Monday, March 03, 2008

Ramona Africa interview about MOVE 9 Parole Hearings

From MOVE 9 Parole 2008 http://move9parole.blogspot.com/

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Ramona Africa interview about MOVE 9 Parole Hearings

Watch the video here:


http://move9parole.blogspot.com/2008/03/video-ramona-africa-interview-about.html

In this new interview, Ramona Africa talks about the upcoming MOVE 9
Parole Hearings that are scheduled for April. MOVE is asking for support.
Stay tuned for an online petition and sample letter to send to the Parole
Board. Visit the new move9parole.blogspot.com site created for this
important time.

Ramona Africa is the sole adult survivor of the May 13, 1985 massacre of
11 members of the MOVE organization. The FBI and the City of Philadelphia
dropped a C4 bomb on MOVE's Osage Avenue home in West Philadelphia. Both
30-year old Ramona and 13-year old Birdie Africa (the only 2 survivors)
report that as the MOVE family attempted to escape their burning home,
their were met with massive rounds of automatic gunfire, forcing 11
members of the MOVE family to be burnt alive. Ramona dodged gunfire and
escaped from the fire with permanent scarring from the burns.

Ramona was charged with conspiracy, riot, and multiple counts of simple
and aggravated assault. Subsequently Ramona served 7 years in prison. If
she had chosen to sever her ties with MOVE and renounce the teachings of
John Africa, she could have been released far earlier. In the face of this
she held true to her revolutionary beliefs and was uncompromising in the
face of state terror. In his essay, "May 13 Remembered," featured in his
book "All Things Censored," Mumia Abu-Jamal writes:

"Had Ramona Africa emerged from the sea of flames wrapped in fear, had she
not instead escaped with her aura of resistance intact, she would have
been free long before the seven years she spent in a hellhole. Her
prosecutor, describing MOVE as a cult of resistance, demanded the jury
convict her of a range of charges that, if they did so, would have exposed
her to fifty years in prison. Only her naturalist faith, the teachings of
John Africa, allowed her to competently defend herself, where she beat the
majority of the charges. Ramona is "free" today."

Since her release from prison, Ramona has tirelessly worked on behalf of
the MOVE 9, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all political prisoners and prisoners of
war. She travels around the world, working for the revolution.

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