{"id":2834,"date":"2013-10-11T11:50:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T17:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/?p=2834"},"modified":"2013-10-11T11:50:29","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T17:50:29","slug":"black-panther-party-history-month-political-prisoners-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/black-panther-party-history-month-political-prisoners-in-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Panther Party History Month & Political Prisoners In The U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in Intrepid Report on October 11, 2013<\/a>
\nBy\u00a0Larry Pinkney<\/a><\/p>\n

In loving memory of HERMAN WALLACE and our determination to bring LYNNE STEWART home!<\/p>\n

\u201cTo die for the . . . racists . . . is lighter than a feather. But to die for the people . . . is heavier than any mountain and deeper than any sea.\u201d
\n\u2014Huey P. Newton<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire. But we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don\u2019t fight racism with racism. We\u2019re gonna fight racism with solidarity.\u201d<\/strong>
\n \u2014Fred Hampton<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The month of October is Black Panther Party History Month. This is because the Black Panther Party (for Self Defense) was founded in the month of October, 1966, in Oakland, California; and it is appropriate, especially during this month of October 2013, to reflect on past and ongoing political struggles of we, the struggling everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people, in this nation and throughout Mother Earth.<\/p>\n

A brief history of the Black Panther Party<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to conducting many community political education (PE) classes and opposing rampant police brutality and violence, the young women and men of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in that era, engaged nationwide in literally serving \u2018the people body and soul\u2019 through its numerous BPP programs including, free breakfast programs, free clothing programs, free medical clinics, free shoe programs, and a host of other former BPP programs throughout this nation. Strong and functional allies of the BPP included Brown, Red, Yellow, and White people from organizations such as the Brown Berets, the Young Lords, the American Indian Movement (AIM), the Chinese Voice Party (CVP), Students for A Democratic Society (SDS), and the White Panther Party, etc. This of course caused chagrin, deep consternation, and unbridled ire on the part of the U.S. political establishment (whose goal was to perpetuate the status quo). The reaction by the U.S. government and police agencies nationwide to the community programs and political organizing of the Black Panther Party was swift and exceedingly brutal.<\/p>\n

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Black Panther Party (BPP) and its membership nationwide, found itself as the prime targets of a\u00a0nationally coordinated<\/span> campaign of terror, which included the government tactics of ensnarement, discreditation, disruption, wrongful imprisonment, and utter annihilation\u2014carried out by the U.S. government, local police agencies, their assorted and concomitant agents and agent provocateurs, and the U.S. \u2018news\u2019 media itself. As a result of this, numerous BPP members throughout the United States were murdered, including (but by no means limited to) Bobby Hutton, Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, John Huggins, Bunchy Carter, and Welton Armstead. Many other BPP members, including the late Geronimo Ji-Jaga (Pratt), found themselves framed, tortured physically and\/or psychologically, and imprisoned on vicious trumped-up criminal charges intended to \u2018neutralize\u2019 and silence them. Despite its proud, stalwart, and undying legacy, by early 1980, the Black Panther Party had been utterly physically decimated and ceased to exist as a viable functioning national organization. Nonetheless, it had made a deep and indelible mark in the consciousness of everyday people.<\/p>\n

Of the various internal U.S. government horrific campaigns of terror used against the BPP membership, perhaps the best known and most infamous is COINTELPRO (the Counter Intelligence Program\u2014to discredit, frame, disrupt, neutralize, imprison, and\/or murder BPP members, as well as members of other organizations, including the American Indian Movement). In this year of 2013, the horror and full scope of this U.S. government internal campaign of terror has still not been seriously addressed or rectified. Nor did this campaign of under-the-radar government terror and fabrication cease in the 1970s. It continues to the present.<\/p>\n

There remain today, decades hence, in this year of 2013, myriads of past and present victims of the U.S. government\u2019s (ongoing) internal mission of terror, as attested to by the torturous and wrongful imprisonment of numerous persons targeted by the U.S. government. Moreover, the geographical exile of others, from this their country of birth, including Black Panther Party veterans Assata Shakur and Pete O\u2019Neal, is a clear indication of the reality that they can expect no justice from this government, including its judiciary\u2014even now.<\/p>\n

Some of the de facto \u2018political prisoners\u2019 languishing in U.S. death gulags\u2014euphemistically referred to as prisons\u2014include Sundiata Acoli, Albert Woodfox (of the \u2018Angola 3\u2032), Leonard Peltier, Eddie Conway, Russell Shoats, Jalil Muntaqim, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Chip Fitzgerald, Jamil Al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown), and (the \u2018people\u2019s lawyer) 74-year-old Lynne Stewart. These aforementioned persons are but the tip of a gigantic iceberg of U.S. political prisoners being held in this nation, and all of them are either Black Panther Party veterans, or had been political allies and\/or defenders of the Black Panther Party\u2019s quest for genuine political, economic, and social justice in this nation.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government vendetta against the BPP still not satisfied<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not satisfied with its bloody campaigns of terror including frame-ups, disinformation, murders, and wrongful imprisonments of Black Panther Party members in the 1960s and 1970s, U.S. authorities, on January 23, 2007, rounded up and jailed eight former members of the Black Panther Party (in California, New York, and Florida) on bogus charges related to the 1971 (that\u2019s right\u20141971) killing of a San Francisco police officer. U.S. authorities engaged in this vendetta in 2007, despite the fact that the very same matter had, in 1975, been tossed out of court by a California judge after it was learned that the charges were based upon statements made by three men after police had tortured them for several days using electric shock, cattle prods, sensory deprivation, beatings, plastic bags and hot wet blankets for asphyxiation. That vendetta became known as the case of the \u2018SF 8\u2032 (San Francisco 8).<\/p>\n

Due to strong and consistent community support of the SF 8, and after four and one half years, and well over a million dollars of taxpayers\u2019 money having been spent by police and government prosecutors, the case ended in 2011, with not one of the SF-8 being found guilty of killing the police officer.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this is representative of the ongoing government vendetta against veterans of the Black Panther Party and its legacy\u2014even after 40 years or more!<\/p>\n

Herman Wallace<\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 1, 2013, after 41 years of wrongful imprisonment (at least 40 of which were spent in solitary confinement), the murder conviction of the critically ill and dying Black Panther Party veteran Herman Wallace (of the \u2018Angola 3\u2032), was overturned and he was released in an ambulance. Three days later, on the morning of October 4, 2013, Herman Wallace passed on. Despite many years of effort to obtain the compassionate release of the ailing Herman Wallace, the government and prison authorities had callously refused to allow him a compassionate release. The over four decades that Herman spent in solitary confinement is nothing short of torture and unspeakable cruelty. There simply are no words to adequately describe the overwhelming barbarity and sadism of this government, its judicial system, and its prison gulags.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are no words to adequately describe the love, beauty, resilience, perseverance, and spirit of the late Herman Wallace. As Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton said many years ago, \u201cTo die for the . . . racists . . . is lighter than a feather. But to die for the people . . . is heavier than any mountain and deeper than any sea.\u201d Herman\u2019s love for the people and his determination must always be remembered even as we seek to emulate it. His indescribable sacrifice must not and will not be in vain; for in the final analysis, Herman Wallace won\u2014HE won for and with ALL OF US!<\/p>\n

Lynne Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 74-year-old political prisoner Lynne Stewart has provided us with yet another example of the power and resilience of the human spirit. For the over 40 years that Lynne has, as the genuine \u2018people\u2019s lawyer,\u2019 vigorously championed and defended the human, political, and legal rights of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people\u2014she gave us her ALL. Now SHE NEEDS US! She is literally dying of cancer in a U.S. prison gulag, and it is up to we, the everyday ordinary people (whom she has served for so very long), to consistently raise our collective voices to a crescendo pitch and relentlessly insist that Lynne Stewart be granted the compassion that she needs and so well deserves. We must find the ways and means creatively and persistently to bring Lynne home to be with her immediate family and those of the larger human family who cherish her and understand compassion!<\/p>\n

Lynne Stewart is one of us, the everyday people. Her passion for justice must be our own passion to bring our sister home while she yet lives. Don\u2019t wait. ACT NOW!<\/p>\n

Let us not mourn for Lynne, for she still lives! Let us ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, and ORGANIZE SOME MORE to bring our Sister home. Her bondage is OUR bondage, and in the words of the late great writer, activist, and philosopher Rosa Luxemburg, \u201cThose who do not move, do not notice their chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

To see the increasing worldwide support for Lynne Stewart and some of the\u00a0many different ways<\/em>\u00a0that we can Show Love For Lynne Stewart click on\u00a0Love for Lynne Stewart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To sign the new petition in support of Lynne Stewart\u2019s compassionate release, click on the right-hand side of\u00a0Justice For Lynne Stewart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

History and legacy of the Black Panther Party<\/strong><\/p>\n

The history and legacy of the Black Panther Party is one of the unrelenting COLLECTIVE struggles of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and throughout our precious Mother Earth. And that struggle is far from over!<\/p>\n

Remember: Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward then, my sisters and brothers. Onward!
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