Holiday Political Prisoner Support News from NY
1) SHAC7 Days of Xmas Banners
2) Support Daniel McGowan shirts make great stocking stuffers!
3) Benefit CD for Green Scare Indictees
4) 11th Annual Dinner Tribute to Families of Political Prisoners (NYC)
5) Jericho Movement Calls for Hearings on COINTELPRO
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SHAC 7 Days of Xmas Banners now available at shac7.com/xmas.htm
4 to choose from. Show your love!
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We just got a batch of Support Daniel shirts back from the printer. You can see the beautiful image designed by Kristine Virsis
and order them at www.supportdaniel.org/morehelp/shirts.html
We have the image printed on sweatshop-free American Apparel shirts. [Yeah, we know they suck and we are looking for alternatives]. The black, pink, and olive green shirts are 100% cotton and the heather lake blue shirt is a 50/50 cotton/polyester blend. We have them in sizes XS - XL. The S to XL are unisex shirts which run slightly small for men and slightly large for women. The shirts are $15 plus shipping/handling and orders over 10 shirts get a bulk discount. You can order via PayPal on our website or find out how to order by mail by emailing us at friendsofdanielmcg@yahoo.com Please also contact us if you are ordering internationally.
All proceeds from the sale of these shirts go to Daniel's legal defense fund. If you live in NYC, you can get shirts from our friends at the following locations:
-bluestockings books, 172 Allen Street (between Stanton & Rivington Street), Lower East Side, New York.
-Mayday Books: 155 First Avenue (in the Theater for the New City between 9th & 10th Street), New York.
-Moo Shoes: 152 Allen Street (between Stanton & Rivington Street), Lower East Side, New York
Thanks for your support!
Family and Friends of Daniel McGowan
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Benefit CD for Green Scare defendants
Filastine “Burn It” Benefit CD
On December 7, 2005, the despicable lackeys of the FBI initiated “operation backfire,” a roundup of accused arsonists intended to intimidate all associated with ecologically oriented direct action. Most of the defendants in this witch-hunt eventually accepted plea bargains—some honorably, some dishonorably.
On December 7, 2006, the CrimethInc. Workers’ Collective released Filastine’s Burn It CD as a fundraiser to support the defendants who refused to become police informants. Filastine, a former member of ¡Tchkung! and founding participant in the Infernal Noise Brigade , has been drawing on musical traditions from all around the globe to compose incendiary anarchist music for well over a decade now. Burn It, a wide-ranging mélange of driving rhythms, electronic layering, on-site sampling, and multilingual vocals, has already been released in Europe to great acclaim. These 16 tracks successfully integrate analog and digital, political and party, experiment and entertainment—not to mention artistic traditions from Brooklyn to Indonesia.
A full $5 from every CD sale will go to the defendants, who face long stretches of prison time and massive debts. The extensive packaging, in which no plastic is used save that in the CD itself, includes a 12-page booklet providing a full background and commentary on their cases (download a PDF of the booklet here).
"The record's long list of singers, MCs, and musicians brings the songs to endlessly surprising and rich places, as well. Filastine layers artists from distant genres and locales with great architectural sense, and while at times the extremity of the juxtapositions borders on hilarious, the music always feels heroically well designed and strong in conception. On "Palmares," disaffected French oration is overlaid with clouds of gypsy-brass ennui, while party-starter "Judas Goat" lets the rhaita, one of the wailing horns of the Master Musicians, loose over beats that wouldn't be out of place propelling an Aaliyah cut. On some songs, Filastine's constructions are reminiscent of the murky drama of Ninja Tuners like Amon Tobin and DJ Food, and throughout the album the lines between live performed contributions and meticulously contextualized samples is slurred and burnt. The most emotional and fully realized pair of songs come about two-thirds in: "Boca de Ouro" alternates dizzy rhymes with a fuzzily cinematic chorus, and "Autology" is a slow-burning adaptation of an Indonesian song in which the intoxicatingly mournful singing of Jessika Skeletalia Kenney sails over a bed of screeching bowed bass and quicksand-sinking drum patterns.
"Overall, Burn It is a stunningly successful integration of varied international musical styles into the polyglot schemes of its maker; way beyond most "electronic world music" in both its conception and execution. Not unlike the Infernal Noise Brigade, Filastine absorbs music from all over the world and bends it (with all due respect) to his own designs. And, like the INB, he veers wildly between pointed polemic discourse and bacchanalian party embrace. In this way the album has more of a personal stamp and feeling of its creator than a lot of electronic music, as it deals—whether consciously or unconsciously—with these essential imperfections and warring forces in the dude that is Filastine."
-Sam Mickens
The Stranger
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11th Annual Dinner Tribute to Families of Political Prisoner
Body: Contact Person: Herman Ferguson
Telephone: 718-949-5153
On Sunday January 21, 2007, The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee will host its 11th annual dinner tribute to the families of our political prisoners. This event will take place at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza at 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The dinner provides an opportunity for our community to show its support for our political prisoners and at the same time it demonstrates our solidarity with their families who have been forced to suffer the long painful absence of a member of their household.
Sundiata Acoli, Herman Bell, The Move 9, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Bashir Hameed, Abdul Majid, Marshall Eddie Conway , Russell Shoatz, Mutulu Shakur, Herman Bell and Robert Seth Hayes have been proudly represented by their families at this annual event Eventually, we hope the combined efforts of our communities and the political prisoner families will grow strong enough to force the prison system to finally release our freedom fighters.
This is why we are asking the community to come out in great numbers to show their support and empathy with the imprisoned brothers and their long suffering family members. The proceeds from this affair are divided equally among the commissary accounts of all the political prisoners who have a family member at the dinner to represent them.
The featured speaker will be Fred Hampton, Jr. who is the son of our beloved hero Fred Hampton, Sr., brutally assassinated by the FBI and the Chicago police in a cowardly plot back in the 60's...Joining Fred in the program will be cultural workers: A_Alikes, Karen Taylor, Kahlil Almustafa, Peggy Washington, Talibah Iman, “Nat Turner”, Sala Cyril, Desiree Gordon and others.
Our usual sumptuous dinner will be served between 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. The cultural tribute begins promptly at 4:15 .p.m. Tickets are $35. All proceeds go to the commissary accounts of the political prisoners represented at the dinner. For advance reservations complete the form below and mail with money order to:
Malcolm X Commemoration Committee
P.O. Box 340084
Jamaica, NY 11434-3104
11th Annual Dinner Tribute
To the Families of Our Political Prisoners
& Prisoners of War
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Bed-Stuy Restoration Plaza
1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
3-7PM
Tickets $35.00
Please reserve ______ Tickets @$35.00 each for the above event.
I enclose a money order for ____________.
Signature _______________________________________
Date______________________
Make money order payable to:
MALCOLM X COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE
Mail with completed form to:
MXCC
P.O. Box 340084
Jamaica, NY 11434-3104
Jericho Movement calls for hearings on COINTELPRO
Body: Contact: national_jericho@riseup.net
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Sunday, December 10, 2006
Call for hearings on COINTELPRO
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
In January 2007, Congressman John Conyers will become the new chair of the United States House of Representative Committee on the Judiciary. The House Committee on the Judiciary jurisdiction includes the following areas: (1) the judiciary and judicial proceedings, civil and criminal; (2) civil liberties; (3) claims against the United States; (4) national penitentiaries and (5) Revision and codification of the Statutes of the United States.
Herman Ferguson, on behalf of The Jericho Movement, has written a letter to Congressman Conyers requesting that he schedule hearings on "COINTELPRO: Its Legacy and Continuing Impact."� A copy of Herman's letter is below. It is our hope that these hearings, if held, will not only further expose the FBI and local law enforcement crimes against the Black Liberation Movement and many of those involved it, but also result in legislation addressing some of these injustices.
Of particular concern to the Jericho Movement is the release and treatment of our political prisoners. Though the United States steadfastly denies it, presently there are many political prisoners in the United States, the majority of them Black/New Africans who were targets of the COINTELPRO "Black Nationalist Hate Groups"� program. Many of these brothers and sisters have been incarcerated for decades.
For example, Jalil Abdul Muntaquin, has been incarcerated since 1971; Sundiata Acoli and Herman Bell since 1973. It is critical that the human rights and constitutional violations surrounding their arrests, trials, sentencing, conditions of their confinement and continuing incarceration because of their political histories--all were members of the Black Panther Party--and continuing commitment to the liberation of Black/New Afrikan be brought to the wider attention of the public. Sundiata Acoli, now 70 and with an near exemplary record, has twice been denied parole.
If nothing else, congressional hearings on "COINTELPRO: Its Legacy and Continuing Impact"� would go along way towards achieving this result.
To this end, we are calling on all supporters of political prisoners--defense committees; revolutionary nationalist, radical, and progressive organizations, elected officials, community, religious, spiritual leaders, etc.--to write, fax, or call Congressman Conyers to urge that schedule hearings on COINTELPRO. Congressman Conyers' address is as follows:
The Honorable John Conyers
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
Your support of Jericho's call will help ensure that it becomes a reality. Forward, download, copy and distribute this letter and Jericho's call to as many people as possible. Please mail or email copies of your letters to Herman Ferguson at the following address:
National Jericho Movement
P.O. Box 340084
Jamaica, NY 11434
Thank you in advance for your support of this effort. For more information about The Jericho Movement and Political Prisoners in the United States, visit The Jericho Movement website www.the jerichomovement.com. Please also do not hesitate to contact Herman or us if you have any questions about this campaign.
In solidarity,
Joan P. Gibbs, Esq. (718) 270-6296 OR 1-718-757-4093
Mani Gilyard, Chair, Malcolm X Commemoration Committee
The Jericho Movement
For Recognition and Amnesty for Political Prisoners
P.O. Box 340084
Jamaica, New York 11434-3104
Tel: 718. 949.5153
December 7, 2006
The Honorable John Conyers
Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Congressman Conyers:
Congratulations on your pending ascendancy to the chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary. We write to request that you schedule hearings on "COINTELPRO: Its Legacy and Continuing Impact."� For more than a decade, many of us have been requesting hearings on COINTELPRO, and hopefully, legislation that begins to address some of the injustices committed against the Black movement and activists as result of COINTELPRO. We hope that one of your acts as the new chair of the Judiciary Committee will be to schedule these hearings.
As I am sure you are aware, COINTELPRO is an acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence programs against, inter alia, the Communist party, and so-called "Black Nationalist Hate Groups."� The August 1967 FBI memorandum announcing the Black Nationalist Hate Group program describes its goals as:
1. Prevent a coalition of militant black nationalist groups;
2. Prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify and electrify the militant nationalist movement;
3. Prevent violence on the part of the black nationalist groups;
4. Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability by discrediting them;
5. Prevent the long range growth of militant black nationalist organizations especially among youth.
The targets of the Black Nationalist Hate Group program included a wide array of Black organizations and individuals, among them the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Revolutionary Action Movement, the Republic of New Akrika, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Kwame Toure, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, and countless others.
Though the Black Panther (BPP) was not among the original targets of the program, in September 1968, then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover labeled the BPP "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country."� Thereafter the BPP became the primary focus of the program, and was ultimately the target of 233 of the believed total authorized "Black Nationalist"� COINTELPRO actions.
As the Final Report of the 1976 Select Committee To Study Government Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activists states: "Although the claimed purpose of the Bureau's COINTELPRO tactics was to prevent violence, some of the FBI's tactics against the BPP were clearly intended to foster violence, and many others could reasonably have been expected to cause violence."
In its pursuit of the BPP, the FBI, often together with local law enforcement officials, knew no bounds. BPP members and supporters were not only spied on and harassed but, in blatant violation of the both the United States Constitution and International law, falsely accused of crimes that they had not committed. Many were wounded and murdered by police and FBI.
December 4, 2006, marked the thirty-eighth anniversary of the assassination of Fred Hampton, one of the leaders of the Chicago chapter of the BPP, by local Chicago police thanks to information from an FBI informant, while he slept in his bed. Hampton was shot twice in the head, once in the arm and shoulder; while three other people sleeping in the same bed escaped unharmed. Mark Clark, sleeping in a living room chair, was also murdered while asleep. Hampton's wife, who was eight months pregnant, was also shot but survived. Four Panthers sleeping in the apartment were also wounded, while one escaped injury. Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated; Mark Clark was 17.
While the true impact of the COINTELPRO Black Nationalist Hate Group Program on the Black Liberation Movement will probably never be known because the FBI never recorded all of its activities, has destroyed many of its files, and many of the architects and participants are now deceased, it is crucial that the impact and continuing legacy of this program be investigated and remedies developed to repair the damage it has done. This is particularly true with respect to the many members of the Black Panther party, the Republic of New Afrika and other organizations that today languish in jail as a result of their having been targeted by the FBI and local law enforcement officials as part of the counterintelligence programs.
We urgently request that you schedule hearings on "COINTELPRO: Its Legacy and Continuing Impact"� in the near future. Thank you in advance for your prompt attention this matter. We expect that you will give our request the serious attention that it deserves.
Yours Truly.
Herman Ferguson, Co-Founder, The Jericho Movement
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FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
www.thejerichomovement.com
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