. And I signed guardianship over to her. One of the things the state was trying to do was to take Panther children away from their parents because they were unfit parents, etc. I didn’t want to take a chance, so I signed legal guardianship over to my mother. And I made arrangements for her schooling and everything else, and I went underground.

When I got captured, I could still see her and I had a lot of dealings with her schooling, etc. But even at that point, when the state found out about her they tried to take her, at one point just tried to kidnap her and use her for leverage against me to make me talk while I was in prison. In a lot of cases I would just call and make sure that my mother didn’t let her go with strangers or someone. One time this woman came by the house and told my mother that she will bring toys for Wanda, she will come and visit and stuff like that, told my mother that she was one of my best friends, and I had told her that Wanda could come spend the weekend with her. And it just so happened that that particular weekend I called home and Momma told me about it, and I told her that I had never heard that woman’s name before in my life. It was incidents like these that made us decide that she could go nowhere by herself, that she had to be taken to school and be picked up from school, and she couldn’t be allowed to just have a normal life really, because they were at the point where they were using children to get information from the parents. So it was very hard to do time in prison knowing that my daughter was the target for a whole lot of things.

Q: Did she understand what was happening?

She never understood. On a lot of levels she was angry because she thought my being in prison was an abandonment of her. And then she never really understood why she had to be kept under such strict surveillance or control. And even now, I tell her now it hasn’t really changed. I mean, I will get messages where someone has seen her here or done this. There is no place that she can go that people don’t know that she is my daughter, and so she has to watch herself very carefully about what she does and where she is and stuff like that.

Q: When we first started learning about the Black Panther Party and the BLA, the only woman’s name that was mentioned was Assata and no one else. Why is that?

That’s because of the media stuff. (laughs) I think the reason why you hear so much about Assata is basically because in 1973 with the shoot-out and everything that happened, the publicity was very high. So the media when they were looking for her, they called her the “soul of the BLA” and stuff like that. It was a lot of media hype and people have a tendency to deal with the media….

You know, she has survived a lot, she has learned a lot and she has studied and she has developed.

And I think on that end too, I have a real problem with the fact that people deal with Assata and there are a lot of other people out there in exile that no one ever mentions.

And then you have a bunch of them in various places that nobody knows their names. And that really works with me, because we have a tendency to build superstars and the superstars get the play. And the soldiers in the rank and file and the workhorses, whose names were never known, they languish on their own. That is not the way you build movements, if you don’t support the people in your movements who made the sacrifices then what incentive is there to anybody else to get involved. I have a real problem with that.

You know the names of Dhoruba bin-Wahad, or Geronimo ji-Jaga Pratt and the New York Three, but all the other ones who are languishing in the prisons sit there with no attorneys, no nothing and no one knows their names. You can mention their names, and it goes in one ear and out the other. A lot of times they have no commissary, they don’t get visits, not even from their families do they get visits. But the families that weren’t involved in the struggles that they’re in prison for, they didn’t make the commitments. But the people who were involved in those struggles with them, they don’t even remember the names anymore.

Do you see anyone out there right now who is trying to rebuild the contacts with those comrades? It seems there are so many who need to come out just on the case that they’ve been involved in the struggle?

Well, that’s one of the reasons why we do the New York Three Freedom Campaign Newsletter, we mention those people every time we get information about them, where they are and their cases, what’s happening with them, we try to bring it up and build networking for different struggles around different political prisoners. We try and educate the people to get involved, educate them about the rank and file. And we try to raise not to get involved with the personality cult and deal with the whole issue of support for political prisoners rather than support for an individual political prisoner.

And even like dealing with the brothers inside right now – because it’s predominantly brothers that are inside, except for the MOVE prisoners and white anti-imperialists, there are more brothers; in the Black movement there are basically men that were involved at that time, especially Panthers and BLA members – to cross those boundaries and deal with the whole issue of political prisoners. They are pushing that now, too, that they went into prison as members of organizations and that they should be dealt with as members of organizations rather than as individuals.

There is a lot of work that has to be done – attorneys have to be found and our responsibility to ourselves is in building that foundation, because all of that is building foundations.

When you get involved in movements there should be a legal defense fund set up consistently and there. So when a bust goes down, there is an attorney available for the incarcerated comrade. There should be no question about having to raise defense money. It should be there. By the same token there should be a mechanism to liberate political prisoners. So, that if there is nothing to be won through the courts, there is an alternative already in place.

And for those that have done their time, there should be a fund or something set up for them. I know after 8 years and 8 months there was a lot of psychological damage done to myself personally in the time that I spent in prison. There has to be a mechanism set up so you have time to cool out and deprogram. Because that’s what time in prison is – it’s a time of programming. And so you have to be de-programmed. And after almost 9 years, it happened to me then … and those people who have done 15 and 17 and 20 or more years, they need it much more than I did – you know, to train them for things. And we don’t have those mechanisms in place.

So when I talk about the foundations that we need to build for the struggle I this country, we talk about the basic, elementary foundations to fill a military apparatus and a political struggle. On the political level, we need to have our own communication centres, so we don’t have to keep worrying and wondering about how we get information printed or how we are going to get this done or that done. Right now we should have the people with the necessary skills to put information out from the radio and television. And we have not pulled that together.

Q: This foundation, do you see it coming from people like yourself and people with a history in the BPP, or do you think there is that whole new generation that starts that on their own, or does the Nation of Islam do it? Who does it right now?

I don’t see it coming from the Nation of Islam. I don’t see it coming from any organised formation that is in existence at this point. Because there is a whole new level of thinking, a kind of way of thinking, that has to be developed. I think there are people within all those structures who have the innovative ideas and who have the foresight and who are capable of putting things together that are necessary and do it. But the question is whether or not they really know what they want.

There are a lot of times when we get thrown back in our community. In the years between elections our people see how bad the situation is and they get disenchanted with the elections and there comes along somebody saying all you have to do is to change the administration and things will be better. So they fall back into the same thing. Or you start off with leaders who are strong and audacious and they’re revolutionary or they mouth revolutionary slogans and then they find out that somebody offers them a piece of the pie and then they dilute their message. Like Sister Souljah recently, when she was busy talking about the need for a black army and so on, and then Bill Clinton attacked her about her statement about white people, that she said black people should have a week of killing white people. And her first thing was that she never had a gun, that she never advocated violence. Her whole spiel watered down to the point that we should build our own independent political party and with a technological approach to the situation.

So, even though I am not equating her with the revolutionary leaders, I am saying at that point where you have a voice and once you get attacked or anything like that or you get offered an entree into areas where you maintain your position and you can make a difference in what’s happening, you find out it was all about “this is the best for me at this point” and the amount of dollars, and it becomes different. I think we have a history of that. We have history of – when I made the door open for me, I am going through the door and then you forget about the other persons on the other side.

So, I really think that this new movement is going to be a mixture of people from the old school whose minds are open enough to recognize that they are not the end, that people do not have to come to them before they can move forward. They don’t have the absolute answer. Because some people who were in the Party think that if it isn’t done the way the party was doing it, then it ain’t rational. But it ain’t true. The Party made a lot of mistakes too.

A lot of us inside talked about how there was a need to find new blood. And if we don’t find that new blood and learn from our mistakes and build on them and move forward, then there is no hope for the struggle in this country. And if we continue to try to hold on to it and say: this is my struggle and nobody else can determine how and in which direction it goes, and you can’t do this without permission from me or this is my territory and you can’t walk on my territory. With that game turf mentality we are defeating our own purpose. I think, one of the things we have to do is to consolidate a lot of these organizations and we haven’t done this because egos are in the way.

Egos are a very, very large part of why we have such fragmentations in this movement and we are now moving apart, not moving further. And if you look at the heads of these organizations – they are all men and they splinter off from each other and form little groups with about 30 people in them and they speak to about the same constituency. We have to get past that.

What really gets me is that I hear the people saying that people are ready for this and people are ready for that and the same people who are ready for this and ready for that are the same people that they have been speaking to all the time and they haven’t educated anyone else. When you go outside a certain sector – you can’t even say all of Harlem knows what is going on. Just those people at that rally, or just those who listen to WLIB (NYC radio station) or just those people who call in might be ready. And they might be ready just to talk. And they are ready to do anything concrete. And then they assume just by listening to those few people that the masses are ready for armed struggle, which is not true. Because when you go out to the community, when I go to my mother’s house in Richmond Hill which is right here in Queens, I know they are not ready. But they travel in these little groups, these call these little demonstrations and these people come and they think that they are ready for armed struggle – it’s not true.

A lot of these people would not even know – if armed struggle broke out today – where would they go, how should you deal with treating the wounded, how would you deal with keeping the police from busting down the doors.

So, what you need to do is make those people find a way to take a victory out of the defeat. To turn it around and let people know that you don’t have to be a super-hero to be involved in the movement. But everyone wants people to believe that they’re such strong revolutionaries, that they never feel pain, they never cry, they never want to chuck it all and want to go up to the mountains and read a book or something. But it’s not true.

Jalil will tell you, with this New York Three case, I have been out of prison since 1983 and I have been on this case ever since, and on other cases and working on this and that. And sometimes I am going to say, I need a break, I am not going to do another day’s work on this. And I say that to them and I’m gone. And now, when I say that to them, they leave me alone for a couple of weeks and then they call back and say “are you ok now?” (laughs) Because you are human. You need to do these things in order to continue to be strong enough to handle the struggle. But we want people to believe that we are superhuman. We are not like everyone else…but we are. And we have to recognize that ourselves. And we need recharging. So, if I know that I am coming to the end of my rope, then I can take those precautions, so that I don’t fall a victim to the things that are out there.

Q: Is it really true that there has been no BLA since the 80s?

Not actually since, I would say, 1977/78. And what makes it so bad is that the government knew that. The government knew at that point that there was no political BLA happening out there, whose reason for being there was strictly to wage political and armed struggle in this country, where it was basically the military apparatus of the BPP.

I think you will get to the point where you recognize that in order to build a new movement that you have to expose the mistakes of the prior one, so that you don’t make those same mistakes again; that when you get to that point then we will be ready to move forward again.

Q: What happened to the women, I mean the other women, who were not under so much repression. Did they go back?

A lot of them got involved in community programs, community based work. A lot of us are in touch with each other when we do stuff around the different cases, etc. The women do the majority of that work from one end of the country to the other. Women are raising the children and making sure that they get the education, taking care of the families of the political prisoners, just surviving themselves, because they have been the victims of a lot of these conditions. And now they are educating the youth – in the schools, colleges, universities. So they are continuing the work through the community organizations, like homeless shelters, children’s programs, etc. And when we move from one point to the other we are in touch. And we talk about the women getting together and doing what need to be done. (laughs) We are starting to write books, we are doing more political speaking…

Q: It reminds me of a visit by a women comrade from the Tupamaros who came to the FRG in April, who described a similar development in Uruguay where the women are doing the community work and the men are mostly involved in the strategy discussions.

Because the real work is done by the women on a lot of occasions. The whole theory and sitting back and doing the armchair theory end – that ain’t giving anything to the children, it’s not educating them, that ain’t keeping them out of prison, it’s not doing that. And we have to keep our feet on the ground and keep moving and keep them alive while we build the movement.

Q: You said that you are involved with Islam. Does it interfere with your work at all?

I became a Muslim before I went into prison. I became a Muslim in 1971. It was in the Quran that said it was incumbent upon a Muslim to wage a struggle against tyranny and oppression wherever it may be found. That gave me the license to be a revolutionary and a Muslim at the same time.

And I take it to the extreme, to the extreme I think it is meant to be taken, that a true Muslim will not sit idly by and allow tyranny and oppression in whatever form to happen without waging struggle against it. So, I see no contradiction between being muslim and a revolutionary. I see a contradiction in the way that Islam is practiced in the world. I remember that when I was captured in Virginia, the Islamic community sent a representative to see me and told me that they would not support me as long as I did not veer my case from my co-defendant’s case. There was something totally wrong with them taking a position like that.

I know I came in a lot of conflict with people who thought because I was a woman and a Muslim that I shouldn’t do this and shouldn’t do that. And when someone is asking about my political beliefs and affiliations and how it’s not been according to the Quran, I refer right back to Sura 23.

Q: Well, I think in Europe we hear very little about the revolutionary writings in the Quran.

Well, that’s because they don’t want to do anything. The Muslims even here – for them it’s a way of separating themselves from society without taking on society. So they become different and say they are not governed by the laws, etc.

The worst thing that has ever happened is having four wives. It isn’t based on Islam, Islam is explained by men in the religion. And the women don’t read the Quran for themselves, so they are victimized by Islam. So, they don’t understand that the men cannot have four wives without the permission of the woman, you know. (laughs) So, if she doesn’t go along with it, it ain’t happening. That in order to have four wives, they have to be taken care of economically, psychologically, physically and spiritually. And I mean, I don’t know too many men who can deal with more than one woman and take care of her. (laughs) And that’s the case, and then there shouldn’t be four wives happening anyway. But these men get the women, put them on welfare and call themselves Muslims they have no understanding for themselves for they have never read the Quran.

Q: Do you want to add something to the interview?

Yes, I just want to reiterate the fact that everyone of us has weaknesses. So, the weakness that people fell into after the “leadership of the movement” went to prison or were wiped out – what you had left was a lot of people who could not function without organization. The organizations were destroyed, they were out there by themselves and then they got caught up in a lot of negative stuff.

Q: Actually, I have one more question. Do you feel you can work at all with what’s left of the white feminist movement or the white women’s movement? Is there any kind of working relationship or do you just say they don’t have a revolutionary program and so you can’t work with them?

It depends. I think in the beginning of the feminist movement in this country it was fairly progressive. Now the feminist movement in this country has just as many right-wing elements as you have revolutionary elements. As a matter of fact, I would say the right-wing elements outnumber the revolutionary elements in the feminist movement in the U.S.

And not just in the white feminist movement, but in the Black/Third World feminist movement also. Sometimes I think that they equate their individual issues with revolutionary struggle, which is not one and the same.

And even with the lesbian and gay community’s struggle in this country – a lot of them are just as conservative as their counterparts in the heterosexual community. And they don’t understand that the issue of sexuality itself is not a revolutionary issue. A lot of people don’t see the difference. They don’t see that that is not a revolutionary issue and that it is not an issue that you can impose and make it an issue of the Black Liberation movement.

When I address the issue of oppression based on sexuality, I make clear that oppression in and of itself, regardless of what reason you oppress people, is wrong. So, to oppress a person because of their sexuality, that in itself is something that we can’t contend to deal with.

Now, once you get past that, then it’s your personal choices. And I think that it doesn’t fall on the level of racism and it doesn’t on class oppression.

And then dealing with the feminist movement they have the question of reproductive rights or pro-choice, choice, and no choice. That is a movement by itself. On the Left, we take the position that a person’s body is their own; that there is a choice that they should make about themselves.

But when you get to the big question, you got just as many cops, female cops, and female judges, and female prosecuting attorneys and oppressive forces who are pro-choice and anything else. So, being pro-choice is not a revolutionary position. And so you can’t continue to equate and allow ourselves to be put in a position that we get dictated to by people who are in one-issue forces.

Q: Thank you for the interview.

Text taken from ATS-L Archives; e-mail Wed, 8 Mar 1995 17:22:29 -0500 (EST) from ats@etext.org, Subject: IWD: Interview With Safiya Bukhari-Alston

More:

Safiya: Lioness for Liberation, by Mumia Abu-Jamal

Tribute to Safiya on her passing, from the NYC Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition

Reminiscence of Safiya Bukhari from the Provisional Government, Republic of New Afrika

Tributes from Assata Shakur, Nehanda Abiodun, Sally O’Brien, and Yuri Kochiyama

Defending Kamau Sadiki, Safiya’s last project

Safiya Bukhari, “Coming of Age: A Black Revolutionary,” Notes from a New Afrikan P.O.W. Journal, Book 7 (Spear & Shield Publications, 1979). Reprinted with updates in Joy James, ed., Imprisoned Intellectuals (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).

Page maintained by Jericho Amnesty Movement, SF Bay Area. Updated October 12, 2003

source: Jericho Movement

Attached is a zine for printing.
Letter
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https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12747

#blackLiberationArmy #blackPantherParty #feminism #newAfrikna #northAmerica #safiyaBukhari #us

# orderedItems[].object.content
Cop Campus General Contractor Overra has Website Shutdown

On the morning of November 22nd we successfully launched a Denial Of Service Attack on the Overra construction company website.

On the morning of November 22nd we successfully launched a Denial Of Service Attack on the Overra construction company website. We used a Low Orbit Ion Cannon to cause the site to crash. We targeted them for their service as General Contractors for the inter-county police training facility being built in the City of San Pablo in Californi,a also known as” Cop Campus”. This expansion of police authority locally is in lockstep with the increasing of policing capabilities nationally. The resistance to police expansion is best exemplified in the actions to stop construction of “Cop City” in Atlanta Georgia. This action is a small drop in the ocean of resistance that policing in the US will face, we hope we’ve made a meaningful contribution that can continue momentum into the New Year. Long Live Tortugita!

Rosebud Brigade

source: IndyBay

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12743

#hacker #northAmerica #resistance #stopCopCity #us

# orderedItems[].object.contentMap.en
Cop Campus General Contractor Overra has Website Shutdown

On the morning of November 22nd we successfully launched a Denial Of Service Attack on the Overra construction company website.

On the morning of November 22nd we successfully launched a Denial Of Service Attack on the Overra construction company website. We used a Low Orbit Ion Cannon to cause the site to crash. We targeted them for their service as General Contractors for the inter-county police training facility being built in the City of San Pablo in Californi,a also known as” Cop Campus”. This expansion of police authority locally is in lockstep with the increasing of policing capabilities nationally. The resistance to police expansion is best exemplified in the actions to stop construction of “Cop City” in Atlanta Georgia. This action is a small drop in the ocean of resistance that policing in the US will face, we hope we’ve made a meaningful contribution that can continue momentum into the New Year. Long Live Tortugita!

Rosebud Brigade

source: IndyBay

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12743

#hacker #northAmerica #resistance #stopCopCity #us