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Interview with Derrick Bell
Call Number: SS 009BFormat: Cass BProducers: Sue SuprianoCollection: Sue Supriano Interviews and Programs
Interview with Derrick Bell on racism recorded off KPFA.
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)
Jalil Muntaqim interview (2 of 4)
Call Number: V 079Format: VHSProducers: John O’ReillyCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Continues about the tampering and destruction of evidence in his case. Once you’re convicted the burden is to prove yourself innocent. Discusses cases of Dhoruba and Geronimo, who spent almost 50 years together in prison after proving that the state had set them up. Calls the US a plutocracy, where the rich rule and control the government, operating under a hypocritical veneer of democracy. Hegemonic powers of the media, describes it as the wizard in the background. We need to break the illusion that the system works for the benefit of the people. All he sees in prison are black and brown faces because of the unequal distribution of wealth and poverty being an impetus towards “crime”, and institutional racism has created a mechanism for people of color to go to prison. Talks about bodies becoming commodities, his prison number is like his bar code, economics analysis of PIC. Discusses tax breaks for rural counties who can include prisoners in their population even though majority of prisoners come from NYC. Control units/SHU - for rebellious prisoners and mentally ill inmates who can’t be controlled among rest of general population. Discusses his own most recent experience in the “box”, where the state fabricated evidence that he was organizing a statewide prison strike. Talks about SHU, feed you through a slot in cell, 1 hour of recreation time, everything even food is a privilege, no phone use, visitation once a week but through glass. Talks about the extended effects of isolation and sensory deprivation, claustrophobia, loneliness, anxiety and panic disorders. There is no rehab/education/employment/therapeutic/skill s offered to prisoners, thus they leave embittered and destructive. Talks about manifest destiny and how it was turned into a country. Ideas are power if you know how to take control. Starts to talk about returning to San Quentin adjustment center post-sentencing, housed with San Quentin six. Talking about freeing political prisoners with Ruchell Magee, who just received a letter from Yuri Kochiyama about starting a movement around amnesty.
Black Liberation Army - Fact or Fantasy
Date: 1/1/1974Call Number: PM 165Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Ron Magee, Rest of the News, Claude Marks, Bruce Soloway, Mark SchwartzProgram: Rest of the NewsCollection: BLA
Interviews and discussion concerning the Black Liberation Army and it’s alleged members. The question is raised as to the actual existence of the group which some claim to be a fabrication of the media and police to justify increased repression of Black revolutionaries. Various criminal trials of black activists are looked at to reveal how the local Police, FBI, News Media, and U.S. Justice System have worked together to pursue a repressive course to combat what they see as a threat to the very structure of American Society. Interviews detail use of police violence and torture to intimidate and demoralize the black radical movement. The cases of the “New York Five”, Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur), and Fred Hilton are described, along with the killing of Fred Hampton and the imprisonment of Muhammad Arif and Victor Cumerbash. Black Liberation Army prisoners (Herman Bell and Gabriel Torres) are interviewed extensively. Family members speak to the violence and repression of the police at a press conference. The murder by police of Twyman Myers is extensively addressed.
Herman Bell Out-takes
Date: 9/16/1974Call Number: PM 078Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Claude MarksCollection: Herman Bell
Herman Bell talks about Gerald Ford’s appointment and the double standard for justice in the US. Discusses the dehumanization and demasculinization of prisoners and alienation from work. Compares the experiences of native people during colonization to redevelopment of communities in cities at present. Discusses the process of moving people toward consciousness and the US Health Department’s pattern of genocide throughout history.
Eldridge Cleaver speaking at California Hall
Date: 11/21/1968Call Number: KP 033Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: KPFACollection: Cleaver, Eldridge
Eldridge Cleaver addresses California Hall on prison rehabilitation. Cleaver offers his views on the sadistic nature of prison guards and alludes to the fact that no real rehabilitation can actually happen in prison under the control of the “sadistic fiends and cruel men who control that apparatus”. Cleaver reveals his dislike for mayor Alioto, Reagan. Good sound bytes about LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson) having blood on his fingers.
Puerto Rico and Bicentennial
Date: 4/7/1976Call Number: FI 004Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Heber Dreher, Barbara LubinskiProgram: Freedom Is A Constant StruggleCollection: Freedom is a Constant Struggle
Alfredo Lopez of Puerto Rican Socialist Party on U.S. economic attacks and racist attacks on poor and people of color, especially in context of coming Bicentennial celebration, political and military defeats by national liberation struggles, call for national unity of progressive movements.
Protest Against Nazis in San Francisco
Date: 5/5/1976Call Number: FI 006Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Barbara Lubinski, Heber DreherProgram: Freedom is a Constant StruggleCollection: Freedom is a Constant Struggle
Nazis come to SF school board, police attack anti-nazi folks and arrest them. Attacks on integration by Nazis, Yvonne Golden, teacher who organized against them is arrested. Jerome, African American ex-prisoner, on multinational organizing against unfair inhuman prison conditions and KKK guards.
Info and song on Deacons for Defense and Justice.
Immigration and Racism
Date: 5/5/1976Call Number: FI 008Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Barbara Lubinski, Heber DreherProgram: Freedom Is a Constant StruggleCollection: Freedom is a Constant Struggle
Racist attacks on immigration, Menominee warriors attacked by government, San Francisco Craft Workers Strike, attacks on poor and city services, racist attempts to divide workers and organizing efforts at unity.
*Needs to be baked.
