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Defend the Occupy movement! Hands Off All Occupy Protestors!
Criminalizing Black Freedom: Assata Shakur on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List
Comment 1
On Thursday, May 2, 2013, Eric Holder’s Justice Department re-opened a 40-year-old case, adding Assata Shakur to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List alongside an inflated reward to $2 million for Shakur’s capture, rehashing the U.S. criminalization and militarization of Black freedom, ideas, and struggle, while testing the U.S.’s power over Cuba in the wake of the Castro regime.
Assata Shakur–a former member of the Black Panther Party, political leader and activist– spent years organizing for the Black Liberation Movement, currently lives in Cuba in exile as a political refugee. Shakur participated in student struggles, anti-war and African-American liberation movements in the 1970′s. Targeted under the 1970′s COINTELPRO program, Shakur was convicted on a charge of murder that many believe to be false, and put behind New Jersey’s prison bars. In 1979, Shakur escaped from prison and fled to Cuba for political asylum, leading the state of New Jersey to put a $1 million dollar reward on her head.
The labeling of Shakur as a terrorist has implications for her safety, and extends beyond her own case.
First, if Shakur is recognized by the U.S. government as a “terrorist,” will the U.S. leverage non-judicial action against her and kill her without a trial (as has been done with others on this list, including Americans)? Will drones be sent to Cuba, similarly to Yemen and Pakistan?
In addition to the consequences of labeling Shakur a terrorist, the DOJ’s decision represents an expansion of the term terrorist—possibly setting a precedent where anybody convicted of murder, and with a background of revolutionary organizing, can be reclassified as a terrorist.
Shakur is now 66 years old, and has been living in exile for the past 30 years. Dr. Angela Davis, an activist, writer and professor at University of California Santa Cruz, along with Lennox Hinds, Shakur’s attorney, responded on Democracy Now in Shakur’s defense on Friday May 3.
In response to the DOJ’s's renewed militarization of Shakur’s case, Davis said on Democracy Now that there is a “…slippage between what should be protected free speech—that is to say, the advocacy of revolution, the advocacy of radical change—and what the FBI represents as terrorism. You know, certainly, Assata continues to advocate radical transformation of this country, as many of us do. You know, I continue to say that we need revolutionary change. This is why it seems to me that the attack on her reflects the logic of terrorism, because it precisely is designed to frighten young people, especially today, who would be involved in the kind of radical activism that might lead to change.”
Alongside Davis, Lennox said, “Now, why today is Assata Shakur now being branded a terrorist? If we look at the definition of terrorism, does Shakur fit the definition of a terrorist? Terrorist is the use of, or the threat of force, against a civilian population to achieve political ends. What happened in the case of Assata Shakur? You have heard, in her own words, this woman was a political activist. She was targeted by whom? J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI in a program that was called COINTELPRO. That program was unveiled by whom? Frank Church, Senator Frank Church, in the 1970s. He chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee. That committee determined that the FBI was using both legal, but mostly illegal, methods—to do what? In the FBI’s own words, they wanted to discredit, to stop the rise of a black messiah—that was the fear of the FBI—so that there would not be a Mau Mau, in their words, uprising in the United States.”
In Shakur’s open letter to Pope John Paul II in 1998, she wrote, “I have advocated and I still advocate revolutionary changes in the structure and in the principles that govern the United States. I advocate self-determination for my people and for all oppressed inside the United States. I advocate an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism, and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty.”
Last week New Jersey plastered glowing billboards which read “Wanted Terrorist Joanne Chesimard A/K/A Assata Shakur Murder of a Law Enforcement Officer.” The new billboards are reminiscent of the 1970′s Wanted posters for Shakur. New Jersey and the FBI are not even capable of getting Assata Shakur’s name correct. When women’s names are erased by institutionalized racism, herstory must live on in the heart, and in narratives of the people speaking in her defense.
Special thanks to Boston Occupier editor Josh Sager for his questions about drones, and connections between drones and Assata Shakur.
Assata Shakur–a former member of the Black Panther Party, political leader and activist– spent years organizing for the Black Liberation Movement, currently lives in Cuba in exile as a political refugee. Shakur participated in student struggles, anti-war and African-American liberation movements in the 1970′s. Targeted under the 1970′s COINTELPRO program, Shakur was convicted on a charge of murder that many believe to be false, and put behind New Jersey’s prison bars. In 1979, Shakur escaped from prison and fled to Cuba for political asylum, leading the state of New Jersey to put a $1 million dollar reward on her head.
The labeling of Shakur as a terrorist has implications for her safety, and extends beyond her own case.
First, if Shakur is recognized by the U.S. government as a “terrorist,” will the U.S. leverage non-judicial action against her and kill her without a trial (as has been done with others on this list, including Americans)? Will drones be sent to Cuba, similarly to Yemen and Pakistan?
In addition to the consequences of labeling Shakur a terrorist, the DOJ’s decision represents an expansion of the term terrorist—possibly setting a precedent where anybody convicted of murder, and with a background of revolutionary organizing, can be reclassified as a terrorist.
Shakur is now 66 years old, and has been living in exile for the past 30 years. Dr. Angela Davis, an activist, writer and professor at University of California Santa Cruz, along with Lennox Hinds, Shakur’s attorney, responded on Democracy Now in Shakur’s defense on Friday May 3.
In response to the DOJ’s's renewed militarization of Shakur’s case, Davis said on Democracy Now that there is a “…slippage between what should be protected free speech—that is to say, the advocacy of revolution, the advocacy of radical change—and what the FBI represents as terrorism. You know, certainly, Assata continues to advocate radical transformation of this country, as many of us do. You know, I continue to say that we need revolutionary change. This is why it seems to me that the attack on her reflects the logic of terrorism, because it precisely is designed to frighten young people, especially today, who would be involved in the kind of radical activism that might lead to change.”
Alongside Davis, Lennox said, “Now, why today is Assata Shakur now being branded a terrorist? If we look at the definition of terrorism, does Shakur fit the definition of a terrorist? Terrorist is the use of, or the threat of force, against a civilian population to achieve political ends. What happened in the case of Assata Shakur? You have heard, in her own words, this woman was a political activist. She was targeted by whom? J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI in a program that was called COINTELPRO. That program was unveiled by whom? Frank Church, Senator Frank Church, in the 1970s. He chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee. That committee determined that the FBI was using both legal, but mostly illegal, methods—to do what? In the FBI’s own words, they wanted to discredit, to stop the rise of a black messiah—that was the fear of the FBI—so that there would not be a Mau Mau, in their words, uprising in the United States.”
In Shakur’s open letter to Pope John Paul II in 1998, she wrote, “I have advocated and I still advocate revolutionary changes in the structure and in the principles that govern the United States. I advocate self-determination for my people and for all oppressed inside the United States. I advocate an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism, and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty.”
Last week New Jersey plastered glowing billboards which read “Wanted Terrorist Joanne Chesimard A/K/A Assata Shakur Murder of a Law Enforcement Officer.” The new billboards are reminiscent of the 1970′s Wanted posters for Shakur. New Jersey and the FBI are not even capable of getting Assata Shakur’s name correct. When women’s names are erased by institutionalized racism, herstory must live on in the heart, and in narratives of the people speaking in her defense.
Special thanks to Boston Occupier editor Josh Sager for his questions about drones, and connections between drones and Assata Shakur.
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