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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Free Mutulu Campaign Celebrates Human Rights Day With A ‘Fête For Freedom’</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Anoa Changa - December 11, 2021<br></div></div><div class="gmail-content"><div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<div id="gmail-attachment_4258794" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4258794" src="https://newsone.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2021/12/1639174814561.jpg?strip=all&quality=80" alt="Mutulu Shakur" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="320" height="450"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-4258794" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Source: New York Daily News Archive / Getty</p></div>
<p><span><span>A</span> push to free movement elders from prison is taking it up a notch on International Human Rights Day. The <a href="https://freethelandmxgm.org/free-mutulu-now/" target="_blank">Malcolm X Grassroots Movement</a> organized a virtual celebration to raise awareness around the case of political prisoner </span><a href="https://mutulushakur.com/" target="_blank"><span>Mutulu Shakur</span></a><span> as a part of broader efforts to free movement elders. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Friday’s </span><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6cfNvgPXQbWIzxEceBaqPg" target="_blank"><span>Fête for Freedom</span></a><span>
brings together a virtual audience to celebrate Shakur’s life and work
and encourages people to join the fight for his release. Initially
arrested in 1986, </span><a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/12/02/mutulu-shakur-prison-release-cancer/" target="_blank"><span>the Intercept reported</span></a><span> it is over five years since Shakur was first eligible for release. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>At 71 years old, Shakur carries multiple diagnoses, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and multiple myeloma, the same </span><a href="https://newsone.com/4235714/colin-powell-multiple-myeloma-statistics-by-race/"><span>rare cancer Colin Powell battled</span></a><span>. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Speaking with NewsOne, Monifa
Bandele of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement shared that aging
prisoners like Shakur are having their </span><a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/06/11/31-000-prisoners-sought-compassionate-release-during-covid-19-the-bureau-of-prisons-approved-36" target="_blank"><span>requests for compassionate release blocked</span></a><span> despite having multiple health issues in the middle of an ongoing public health crisis. She pointed to the work of the </span><a href="https://rappcampaign.com/" target="_blank"><span>Release Aging People In Prison</span></a><span>
(RAPP) campaign as one example of the broader movement to free elderly
incarcerated people. Part of RAPP’s mission is to “dismantle the racist
policies of mass incarceration by expanding the use of parole,
compassionate release, clemency, and other forms of release in New York
State.”</span></p>
<p><span>Bandele also noted the recent push by Rep.
Ayanna Pressley and House Democrats push to introduce a bill that would
fix the clemency process. NPR </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/12/10/1062757169/house-democrats-are-introducing-a-bill-to-overhaul-the-clemency-process" target="_blank"><span>reported the legislation</span></a><span>,
known as the FIX Clemency Act, would create a nine-member board to
review pardon requests instead of the current system of the Justice
Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><i><span>This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. </span></i><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Anoa Changa:</span></b><span> </span><span>Can you explain to us how this push on behalf of Mutulu Shakur fits within the context of Human Rights Day? </span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Monifa Bandele:</span></b><span> </span><span>One
of the things that we were taught by Malcolm X is that we are in a
fight for human rights. We think about civil rights; those are the
rights that basically we are able to get access to by being citizens of
the United States. But he really stressed and his teachings that there’s
global rights that come out of international bodies. And so, one of the
things that’s recognized under international law is our political
prisoners. It recognizes that if states either incarcerate people
because of their political beliefs or even extend the incarceration of
people because of their political beliefs, that is a violation of their
human rights. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Changa: </span></b><span>What is the purpose of the virtual rally, and how does it fit into the campaign and the work you all have been doing so far? </span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Bandele: </span></b><span> </span><span>Mutulu
Shakur is an elder. He comes out of our parent’s generation. He’s been
incarcerated since the early 80s. He was underground since the late 70s.
But then captured in the early 80s. And he’s sick, like a lot of our
elders who are incarcerated. And so this event and this rally is to
amplify our requests for compassionate release for Mutulu…And so, we
want to make sure that his sentence doesn’t become a death sentence. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>He was not sentenced to life in prison. He
was supposed to eventually get out. But the parole board has been
denying his release over and over again, even though he’s what they call
a model prisoner. He is a role model. He’s somebody who mentors young
people. He doesn’t have any disciplinary infractions. And so this is
going to be an event to highlight the facts of his case, highlight why
we believe he should be released, and really put pressure on the Bureau
of Prisons and the Biden administration to grant him compassionate
release. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>The second piece is that he’s had such an
exemplary prison record that he has what people call earned good time.
So there’s a system in place that came through the passage of the First
Step Act, where you’re supposed to your prison time is decreased if you
do good time called earned good time. And so he’s calculated all of this
<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/doj-finds-bureau-prisons-failed-apply-earned-time/story?id=81204260" target="_blank">earned good time</a>,
which if applied, he will be released today. But it’s being blocked. So
we’re demanding that they either release him based on his earned good
time or give him compassionate release because of his health condition.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Changa: </span></b><span>This
isn’t the first case that we’ve seen where compassionate release or
parole of a movement elder is being blocked, particularly since we’ve
been in the pandemic. Can you talk a little more about the broader issue
of compassionate release being denied to other elders? </span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Bandele: </span></b><span>As
an organization, the Malcolm X Grassroots movement in coalition with
the Black Freedom Project was like “Free em,” release these elders…so
that they do not become sick and contract COVID. And that basically
whatever sentences, they don’t become death sentences.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>That was a big fight in many states across
the country. And it was amazing how much it was blocked. And so you
have to think about if mass incarceration is supposed to be a tool of
public safety, and you have these elders who have underlying conditions,
so they’re sick or no harm to anyone. Why do the states and federal
government insist on continuing to house and incarcerate them, deny
their parole, and deny their compassionate release? There’s an economic
factor. Because we know these towns and cities have economies that fuel
off of prison populations, and there’s a political reason why this kind
of continual punishment of prisoners like Mutulu Shakur and others.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Changa: </span></b><span>How can people get more involved not just for him but in some of this other work that you’ve described as well?</span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Bandele: </span></b><span>One of the things we’re asking people to do right away is sign his </span><a href="https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/support-parole-and-compassionate-release-for-dr-mutulu-shakur" target="_blank"><span>clemency petition</span></a><span> to support his compassionate release. W</span><span>e
already have well over 50,000 signers. What people need to understand
is that the Mutulu Shakur was not only an activist around racial justice
but was also a public health activist. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>He spearheaded programs at Lincoln
Hospital in the Bronx that helped detox people from drug abuse that
helped to organize people to get the support services they needed if
they had drug addictions. And so, he was well ahead of his time when we
talk about drug policy reform. And all the organizations seem to now
look at public health interventions to drugs as opposed to a criminal
justice intervention with the opioid crisis, but Mutulu was talking this
back in the 70s. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Soon we’ll be asking people to have their
members of Congress sign a letter to the Bureau of Prisons asking for
his compassionate release so that he could spend his final days at home
with his family. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>As far as other prisoners like him, follow the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. We’re working to free </span><a href="https://sundiataacolifc.org/" target="_blank"><span>Sundiata Acoli</span></a>; you<span>
can get information on Mumia Abu Jamal. There are so many former Black
Panthers and members of the Republic of New Africa who are still in
prison. And even though we know COINTELPRO targeted them, we know
COINTELPRO assassinated them, as people saw with the Fred Hampton movie
“Judas and the Black Messiah,” like this is what was done to our
parents. And in some of them, the target was to criminalize them, and
they’re still in prison. Mumia sat on death row for decades. But it was
because of the will of the people that he wasn’t executed back in 1995.
So we have power. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><strong>Changa:</strong><span> </span><span> What else should people understand about freeing Mutulu and other political prisoners? </span></p>
<p><strong>Bandele: </strong>This really connects to the larger
conversation that we’re having around abolition. So some people say,
‘Oh, you fighting just for these dozen prisoners?’ It’s like, ‘No,’ this
is part and parcel of a larger understanding that prisons are a tool of
political repression. And so we’re highlighting this showing you
there’s a political prisoner, but also that this is a system that needs
to be done away with.</p>
<p>And so we have an amazing federal bill that Cory Bush called the <a href="https://newsone.com/4168889/rep-cori-bush-the-peoples-response-act/">people’s response act</a>,
where she’s like ‘Okay, you want to talk about community safety? I’m a
nurse. I know what makes communities safe is public health. And I want
to establish a grant program that will fund states and cities to
implement first responders that are medics that are nurses.’ That’s a
lot of times what people need when they pick up and call 911.</p>
<p>And it also links back to the work that Mutulu was doing. He was
like; it’s a public health crisis. You look at violence. You don’t meet
it with violence and militarization. That’s what happens in our
community. You go in with care; you go in with public health. You dig to
get to the root cause, and you cure it. So that’s something I really
want people to understand about Mutulu Shakur, why we do this work and
how it ties to the larger movement for Black lives.</p>
<p><span></span></p><br><br> </div></div></div>
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