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<big>Fall 2012<br>
<br>
Dear Friends,<br>
<br>
Your support has made this an international breakthrough year for the
Freedom Archives!<br>
<br>
Our film, Cointelpro 101, made its way to England, Hawaii, South Africa
and Puerto Rico as well as many communities and film festivals across
the US. We're also being viewed on LINK TV and Free Speech TV.<br>
<br>
In January we will launch a major multifaceted project that highlights
the history of activism to close Control Unit prisons. At least 80,000
people are held under conditions of prolonged isolation in the US. Many
are in solitary confinement or in prisons like Pelican Bay in
California, ADX Florence federal prison, or in so-called Communication
Management Units (CMUs) where the federal government encages a majority
Muslim population.<br>
<br>
The origin of this type of torturous imprisonment began in 1985 when
the US Bureau of Prisons permanently locked down USP Marion in
Illinois. The Freedom Archives has teamed with Nancy Kurshan, one of
the founders of the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML) to
publish a book Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle Against Control
Unit Prisons. At the same time, we are launching a website with as
complete documentation as possible on the campaigns against Marion and
Lexington prisons. This history becomes even more important in light of
the hunger strikes in Georgia, Ohio, and California over the last many
months. <br>
<br>
You can order this new book by following the links at
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.FreedomArchives.org/CEML.html">www.FreedomArchives.org/CEML.html</a><br>
The book will ship in January 2013.<br>
<br>
The content on the website, which also launches in January, includes
audio and video materials and
numerous scanned documents that can be downloaded and are not available
anywhere else; they are a result of countless staff and volunteer
hours, relentless work by Nancy Kurshan and Steve Whitman, and the
generosity of many others who scoured basements and old files to
unearth these crucial and illuminating documents and tapes. We are
confident this will amount to a significant resource for the
current—and growing—movement to end mass imprisonment and prolonged
isolation.<br>
</big>
<blockquote><big>The Freedom Archives is taking a stand against the
control
unit prison system, and it’s important to me to be part of this
protest. We are creating a website that will contain crucial
information and videos from inside the control units, as well as rare
interviews with prisoners from Marion Prison. It’s fulfilling to be
able to learn from the lessons of history by preserving the past and
acting upon immediate issues in our community. Michael Rozynski, USF
Intern – November 2012<br>
</big></blockquote>
<big>We also recently completed a short, 12-minute video about
long-time
political prisoner, Herman Bell. Herman was a member of the Black
Panther Party who went underground for several years, until his arrest
in New Orleans in September, 1973. He and four others then stood trial
in New York for the murder of two New York policemen. Their first trial
ended in a hung jury and their second trial, based on the coerced
testimony of another former Black Panther Party member who had been
repeatedly tortured in New Orleans, resulted in the unjust conviction
of Herman, Nuh Washington, and Jalil Muntaqim.<br>
<br>
Over nearly four decades in prison, Herman has maintained his
commitment to social transformation and demonstrated his care and
compassion for the Black community behind and outside of the walls.
We’ve been working on this video with Herman, his family, and one of
his many supporters—Danny Glover. We will have the video available on
the web in the near future and expect it will also be seen at meetings
and gatherings to build support, not only for Herman’s return home, but
as one powerful example of the many aging political and other prisoners
who should be released to rejoin their communities.<br>
<br>
On the video, Herman Bell’s two granddaughters say it so much more
eloquently and beautifully than we ever could. They, and their
generation, as well as our interns from high school and college, and
the youth on our staff, are, in the deepest sense, exactly who the work
of the Freedom Archives is for.<br>
<br>
<big><i><b>Preserve the past – illuminate the present – shape the future</b></i></big><br>
<br>
It is your encouragement and support that keep us moving forward.
Please contribute what you can. <br>
<br>
<big><b><a
href="https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=33005">You
can click here to give on line!</a> (if everyone gave $5 or $10, we'd
be set for 2013)</b></big><br>
<br>
Thank you!<br>
</big>
<blockquote><big>I have been able to listen to cassette recordings that
date
back to the 1970s. I would NOT have heard this amazing history
elsewhere. This internship has given me the opportunity to access
material otherwise hidden from me as a history major at the University
of San Francisco. The Freedom Archives has given me access to
previously hidden social movement history, something that I greatly
value as an African American Studies minor. Ilima Peterson, USF Intern
– November 2012<br>
</big></blockquote>
<div class="moz-signature"><big>-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</big></div>
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