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A new title is available from Kersplebedeb:<br><br>
*** They Never Crushed His Spirit: A Tribute to Richard Williams
***<br><br>
With an introduction by Lynne Stewart, and contributions by Netdahe
Williams Stoddard, Jaan Laaman, Tom Manning, Ray Luc Levasseur, Jamila
Levi, Pat Levasseur, Kazi Toure, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Marilyn Buck, Nehanda
Abiodun, Sundiata Acoli, Mutulu Shakur, Russell "Maroon"
Shoats, Carlos Alberto Torres, Oscar López Rivera, Laura Whitehorn, Susan
Rosenberg, Adolfo Matos Antongiorgi, and many other friends, family and
comrades of Richard's.<br><br>
Richard Williams was a lifelong anti-imperialist and socialist, one of
the Ohio 7 convicted in 1984 of having carried out armed actions against
racism and imperialism as a member of the United Freedom Front. Targets
included South African Airways offices, Union Carbide offices for their
manufacture of cluster bombs used against revolutionaries in Central
America, US Army and Navy reserve offices, General Electric, as the
fourth largest military supplier, particularly against El Salvador, and
IBM for building the computers that enforced the South African pass
system.<br><br>
After over twenty years of captivity and medical neglect, Richard passed
away on December 7th 2005, at the age of 58.<br><br>
From the editorial note: "The book is a tool, both to educate and
to offend our sense of humanity. Let us take our outrage and use it to
insure that not one more political prisoner dies in prison."
<br><br>
published by Kersplebedeb and Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience
Project<br>
143 pages<br>
ISBN 1-894946-22-7<br>
$7.00 US plus postage<br><br>
************************<br><br>
It has been nine months since Richard Williams died, killed by a
combination of Hepatitis C and consistent medical neglect on the part of
the US prison system.<br><br>
Richard Williams was a political prisoner, a working class communist who
spent over twenty years behind bars for his activities in the armed
clandestine movements of the 1970s and 80s. <br><br>
Richard paid a high price for his political commitment. On top of the
oppression and neglect that all prisoners suffer, political prisoners who
do not renounce their beliefs are often subjected to particularly harsh
treatment. Immediately following September 11, 2001, several political
prisoners, including Richard, were put in isolation, even though there
was no evidence of any kind linking them to the attacks. Richard
was the last political prisoner to be released back to the general
population on February 11, 2002. He spent 5 months in
isolation, in freezing cold conditions. He was put in shackles and
had a video camera fixed on him every time he left his cell, even
to take a shower. He had virtually no contact with any one,
not even his family, as his phone calls were restricted to one 15-minute
call per week. The day after Richard was released back to general
population, he suffered a minor heart attack. <br><br>
As the Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience Project explain:
"Richard's health deteriorated rapidly. He suffered a heart attack,
was treated for testicular cancer, discovered he had untreated diabetes
for a long time and had troubles with his gall bladder. In November 2004,
he gained a transfer to the prison medical facility in Butner, North
Carolina, where the treatment was noticeably better than in Lompoc.
Still, adequate medical treatment was slow coming. What ultimately killed
Richard was Hepatitis; his liver stopped functioning and his body was
unable to process food. Richard was only 58 when he died the night of
Wednesday, December 7, 2005."<br><br>
So it is something that is very sad, even though it is also an honour, to
have been able to have some involvement in publishing this book.<br><br>
I encourage you all to either download a copy (for free) from
<a href="http://www.ipoc-ministry.org/rwtributepdf.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.ipoc-ministry.org/rwtributepdf.html</a> or to order a copy for
$7 US plus postage (which comes out to $12 for individual copies, making
a total of $19 US) - email me at info@kersplebedeb.com for
details.<br><br>
And most importantly - honour the memory of this fallen freedom fighter
by fighting harder, both for those others who remain behind bars, and for
a world in which the vicious racism, sexism and class oppression of the
present day will all be things of the past.<br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
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