Click on the headline to link to more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month
Markin comment
In “surfing” the “National Jericho Movement” Website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck, whom I had read about in a “The Rag Blog” post I linked to the Jericho list of class war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania death row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long time supporter of the Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization which supports class war prisoners as part of the process of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and disagreements as a separate matter. What matter here and now is the old Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class war prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases in the comment section. Likewise any cases, internationally, that come to your attention. I am sure there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
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From The Pen Of Eddie Conway
The Need for a United Front
"The survival of our communities and the majority of our people depends upon how we respond to current trends -- trends in crime, poverty, imprisonment, AIDS, and education, in particular computer illiteracy, just to name a few. Over the next few years, we can, and must build a united front both locally and nationally because we have no other realistic choice. There have been many attempts throughout our history to build united fronts. Some have been successful while others have failed. We need to learn from those efforts, in particular those that failed.
The Civil Rights struggle created a united front that proved successful in reaching many of its goals. The Anti-War movement was another success story of national and local united fronts in action. The Black Power Movement enjoyed some early success until the full force of the federal, state and local governments disrupted it. In all three cases we can see that many different organizations, groups and individuals worked together to achieve a common goal. The different perspectives ranged widely from labor unions to SNCC during the Civil Rights struggle, from priests and nuns to radical American students during the Anti-War Movement, and from Black businesses to Black Panthers during the Black Power Movement. In all these united fronts there were tens of thousands of concepts about how to achieve the main goals. The things that made them successful to the degree that they were was the fact that at some point the need for a strong united front became more important than the many individual perspectives.
On the other hand, those united fronts that failed or were only partially successful were successfully disrupted by outside forces using divide and conquer tactics. Those tactics played upon the differences among the groups, organizations and individuals who normally should have worked together around common issues.
Now we are once again faced with the need to mobilize mass support, energy and efforts around the survival of our communities. The degree of success will depend upon our ability to set aside our small differences and find common ground upon which to build and organize. We must guard against those who would attempt to keep us disorganized and fighting among ourselves about this principle or that position. We must move past such organizations, groups or individuals and organize with all those who can share a common goal around the survival of our communities, i.e., food, homes, jobs, protections, culture, education and self determination.
If we reach out beyond our individual goals to develop a local and national network around common goals, we can build a united front that will allow us to collectively address the main threats to our survival. We will have to start addressing some of these threats and work on collective solutions starting now. Some of those threats and solutions will be the topic of my next message."
Yours in Truth and Justice,
Marshall "Eddie" Conway
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