It’s Time To Declare A General Amnesty for All Political Prisoners

Published in Issue 516 of The Black Commentator on May 9, 2013
Republished in Moorbey’z Blog on May 9, 2013

By Larry Pinkney

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”
–Frederick Douglass

“There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would take the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for liberty as long as my strength lasted.”
–Harriet Tubman

Government should exist to serve the everyday ordinary people, not entrap and enslave them.

The prison industrial complex in the U.S. is essentially a 21^st century form of economic and psychological slavery. Poor and disenfranchised men and women of all colors are its targets and victims, with ‘people of color’ enduring the brunt of this 21^st century slavery.

Earlier this month, drone man Barack Obama’s FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and its police minions placed Black Panther Party veteran – the de facto rebellious runaway slave – sister Assata Shakur, on the so-called ‘terrorists’ list and increased the already despicable bounty for her capture to 2 million dollars. Assata, who was a target of the infamous and continuing U.S. government COINTELPRO activities, was framed, imprisoned, and tortured in the U.S. prison gulag system in 1973. Subsequently, in 1979, Assata escaped from her tormentors and enslavers, fled into exile, and was ultimately granted political asylum in Cuba, where she resides. Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown would all be very proud of Assata Shakur. Long live Assata! Long live the Cuban people and their ongoing revolution! And long live the just and necessary collective struggle of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in the United States, and throughout our Mother Earth!

In this year of 2013, the imperialist, avaricious, corporate/military U.S. power elite is intensifying its activities to oppress and disenfranchise ordinary people in this nation and throughout the world. One of the manifestations of this political, economic, and social systemic oppression is the burgeoning U.S. prison population which is, in fact, the largest in the world — in this sinister bastion of hypocrisy.

Notwithstanding the fact that the overwhelming majority of persons incarcerated in the massive U.S. prison gulag system of slavery are poor and disenfranchised, in addition to being the victims of a an unjust and corrupt judicial system; there is the glaring reality of thousands of women and men political prisoners whose real so-called ‘crime’ was to stand in opposition to the internal and external political policies of the corporate / military U.S. power elite and its puppet government.

Political prisoners such as Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Russell Shoatz, Lynne Stewart, Bradley Manning and so very many others are but the tip of a gigantic iceberg of U.S. hypocrisy and injustice right here in this nation. (Reference the March 28, 2013, Black Commentator article titled, Pimping the Pain of Political Prisoners in this Bastion of Hypocrisy.)

As the war mongering and bloody Obama/Biden regime, and its proxies, murder Palestinians, Libyans, Afghanis, Pakistanis, and Somalis, etc. all over the world; subterfuge, entrapment, and the fabrication of evidence remain, to this day, the tools of choice of the U.S. government and its corporate-stream ‘news’ media, to continue COINTELPRO at home, in order to “discredit, defame, neutralize, and imprison” political activists here in the U.S. This nation’s corporate-owned ‘leaders,’ be they Democrat or Republican, are a blight upon everyday ordinary people of all colors in the U.S., and upon humanity as a whole. This is why there are so many political prisoners in this nation, many of whom have languished in U.S. prisons for three, four, or more decades.

The time has come to free all political prisoners in this nation, of all colors! It is time that a general amnesty be declared for all political prisoners!

The slavery of the U.S. prison gulag system (and indeed the U.S. political system as a whole) is not simply a ‘New Jim Crow.’ It is an extended, fine-tuned 21^st century Jim Crow. It is a divide-and-conquer system of economic apartheid against people of all colors that actually enhances racism rather than eradicating it.

As we engage in the struggle to free our men and women political prisoners in this nation, let us also remember the detainees imprisoned at the U.S. prison gulag torture chamber of Guantanamo. We must do this. Why? Frederick Douglass answered this question best when he said, “No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”

We must stop being the dupes of the U.S. corporate-owned government and its propaganda arm – the corporate-stream media. These people and institutions are utterly incapable of telling the truth and have built their lives and fortunes (however large or small) upon the incessant propagation of myths and lies. Their narrative is that of liars who are intent upon beguiling, distracting, ensnaring, confusing, dividing, and controlling everyday ordinary people. We, the everyday ordinary people, ‘will not be moved’ by their machinations.

Economic austerity, massive incarceration, and police brutality etc. at home, and perpetual U.S. wars abroad, are all inextricably linked. Let us understand and be crystal clear about this!

Drone man Barack Obama is not merely a liar. He is a bloody murderer with his very own ‘Kill List.’ Nevertheless, he is currently the most potent weapon of the U.S. power elite against the legitimate needs, aspirations, and human rights of everyday people in this nation and throughout Mother Earth! He and his cohorts must be recognized for who and what they really are and dealt with accordingly. I remind you of the words of Steve Biko: “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Free your minds and reclaim your humanity. Whatever our differences, we must and can do this collectively, based upon firm principles and our own reclaimed consciousness and humanity.

Though our struggle is a long, hard, and protracted one, it is time to face reality in order to change it.

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

•••