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Herman Bell interview (1 of 3)
First of 3 interviews with Herman Bell in Clinton Correctional Facility. Interviewed by two NYC high school teachers, both presumably white and middle class. Discusses building a national campaign around political prisoners, defines/distinguished between political and social prisoners and who to prioritize in an amnesty movement, talks about the role of the church specifically in the black community, reparations and what the government owes to all black people, voting and representation, racism and incarceration rates, the growth of prisons and industry of incarceration, the Black Panther Party and their opposition to drugs and their success with the Free Breakfast Program, lack of economic control in the black community, need for land and self-determination, a large piece on Nuh Washington and how they met and Nuh’s personality, on missing his family and especially being absent while his children grow up, the wretched conditions of prison health care. Great stuff just avoid using questions/sound from interviewers.
Herman Bell interview (all 3 tapes)
Compilation of Videos 74-76 (see those descriptions)
Lexington Prison Interviews (1987)
Date: 5/1/1987Call Number: PM 184AFormat: Cass AProducers: Judy GerberCollection: Lexington Control Unit for Women
Political prisoners Alejandrina Torres, Silvia Baraldini, and Susan Rosenberg describe their living conditions at the control unit of the federal women’s prison in Lexington which opened in 1986: radical isolation, constant surveillance, sensory deprivation, no personal property, limited visits, etc.
Defined by the government as the most dangerous women in prison for their political activities in various anti-war and liberation movements, Torres, Baraldini, and Rosenberg have been subjected to a sophisticated kind of psychological torture. According to them they have been used as examples of the consequences to be expected if one challenges the hegemony of US power.
The interviews stress the importance of public pressure to have the unit closed.
Lexington Prison Interviews (1987)
Date: 5/1/1987Call Number: PM 185AFormat: Cass AProducers: Judy GerberCollection: Lexington Control Unit for Women
Same as PM 184
Political prisoners Alejandrina Torres, Silvia Baraldini, and Susan Rosenberg describe their living conditions at the control unit of the federal women’s prison in Lexington which opened in 1986: radical isolation, constant surveillance, sensory deprivation, no personal property, limited visits, etc.
Defined by the government as the most dangerous women in prison for their political activities in various anti-war and liberation movements, Torres, Baraldini, and Rosenberg have been subjected to a sophisticated kind of psychological torture. According to them they have been used as examples of the consequences to be expected if one challenges the hegemony of US power.
The interviews stress the importance of public pressure to have the unit closed.
Women in Prison
Intervew of Women in Prison, Dublin, CA 1995. Political prisoners Dylcia Pagan, Linda Evans, Ida Robinson, and Marilyn Buck are asked to speak about themselves and why they are in prison.
The women also discuss the GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs), NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), the lack of wages and benefits for the poor and oppressed, and the wrongs of the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Ida Robinson speaks about families of ethnic minorities, and Marilyn Buck speaks about how political prisoners aren’t violent, they are just casualties during the conflict. The women discuss the state of the poor white woman, how is marginalized because no one is fighting for her and she has no representation.
Interview with George Jackson on prisons, the Weather Underground, Black Panther Party
Date: 7/28/1971Call Number: CD 179Format: CDProducers: Max BloomCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
George Jackson discusses the connections between the prison movement inside and other movements and the importance of democratic centralism to the success of both movements. He discusses the idea of the Black Panther Party as the vanguard party, capable of providing resources for the community. He discusses Mao and Guevara and the idea of revolution in two states. He responds to criticism of the BPP’s statements on the role of women. Also the problems with the defense committees and himself as a possible martyr.
Female Political Prisoners - series of interviews
Call Number: JG/ 070Format: CassetteProducers: Judy Gerber, Lisa RudmanProgram: KPFACollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
This is a collection of different interviews and recordings of female political prisoners from around the world. Lisa Rudman collages them together to show the injustice towards political prisoners and to highlight some of the many tactics used by the US government and prison system to get information out of political prisoners.
Rudman defines political prisoners and interviews Laura Whitehorn and Linda Evans and speaks about their cases and the circumstances leading to their imprisonment.
The other political prisoners interviewed on the tape are: Dora Garcia, active in the national liberation struggles in the US colony of Puerto Rico; Mercedes Algado, a refugee active in the FSLM and FDR in El Salvador; Elizabeth Sebego, active in the Pan African Congress; Assata Shakur, active with the Black Panthers and now a refugee in Cuba; a Filipina imprisoned for her work with the church.
Presentation on Puerto Rican political prisoners by Josefina Rodriguez
Josefina Rodrieguez, mother of two Puerto Rican prisoners in the United States speaks about her international work and solidarity with political prisoners, and her fight to have Puerto Rican political prisoners recognized around the world. She discusses also the prison conditions in which prisoners are subjected, expecially women prisoners within the system.
Interview with Susan Rosenberg about conditions in the women’s political prison, Lexington.
Call Number: PM 438AFormat: Cass AProducers: Sally O’Brian, Terry BissonCollection: Political Prisoners- General Info
Interview with Susan Rosenberg, an American revoluntionary anti-imperialist female political prisoner, about Lexington prison. . Susan Rosenberg describes the focus of Lexington as “the psychological element of incarceration to disintigrate the personality”. She speaks about the terribly harsh and restrictive conditions of Lexington, as well as the psychological impact of the prison. Rosenberg speaks about how every prisoner is there for political reasons, as the control unit is not based on disciplinary measures, but on classificationof who and what the prisoners are associated with.
Susan Rosenberg’s attorney, Michael Schubert, speaks about the isolation and solitary confinement the Lesington prisoners experience, and how such isolation is aimed at keeping the prisoners isolated from politics.
Historical Perspectives
Date: 11/15/1991Call Number: PM 249Format: CassetteProducers: Prison Radio ProjectProgram: Can't Jail the Spirit #1Collection: Political Prisoner Periodicals
Discussion of definitions of political prisoners and the US government's denial of their existence in the US. Readings from Harriet Jacob's "Diary of a Slave Girl", from Assata Shakur's "Assata", and from Emma Goldman, in addition to discussions from Dr. Chinasole from San Francisco State University, and a question and answer segment with Gloria Alonzo of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners, Dr. Candace Falk, Dr. Jose Lopez from the Movimento de Revolucion Nacional, and former political prisoner Alvaro Luna Hernandez from the Jailhouse Conveyor.
