NYC Anarchist Black Cross U.S. Political Prisoner and Prisoner of War Listing Edition 9.7, November 2014 ALL CONTENT IN THIS EDITION IS UP-TO-DATE TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE AS OF NOVEMBER 7, 2014. TABLE OF CONTENTS BLACK/NEW AFRIKAN LIBERATION 1 ANARCHIST MOVEMENT 13 INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE 18 HACKS/INFORMATION LEAKS 19 GREEN SCARE/EARTH LIBERATION/ANIMAL LIBERATION 20 PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE 22 CUBAN FIVE 23 OTHER NATIONAL LIBERATION 24 GI/WAR RESISTERS 28 ANTI-POLICE 29 RADICAL SELF-DEFENSE 30 VIRGIN ISLAND FIVE 31 GET INVOLVED 33 WRITE A LETTER 33 STAYING SAFE 35 BLACK/NEW AFRIKAN LIBERATION Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM8335 SCI Mahanoy 301 Morea Road Frackville, Pennsylvania 17932 Birthday: April 24 Mumia is an award winning journalist and was one of the founders of the Black Panther Party chapter in Philadelphia, PA. He has struggled for justice and human rights for people of color since he was at least 14 years old ~ the age when he joined the Party. In December of 1982, Mumia, who moonlighted by driving a taxi, happened upon police who were beating his brother. During the melee, a police oficer was shot and killed. Despite the fact that many people saw someone else shoot and then runaway from the scene, Mumia, in what could only be called a kangaroo court, was convicted and sentenced to death. During the summer of 1995, a death warrant was signed by Governor Tom Ridge, which sparked one of the most effective organizing efforts in defense of a political prisoner ever. Since that time, Mumia has had his death sentence overturned, but is still expected to serve the rest of his life in prison. More information: freemumia.com Sundiata Acoli* #39794-066 FCI Cumberland Post Ofice Box 1000 Cumberland, Maryland 21501 *Address envelope to Clark Squire. Birthday: January 14 A New York Black Panther, he endured two years of prison awaiting trial for the Panther 21 Conspiracy Case. He and his comrades were eventually acquitted on all the bogus charges. The case was historic and a classic example of police and government attempting to neutralize organizations by incarcerating their leadership. As a result of this political attack and because of the immense pressure and surveillance from the FBI and local police Sundiata, like many other Panther leaders went “underground”. On May 2, 1973, Sundiata Acoli, Assata Shakur and Zayd Shakur were ambushed and attacked by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike. Assata was wounded and Zayd was killed. During the gun battle a state trooper was shot and killed in self defense. Sundiata was tried in an environment of mass hysteria and convicted, although there was no credible evidence that he killed the trooper or had been involved in the shooting. He was sentenced to thirty years. More information: sundiataacoli.org Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin #99974-555 USP Canaan Post Ofice Box 300 Waymart, Pennsylvania 18472 Birthday: October 4 Formerly known as H. Rap Brown, the Imam came to prominence in the 1960s as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Justice Minister of the Black Panther Party. He is perhaps most famous for his proclamation during that period that “violence is as American as cherry pie”, as well as once stating that “If America don’t come around, we’re gonna burn it down.” He is currently serving a life sentence for homicide. Zolo Azania #4969 State Prison Minimum Unit 1 Park Row Michigan City, Indiana 46360 Birthday: December 12 Zolo Azania is a former Black Panther convicted of a 1981 bank robbery that left a Gary, Indiana cop dead. He was arrested miles away from the incident as he was walking, unarmed, down the street. The prosecution intimidated witnesses, suppressed favorable evidence, presented false eyewitness and expert testimony, and denied him the right to speak or present motions in his own behalf. Herman Bell #79-C-0262 Great Meadow Correctional Facility 11739 State Route 22 Post Ofice Box 51 Comstock, New York 12821-0051 Birthday: January 14 Herman Bell moved to Brooklyn as a boy. He was a talented football player and won a scholarship to UC-Oakland. While in Oakland, Herman joined the Black Panther Party and became active around human rights issues in the Black community. In 1971, due to relentless FBI attacks on the Party, Herman went underground. While underground, Herman joined the Black Liberation Army, and in September of 1973 he was captured and extradited to New York on charges of having killed 2 New York City police oficers—a case for which other Panthers were serving time. No witnesses were able to put Herman at the scene of the crime. The irst trial ended in a hung jury, but Herman was convicted at his second trial and sentenced to 25 years to life. In 1990, he earned his B.S. degree from the SUNY-New Paltz. Herman remains a prison activist, having coached sports teams inside the prison system, as well as mentoring younger prisoners. More information: freehermanbell.org Joe-Joe Bowen* #AM4272 SCI Coal Township 1 Kelley Drive Coal Township, Pennsylvania 17866-1020 *Address envelope to Joseph Bowen. Birthday: January 15 Joseph “Joe-Joe” Bowen is one of the many all-but-forgotten frontline soldiers in the liberation struggle. A native of Philadelphia, Joe-Joe was a young member of the “30th and Norris” street gang before his incarceration politicized him. Released in 1971, his outside activism was cut short a week following his release when Joe-Joe was confronted by an oficer of the notoriously brutal Philadelphia police department. The police oficer was killed in the confrontation, and Bowen led. After his capture and incarceration, Bowen became a Black Liberation Army combatant, deiant to authorities at every turn. In 1973, Joe- Joe and Philadelphia Five prisoner Fred “Muhammad” Burton assassinated Holmesberg prison’s warden and deputy warden as well as wounded the guard commander in retaliation for intense repression against Muslim prisoners in the facility. In 1981, Bowen led a six-day standoff with authorities when he and six other captives took 39 hostages at Graterford Prison as a freedom attempt and protest of the prison conditions. Much of his time in prison has been spent in and out of control units, solitary coninement, and other means of isolating Joe-Joe from the general prison population. These include three trips to Marion Penitentiary, where he met Sundiata Acoli and other BLA members. He is legendary to many prisoners as a revolutionary. “I used to teach the brothers how to turn their rage into energy and understand their situations,” Bowen told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1981. “I don’t threaten anybody. I don’t talk to pigs. I don’t drink anything I can’t see through and I don’t eat anything off a tray. When the time comes, I’ll be ready.” 3 Veronza Bowers, Jr. 35316-136 USP Atlanta Post Ofice Box 150160 Atlanta, Georgia 30315 Birthday: February 4 Veronza was a member of the Black Panther Party and was convicted in the murder of a U.S. Park Ranger on the word of two government informants, both of whom received reduced sentences for other crimes by the Federal prosecutor’s ofice. There were no eye-witnesses and no evidence independent of these informants to link him to the crime. At his trial, Veronza offered alibi testimony which was not credited by the jury. Nor was testimony of two relatives of the informants who insisted that they were lying. The informants had all charges against them in this case dropped and one was given $10,000 by the government according to the prosecutor’s post-sentencing report. Veronza has consistently proclaimed his innocence of the crime he never committed, even at the expense of having his appeals for parole denied for which an admission of guilt and contrition is virtually required. He insists on maintaining his innocence. More information: veronza.org Muhammad Burton* AF3896 SCI Somerset 1590 Walters Mill Road Somerset, Pennsylvania 15510-0001 *Address envelope to Fred Burton. Birthday: December 15 Frederick Burton is an innocent man who has diligently attempted to prove his innocence to the courts for the past 37 years. Prior to his incarceration, Fred worked for a phone company, was a well respected member of his community and his wife was preparing to have twins, his third and fourth child. In 1970, Fred was accused and then convicted of participating in the planning of the murder of Philadelphia police oficers. While the plan was allegedly to blow up a police station, what occurred was that a police oficer was shot and killed allegedly by members of a radical group called “the Revolutionaries.” 4 Chip Fitzgerald* #B-27527 Kern Valley State Prison Post Ofice Box 5101 Delano, California 93216 *Address envelope to Romaine Fitzgerald. Birthday: April 11 Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, born and raised in Compton, California, joined the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party in early 1969 as a teenager who had just been released from the California Youth Authority. In September of that year, as a dedicated member of the Party, Chip was arrested in connection with a police shoot-out and tried for assault on police and related charges, including the murder of a security guard. He was sentenced to death. More information: freechip.org Robert Seth Hayes #74-A-2280 Sullivan Correctional Facility Post Ofice Box 116 Fallsburg, New York 12733-0116 Birthday: October 15 After the assassination of Martin Luther King and the social upheaval which followed it, Robert Seth Hayes joined the Black Panther Party, working in the Party’s free medical clinics and free breakfast programs. Like many other activists, Seth was forced underground by FBI and police repression of the Panther movement. Once underground, Seth joined the Black Liberation Army. In 1973, following a shootout with police, Seth was arrested and convicted of the murder of a New York City police oficer, and, while maintaining his innocence to this day, sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Imprisoned for nearly forty years, Seth has long since served his sentence. Seth irst came up for parole in 1998, but prison oficials have refused to release him, focusing on his involvement with the Black Panther Party and his knowledge as to the whereabouts of Assata Shakur and not his conduct while imprisoned. While in prison, Seth has worked as a librarian, pre release advisor, and AIDS counselor, mentoring younger prisoners and continuing to struggle for his people. More information: kersplebedeb.com/sethhayes 5 Maliki Shakur Latine # 81-A-4469 Clinton Correctional Facility Post Ofice Box 2000 Dannemora, New York 12929 Birthday: August 23 In his early years, Maliki Shakur Latine joined the Nation of Islam and began confronting society’s oppressive forces. By 1969, Maliki joined the Black Panther Party. The discipline was not as rigid as in the Nation, but it contained the basic elements of discipline Maliki sees as essential to any effective revolutionary organization. Maliki began taking political education classes and transforming the theoretical ideals of the Panthers into daily practice. Like many Panthers targeted by the U.S. government, Maliki found himself behind prison bars. Upon his release, Maliki found that government repression forced many Panthers underground. Maliki followed suit and spent eight years as a Black Liberation Army soldier. On July 3rd, 1979, NYPD pulled over a car they suspected stolen. Approaching the car, guns drawn, the cops opened ire. All four occupants escaped, though one of them, and one cop, were injured. Prosecutors claimed ingerprint evidence against Maliki and a co- defendant, but no eye witnesses could place him at the scene. Following a clear pattern in cases regarding Panthers, Maliki was found guilty, sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He has consistently been denied parole, primarily due to his past political afiliations. More information: j.mp/MalikiLatine Ruchell Magee* #A92051 CSP - Los Angeles County Post Ofice Box 8457 Lancaster, CA 93539-8457 *Address card/letter to Cinque. Birthday: March 17 Commonly regarded as the longest held political prisoner in the U.S., Ruchell Magee has been imprisoned since 1963. He was politicized in prison and participated in the August 7, 1970 Marin County Courthouse Rebellion— the attempted liberation of political prisoner George Jackson and the Soledad Brothers by Jackson’s younger brother Jonathan. Magee was seriously injured in the incident and subsequently pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced in 1975 to life in prison and has been denied parole numerous times. Abdul Majid #83-A-0483 Five Points Correctional Facility 6600 State Route 96 Caller Box 119 Romulus, New York 14541 Birthday: June 25 In 1968, Abdul Majid joined the Black Panther Party, having been previously active with the Grass Roots Advisory Council. Abdul was involved in many of the community-based projects of the BPP including the free health clinic and free breakfast for children program. After the Party was destroyed by the U.S. government, Abdul continued his political work as a paralegal with Bronx Legal Services. On April 16th, 1981 a van was pulled over by NYPD. Two occupants exited the van and ired upon the cops—one was killed, the other injured. Despite claims by the police that the van was pulled over for connections to burglaries, the folder of “suspects” circulated by the cops exclusively consisted of former Panthers, not burglary suspects. Abdul and his co-defendant, Bashir Hameed were arrested and tried three times. The irst trial ended in a hung jury. The second trial was declared a mistrial by the judge immediately after the jury rendered a decision that acquitted Bashir on the murder charge. At a third trial, the state inally got its way —Abdul was convicted of murder and sentenced to 33 years to life. Jalil Muntaqim* #77-A-4283 Attica Correctional Facility Post Ofice Box 149 Attica, New York 14011-0149 *Address envelope to Anthony Bottom. Birthday: October 18 Jalil became afiliated with the Black Panther Party at age 18. Less than 2 months before his 20th birthday he was captured with Albert Nuh Washington in a midnight shootout with San Francisco police. He was subsequently charged with a host of revolutionary activities including the assassination of two police in New York City. It is for this that he is currently serving a 25 years to life sentence in New York State. His case is known as the New York 3 case as his co-defendants include Nuh and Herman Bell. He was also implicated in the San Francisco 8 case, and pled guilty to a lesser offense. More information: freejalil.com 7 Sekou Odinga #09-A-3775 Clinton Correctional Facility Post Ofice Box 2001 Dannemora, New York 12929 Birthday: June 14 Sekou was forced into hiding in 1969 when he and twenty other Black Panther Party members were wrongly charged with criminal conspiracy in the NY Panther 21 case. Several months later, while still underground, he traveled to Algeria to establish an international chapter of the Black Panther Party. Later, Sekou became an activist in the New Afrikan Independence Movement and a member of the Black Liberation Army. On October 23, 1981, Sekou and Mtyari Shabaka Sundiata were ambushed by the NYC police and FBI agents. The police murdered Mtyari. Sekou was eventually captured, tortured, and eventually charged with the liberation of Assata Shakur and the expropriation of money from an armored car. Sekou was convicted of two federal charges under the Racketeering Inluenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act and was sentence to forty years imprisonment and a $50,000 ine. He was also convicted of six state counts of attempted murder steaming form the defense of himself and Mtyari during the police attack in 1981. For this he was sentenced to concurrent life sentences. More information: sekouodinga.com Ronald Reed #2195311 Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights 5329 Osgood Avenue North Stillwater, Minnesota 55082-1117 Birthday: August 31 Ronald Reed, a former member of the Black United Front, was convicted of the 1970 shooting of a St. Paul police oficer. Twenty-ive years after the killing, Reed was arrested and convicted of irst-degree murder and conspiracy to commit irst degree-murder. He is serving Life in prison. Reed is a former 60s civil rights activist. In 1969, Reed was also among the students at St. Paul Central High School who demanded black history courses and organized actions against racist teachers. He was also instrumental in helping to integrate college campuses in Minnesota. During this period, Reed began to look toward revolutionary theory and began to engage in political street theater with other young black revolutionaries in the city of St. Paul. More information: j.mp/RonaldReed 8