[Ppnews] Reparations, political prisoners and the Million More Movement

[Political Prisoner News]

CONRAD W. WORRILL: Reparations, political prisoners and the Million More 
Movement

http://www.chicagodefender.com/page/commentary.cfm?ArticleID=2067
by Conrad W. Worrill
August 29, 2005

One of the critical demands of the Reparations Movement, as we prepare for 
the 10th Anniversary of the Million Man March, is the release of African in 
America political prisoners. The issue of African in America political 
prisoners often gets swept aside in our demands in the Reparations 
Movement. This should not be. There are many sisters and brothers who have 
sacrificed much for the liberation of African people in America and are 
locked up unjustly in America’s prisons and are political prisoners.

The seventh issue of the Millions More Movement agenda presented by the 
Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan states: “We demand freedom for all 
political prisoners held in U. S. prisons and detention facilities, foreign 
and domestic. We demand an end to police brutality, mob attacks, racial 
profiling, the herding of our young men and women into prisons and the 
biological and chemical warfare perpetrated against our people.” As 
Minister Farrakhan prepares to meet with our celebrated political prisoner 
Mumia Abu Jamal, let his visit with our brothers lift up, and intensify our 
work to free all our political prisoners.

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When we discuss political prisoners, we are talking about “those persons 
harassed, arrested, framed, and imprisoned because of their relatively 
peaceful political activity against the destructive conditions that their 
people live under.”

The goal of our political prisoners has been “to transfer power from the 
corrupt and racist business people, government officials, psuedo 
intellectuals, policemen, judges, and jailers and keep them down to a 
captive nation of people to be free.” We should all be aware that Marcus 
Garvey, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Sister 
Callie House, and Huey P. Newton spent time in jail because they fought for 
our freedom, just as Brother Mumia Abu Jamal remains a political prisoner 
for his uncompromising political journalism.

The origin of the campaign that has resulted in the more than one hundred 
women and men who are locked up in America’s prisons as political 
prisoners, many of them African in Americans, is related to the “secret 
war” that was waged against the Black Liberation Movement by the FBI.

FBI  Director J. Edgar Hoover in the 1960s and 70s led this campaign. This 
illegal and top-secret onslaught was called the “Counterintelligence 
(COINTELPRO) program that targeted Black activists and organizations.” Its 
goal was to disrupt, dismantle, discredit, and neutralize Black groups and 
leaders, thus seriously crippling our movement. They were successful.

That is why it is important for African people in America to join the 
Reparations Movement and help rebuild the Black Liberation Movement. One of 
our critical demands of the Reparations Movement must be the freedom of our 
political prisoners and prisoners of war.

The Jericho Movement explains, “The issue of whether or not political 
prisoners and prisoners of war exist inside the borders of the United 
States of America is one that the government of the United States has 
successfully been able to refute. They have been able to deny the existence 
of political prisoners and prisoners of war because we have not taken the 
battle to them and forced them to address this issue.”

We can begin publicly addressing the issue of our political prisoners, in a 
massive way, on August 17th at the Millions For Reparations Mass Rally and 
ignite, educate, and inspire our people to expand the Reparations Movement 
to include, as a key component, our political prisoners.

In this context, the Jericho Movement further explains that there “are 
brothers and sisters, men and women who, as a consequence of their 
political work/or organizational affiliations were given criminal charges, 
arrested or captured, tried in courts and sent to prison. While trying them 
as criminals, the government maintained files on them referencing their 
political activities, designed to insure they remain in prison.” We must 
expose this tactic by the United States Government in our demands that our 
political prisoners be freed.

The Reparations Movement must be more energetic in demanding and calling 
for the release of our political prisoners and prisoners of war that 
include Jalil Bottom, Charles Sims Africa, Debbi Sims Africa, Herman Bell, 
Kojo Sababu, Lorenzo Stone Bey, Mark Cook, Mumia Abu Jamal, Mutulu Shakur, 
Ojore Lutalo, Phil Africa, Richard Mafundi Lake, Robert Seth Hayes, Sekou 
Kambui, Sundiata Acoli, and Jamil Abdullah† Al-Amin.

It is only fitting that we remind ourselves that the Honorable Marcus 
Garvey, was one of our first political prisoners targeted by the United 
States Government, indicted on the trumped up charges of mail fraud and 
convicted. The masses of our people in the mid 1920s demanded Garvey’s 
release from prison. In 1927, more than 100.000 African people demonstrated 
and protested that he be released. Garvey was released in 1927 and deported 
from the United States as a condition of his release.

Let’s free our political prisoners by joining the Millions More Movement 
and help intensify our demands for their release. Spread the word and 
prepare to attend and participate in the 10th Anniversary of the Million 
Man March on the weekend of October 15-17, 2005.

Conrad Worrill is national chairman of the National Black United Front.


The Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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