Honor Native American Heritage Month-Leonard Peltier: Victimized by Criminal Injustice - by Stephen Lendman-Free Leonard Peltier Now!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Leonard Peltier: Victimized by Criminal Injustice

Leonard Peltier: Victimized by Criminal Injustice - by Stephen Lendman

A Leonard Peltier Defense Committee site can be accessed through the following link:

http://www.leonardpeltier.net/theman.htm

It calls him:

-- an artist;

-- writer;

-- great-grandfather;

-- 2007 Nobel Peace Prize nominee;

-- 2004 Peace and Freedom Party primary ballot presidential candidate nominee;

-- advocate of resolving all issues peacefully;

-- human and indigenous rights activist; and

-- wrongfully imprisoned political prisoner since 1976.

Peltier was framed, convicted and imprisoned for the deaths of two FBI agents, killed during a 1975 Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota shoot-out. Though innocent, he's currently serving two consecutive life terms - not for murder, for activism.

A Free Leonard.org site covers facts about his case, accessed through the link below:

http://www.freeleonard.org/case/index.html

It says attorneys representing him filed FOIA requests to obtain previously unavailable government information. Federal obstruction so far prevents it to conceal disturbing revelations, proving his innocence.

Incarcerated since 1976, he's been denied parole, clemency, a pardon, due process justice on appeal, (including by the US Supreme Court), or retrial for serious prosecutorial and FBI irregularities, including fabricated evidence to frame him. More on it below.

The FBI also targeted him for assassination in prison. Moreover, he's been brutalized in solitary confinement numerous times, and at age 66, suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, heart and prostate problems, as well as other health issues.

Peltier, in fact, was targeted for being a Native American activist, a topic Ward Churchill addressed in numerous books and an article titled, "The Covert War Against Native Americans," saying:

Liberation organizations like the American Indian Movement (AIM), International Indian Treaty Council, and Women of All Red Nations struggle for Native American rights.

"In essence, their positions imply nothing less than the literal dismantlement of the modern (US) empire from the inside out. The stakes involved are tremendous," including treaty obligations denied, involving land, resources, human and civil rights.

By imprisoning "Native American freedom fighters," federal authorities "have been free to pursue programs of physical repression within America's internal colonies" like abroad.

"At one level, this has meant the wholesale jailing of the movement's leadership. Virtually every know AIM leader has been incarcerated in either state or federal prisons" since 1968 or earlier, "some repeatedly."

"This, in combination with accompanying time spent in local jails awaiting trial, the high costs of bail and legal defense," and time spent at trial is calculated malfeasance to wear down resistance, drain resources to pursue it, and "cripple (movement) strength."

Peltier is perhaps its best know victim, denied justice to isolate, silence, and let him rot behind prison bars unjustly.

1973 Wounded Knee Siege and Tragedy

Beginning February 27, 1973, it lasted 71 days, a confrontation between AIM activists v. FBI thugs and complicit Native American vigilantes - so-called "GOONS, (Guardians of Our Oglala Nation)," battling on the wrong side against their own.

In fact, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Tribal Council corruption, as well as out-of-control tension, got Lakota Nation elders to ask AIM for help. On February 27, armed Oglala Sioux reclaimed Wounded Knee, wanting their 1868 treaty rights honored.

It stated that "(t)he government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it." It also re-affirmed all Indian rights granted under the 1851 Treaty, abrogated and denied, nonetheless, like others.

Before the 1770s, the Great Sioux Nation held territories from Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains and from the Yellowstone to Platte Rivers. Its famed leaders included Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud and Black Elk, among others.

Until the Treaty of 1868, they were the richest northwestern plains Native American nation. However, treaties made and broken changed their lives. Settlers, railroads, and mining interests stole their lands and resources. Now they wanted them back.

When AIM took over Wounded Knee, over 75 Indian Nations were represented, and more supporters arrived daily from around the country. Against them were GOONS, FBI thugs, federal marshals, and National Guard troops, surrounding and cutting them off, yet supporters still got through.

When it ended, an FBI/BIA "reign of terror" began. Lasting three years, roving death squads killed at least 342 AIM members and supporters. Hundreds more were harassed and beaten, and over 560 others arrested. Only 15 were convicted of a crime. Perhaps none, in fact, were guilty.

Brief Timeline of Peltier's Case

-- June 26, 1975: FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams killed at Wounded Knee;

-- February 6, 1976: Peltier arrested in Hinton, Alberta, Canada, then held for an extradition hearing;

-- June 18, 1976: he's ordered extradited to America;

-- March/April 1977: he's tried for killing Coler and Williams;

-- April 18, 1977: he's convicted on two counts of first-degree murder;

-- June 1, 1977: he's sentenced to two consecutive life terms in federal prison;

-- he's subsequently denied parole, retrial, clemency, a pardon, or justice on appeal.

Evidence of FBI and Prosecutorial Obstruction of Justice

-- witnesses were intimidated and coerced, including children;

-- key defense witnesses were prohibited from testifying;

-- evidence refuting conflicting ballistics reports was ruled inadmissible;

-- no one could identify Peltier as Coler and Williams' killer;

-- a climate of fear was created at trial;

-- evidence was fabricated;

-- exculpating evidence was withheld;

-- perjured testimonies and affidavits were used;

-- jury tampering was discovered;

-- FBI provocateurs gave GOONS illegal arms and ammunition to commit murder;

-- FBI and federal judges ex parte contact compromised Peltier's right to due process and judicial fairness; and

-- false inflammatory testimony was permitted at trial.

Overall, Department of Justice malfeasance framed Peltier, manipulating jurors to wrongfully convict him. In fact, authorities later admitted they weren't sure who killed Coler and Williams or if Peltier was involved. Moreover, hundreds of FBI-instigated "reign of terror" killings were never investigated. Government-sponsored killers remain free.

Amnesty International considers Peltier a political prisoner who "should be immediately and unconditionally released." Of course, he never should have been arrested, extradited, tried, convicted or imprisoned.

Governments, past and present congressional members, and hundreds of world dignitaries agree, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mikail Gorbachov, and former MP/anti-war activist Tony Benn.

Repressive Democrat and Republican leaders keep him imprisoned, waging war against truth, justice and democratic values ruthlessly, filling America's gulag with many thousands of innocent men, women and children.

A Final Comment

On June 26, part of a Peltier statement to friends and relations said:

"I always try to come to you full of good spirit and vigor. But I cannot lie. There are days when the ugliness of my situation weighs me down....I never thought this could happen. I never believed law enforcement and the government (would) keep their dirty laundry hidden away" this long.

Yet through dedicated efforts, "we have learned of hidden evidence, coerced testimony, and outright lies by the FBI and prosecutors....I am living proof that my case is about squashing Indian rights and Indian sovereignty."

Those responsible for framing him will live "their last moments (in) shame....If you believe in truth, justice, honor, freedom, all of what is supposed to make America great, then help me open the door to my release....join my cause....and do all you can to eradicate injustice."

Aho! Mitakuye Oyasin (All my relations, as part of a prayer for oneness and harmony with all forms of life)

Doksha (See you before long). Lakota has no word for goodbye.

Leonard Peltier

On June 27, he was placed in solitary confinement for six months. According to his attorney, Robert R. Bryan, it was for minor infractions, saying imprisonment weakened him, adding:

"Officials are using (excuses) to torture my 66-year-old client. His health is poor because of decades of imprisonment. It is an attempt to break and intimidate him."

In fact, they're trying to kill him. Currently incarcerated at US Penitentiary, Lewisburg, PA, he called his cell a "cement steel hotbox" with little ventilation. As a result, he's "drenched in hot sweat," Bryan saying he was put in a "hellhole."

He's there 23 hours a day weekdays, 24 hours on weekends, given no personal visits, and allowed to shower Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

That's how distinguished activists are treated in America, notably Muslims and people of color, including Native Americans, continuing a centuries long genocidal process.

Lewisburg is the oldest US federal prison. It's also one of the most notorious. Bureau of Prisons says it's now:

"run entirely as a Special Management Unit (SMU) as a more controlled and restrictive environment for managing the most aggressive and disruptive inmates from USP general population."

Though a model prisoner, Peltier was sent there before. According to Bryan:

"They're hoping he'll die there, that he'll be forgotten there" and perish, denied justice his friends and supporters worldwide won't ever quit fighting for. Nor will they let up condemning ruthless officials who destroy human beings for political advantage.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

posted by Steve Lendman @ 12:57 AM

Honor Native American Heritage Month-From The Archives-The Latest From The "Leonard Peltier Defense Committee" Website-Free Leonard Peltier Now!-Free All Our Class-War Prisoners!-An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!

Click on the headline to link to the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee website for the latest news on our class-war political prisoner brother, Leonard Peltier.

Markin comment:

Long live the tradition of the James P. Cannon-founded International Labor Defense (via the American Communist Party and the Communist International's Red Aid). Free Leonard, Free Mumia, Free Lynne, Free Bradley, Free Hugo, Free Ruchell-Free all our class-war prisoners!

Honor Native American Heritage Month- *The Trail Of 1000, No, One Million Tears- The Native American Struggle- “Broken Rainbow”

Click on title to link to "The New York Times Review" Of "Broken Rainbow".

DVD Review

Broken Rainbow, various commentators and Native American interviewees, Docurama Productions, 1985

Frankly, I have, other than a tribute to Native American folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie and many, many entries calling for the freedom of unjustly imprisoned long time Native American activist Leonard Peltier, not had occasion in this space to deal with the centuries long question of the injustices and horrors done to the Native Americans on this continent. This review of the film documentary, “Broken Rainbow”, acts as one attempt to spend more time on this issue. And in a sense this film fits neatly in with the other aims of the entries in this space; here to try and draw together the threads of the struggle for Native American rights with the other struggles of the labor movement.

In that sense this film is tailor-made for that connection. Why? Well, among other things, one of the key points made in this film is the trampling of Native American rights (and destruction of their cultural traditions) by the American government in the interests of the energy companies who exploit the minerals and other treasure on Native American lands in the West, focusing here on the ravishing of the Hopi and Navajo lands in the Southwest. And the prime example of acting in those interests as noted in the film was the relation between the Reagan Administration in the 1980s and the Peabody Coal Company. For those who know about the ‘exploits’ of this company in the eastern U.S. coal fields this connection is self-explanatory. For those who don’t viewing this footage will give a rather graphic picture of what the Kentucky and West Virginia miners workers went though in an earlier, more militant time.

That footage is the main political message to be taken from the film, at least that is how I took it. There are also other points made concerning the historic abuses of the rights and cultural expressions of the Hopi and Navajo tribes in the Southwest that are also in the center of the controversy here(destruction of burial and ceremonial sites, forced assimilation, etc.). Some time is also spent on the sorry history of attempts by whites, then (particularly in the 19th century) and now to, there is no lesser word to be used, decimate, the traditions and to “assimilate”, forcibly or not, the remaining Native American population. Or worst. The main importance of this film, however, and the reason that it was worthy of a film documentary Oscar back in the 1980s, is that it provides in capsule form and in a little over an hour all of the historic issues that are still unresolved if we are ever to make headway in order to bring some measure of justice to the original inhabitants of this continent. Oh, and by the way, just not lose sight of an important task still before us. Free Native American leader Leonard Peltier. That is always on the agenda. He must not die in jail.



To show, musically at least, the connection between the Native American struggle against the coal companies, , notably the Peabody Coal Company, here are the lyrics to John Prine's "Paradise". Sound familiar?

John Prine, Paradise Lyrics


When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

Chorus:
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

Repeat Chorus:

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

Repeat Chorus:

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.

Repeat Chorus:

Honor Native American Heritage Month- From The Archives- The 1973 Occupation Of Wounded Knee-Free Leonard Peltier Now!

Click on the headline to link to a website, via Boston IndyMedia, that will describe the Wounded Knee Occupation of 1973.

Markin comment:

We have lots of unfinished business here. The first step, of course, is getting Leonard Peltier free. And now.

Honor Native American Heritage Month- The Trail Of 1000, No, One Million Tears- Buffy Sainte- Marie's Native American "National" Anthem- "My Country 'Tis Of Thy People You're Dying"

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Buffy Sainte-Marie performing "My Country 'Tis Of Thy People You're Dying" on Pete Seeger's "Rainbow Quest".

MY COUNTRY 'TIS OF THY PEOPLE YOU'RE DYING (BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE) (early 1960s)

Any copyrighted material on these pages is used in "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s)


"My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying" is Buffy Sainte-Marie's statement-in-song about Indian affairs.
"My point in the song is that the American people haven't been given a fair share at learning the true history of the American Indian. They know neither the state of poverty that the Indians are in now nor how it got to be that way. I try to tell the side of the story that's left out of the history books, that can only be found in the documents, the archives and in the memories of the Indians themselves."
Nat Hentoff, liner notes for Buffy Sainte-Marie, Little Wheel Spin And Spin, 1966


Lyrics transcribed by Manfred Helfert
© 1966, Gypsy Music, Inc.


Now that your big eyes have finally opened,
Now that you're wondering how must they feel,
Meaning them that you've chased across America's movie screens.
Now that you're wondering how can it be real
That the ones you've called colorful, noble and proud
In your school propaganda
They starve in their splendor?
You've asked for my comment I simply will render:
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Now that the longhouses breed superstition
You force us to send our toddlers away
To your schools where they're taught to despise their traditions.
You forbid them their languages, then further say
That American history really began
When Columbus set sail out of Europe, then stress
That the nation of leeches that conquered this land
Are the biggest and bravest and boldest and best.
And yet where in your history books is the tale
Of the genocide basic to this country's birth,
Of the preachers who lied, how the Bill of Rights failed,
How a nation of patriots returned to their earth?
And where will it tell of the Liberty Bell
As it rang with a thud
O'er Kinzua mud,
And of brave Uncle Sam in Alaska this year?

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Hear how the bargain was made for the West:
With her shivering children in zero degrees,
Blankets for your land, so the treaties attest,
Oh well, blankets for land is a bargain indeed,
And the blankets were those Uncle Sam had collected
From smallpox-diseased dying soldiers that day.
And the tribes were wiped out and the history books censored,
A hundred years of your statesmen have felt it's better this way.
And yet a few of the conquered have somehow survived,
Their blood runs the redder though genes have paled.
From the Gran Canyon's caverns to craven sad hills
The wounded, the losers, the robbed sing their tale.
From Los Angeles County to upstate New York
The white nation fattens while others grow lean;
Oh the tricked and evicted they know what I mean.

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

The past it just crumbled, the future just threatens;
Our life blood shut up in your chemical tanks.
And now here you come, bill of sale in your hands
And surprise in your eyes that we're lacking in thanks
For the blessings of civilization you've brought us,
The lessons you've taught us, the ruin you've wrought us --
Oh see what our trust in America's brought us.

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Now that the pride of the sires receives charity,
Now that we're harmless and safe behind laws,
Now that my life's to be known as your "heritage,"
Now that even the graves have been robbed,
Now that our own chosen way is a novelty --
Hands on our hearts we salute you your victory,
Choke on your blue white and scarlet hypocrisy
Pitying the blindness that you've never seen
That the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory
They were never no more than carrion crows,
Pushed the wrens from their nest, stole their eggs, changed their story;
The mockingbird sings it, it's all that he knows.
"Ah what can I do?" say a powerless few
With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye --
Can't you see that their poverty's profiting you.

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Honor Native American Heritage Month ***Once More Into The Time Capsule, Part Two- The New York Folk Revival Scene in the Early 1960’s-Buffy Sainte-Marie

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Buffy Sainte-Marie performing her classic tribute to her Native American culture, "My Country 'Tis Of Thy People You're Dying" on Pete Seeger's "Rainbow Quest".

CD Review

Washington Square Memoirs: The Great Urban Folk Revival Boom, 1950-1970, various artists, 3CD set, Rhino Records, 2001

Except for the reference to the origins of the talent brought to the city the same comments apply for this CD. Rather than repeat information that is readily available in the booklet and on the discs I’ll finish up here with some recommendations of songs that I believe that you should be sure to listen to:

Disc Two: Dave Van Ronk on “He Was A Friend Of Mine” and You’se A Viper”, The Chad Mitchell Trio on “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream”, Hedy West on “500 Miles”, Ian &Sylvia on “Four Strong Winds”, Tom Paxton on “I Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound”, Peter, Paul And Mary on “Blowin’ In The Wind”, Bob Dylan on “Boots Of Spanish Leather”, Jesse Colin Young on “Four In The Morning”, Joan Baez on “There But For Fortune”, Judy Roderick on “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?”, Bonnie Dobson on “Morning Dew”, Buffy Sainte-Marie on “Cod’ine” and Eric Von Schmidt on “ Joshua Gone Barbados”.

Buffy Sainte-Marie on “Cod’ine”. One of the female folk singers that I did have in mind when I thought about doing a series on ‘not Joan Baez’ and their fates was very definitely Buffy Sainte-Marie. Her moth harp on “Cripple Creek” blew me away. Her “Until It’s Time For You To Go” was, at one point, something of a personal anthem in the stormy waters of young love. Of course the classic anti-war song, covered by Donovan and many other folk performers, is “Universal Soldier”. While I would disagree with some aspects of the song’s lyrics now since there are some fights, class war fights, left before we can leave fighting behind this song drove a lot of my young pacifist inclinations. As for Buffy’s fate, I gain have no clue except the liner notes in the booklet refer to the personal nature of this song as part of her own personal struggle against drugs. Sing on.

Note: Since this comment was originally written I have found out that Buffy is alive and well and has just produced a CD after many years. The "sing on" part stlill goes, though.

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER
Buffy Sainte-Marie
© Caleb Music-ASCAP

I wrote "Universal Soldier" in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It's about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all. Donovan had a hit with it in 1965.

He's five feet two and he's six feet four
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of 31 and he's only 17
He's been a soldier for a thousand years

He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
and he knows he shouldn't kill
and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you

And he's fighting for Canada,
he's fighting for France,
he's fighting for the USA,
and he's fighting for the Russians
and he's fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way

And he's fighting for Democracy
and fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide
who's to live and who's to die
and he never sees the writing on the walls

But without him how would Hitler have
condemned him at Dachau
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body
as a weapon to a war
and without him all this killing can't go on

He's the universal soldier and he
really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me
and brothers can't you see
this is not the way we put an end to war.

Once Again Haunted By The Question Of Questions-Who Represented The “Voice” Of The Generation Of ’68 When The Deal Went Down-And No It Was Not One Richard Millstone, Oops, Milhous Nixon

By Seth Garth

I have been haunted recently by various references to events in the early 1960s brought to mind by either seeing or hearing those references. First came one out of the blue when I was in Washington, D.C. on other business and I popped in as is my wont to the National Gallery of Art to get an “art bump” after fighting the dearies at the tail-end of the conference that I was attending. I usually enter on the 7^th Street entrance to see what they have new on display on the Ground Floor exhibition areas. This time there was a small exhibit concerning the victims of Birmingham Sunday, 1963 the murder by bombing of a well-known black freedom church in that town and the death of four innocent young black girls and injuries to others. The show itself was a “what if” by a photographer who presented photos of what those young people might have looked like had they not had their precious lives stolen from them by some racist KKK-drenched bastards who never really did get the justice they deserved. The catch here, the impact on me, was these murders and another very disturbing viewing on television at the time, in black and white, of the Birmingham police unleashing dogs, firing water hoses and using the ubiquitous police billy-clubs to beat down on peaceful mostly black youth protesting against the pervasive Mister James Crow system which deprived them of their civil rights.

Those events galvanized me into action from seemingly out of nowhere. At the time I was in high school, in an all-white high school in my growing up town of North Adamsville south of Boston. (That “all white” no mistake despite the nearness to urban Boston since a recent look at the yearbook for my class showed exactly zero blacks out of a class of 515. The nearest we got to a black person was a young immigrant from Lebanon who was a Christian though and was not particularly dark. She, to my surprise, had been a cheer-leader and well-liked). I should also confess, for those who don’t know not having read about a dozen articles  I have done over the past few years in this space, that my “corner boys,” the Irish mostly with a sprinkling of Italians reflecting the two major ethic groups in the town I hung around with then never could figure out why I was so concerned about black people down South when we were living hand to mouth up North. (The vagaries of time have softened some things among them for example nobody uses the “n” word which needs no explanation which was the “term of art” in reference to black people then to not prettify what this crowd was about.)

In many ways I think I only survived by the good graces of Scribe who everybody deferred to on social matters. Not for any heroic purpose but because Scribe was the key to intelligence about what girls were interested in what guys, who was “going” steady, etc. a human grapevine who nobody crossed without suffering exile. What was “heroic” if that can be used in this context was that as a result of those Birmingham images back then I travelled over to the NAACP office on Massachusetts Avenue in Boston to offer my meager services in the civil rights struggle and headed south to deadly North Carolina one summer on a voting drive. I was scared but that was that. My guys never knew that was where I went until many years later long after we had all gotten a better gripe via the U.S. Army and other situations on the question of race and were amazed that I had done that.         

The other recent occurrence that has added fuel to the fire was a segment on NPR’s Morning Edition where they deal with aspects of what amounts to the American Songbook. The segment dealt with the generational influence of folk-singer songwriter Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ as an anthem for our generation (and its revival of late in newer social movements like the kids getting serious about gun control). No question for those who came of political age early in the 1960s before all hell broke loose this was a definitive summing up song for those of us who were seeking what Bobby Kennedy would later quoting a line of poetry from Alfred Lord Tennyson call “seeking a newer world.” In one song was summed up what we thought about obtuse indifferent authority figures, the status quo, our clueless parents, the social struggles that were defining us and a certain hurried-ness to get to wherever we thought we were going.

I mentioned in that previous commentary that given his subsequent trajectory while Bob Dylan may have wanted to be the reincarnation Plus of Woody Guthrie (which by his long life he can rightly claim) whether he wanted to be, could be, the voice of the Generation of ’68 was problematic. What drove me, is driving me a little crazy is who or what some fifty plus years after all the explosions represented the best of what we had started out to achieve (and were essentially militarily defeated by the ensuing reaction before we could achieve most of it) in those lonely high school halls and college dormitories staying up late at night worrying about the world and our place in the sun.

For a long time, probably far longer than was sensible I believed that it was somebody like Jim Morrison, shaman-like leader of the Doors, who came out of the West Coast winds and headed to our heads in the East. Not Dylan, although he was harbinger of what was to come later in the decade as rock reassembled itself in new garb after some vanilla music hiatus but somebody who embodied the new sensibility that Dylan had unleashed. The real nut though was that I, and not me alone, and not my communal brethren alone either, was the idea that we possessed again probably way past it use by date was that “music was the revolution” by that meaning nothing but the general lifestyle changes through the decade so that the combination of “dropping out” of nine to five society, dope in its many manifestations, kindnesses, good thought and the rapidly evolving music would carry us over the finish line. Guys like Josh Breslin and the late Pete Markin, hard political guys as well as rabid music lovers and dopers, used to laugh at me when I even mentioned that I was held in that sway especially when ebb tide of the counter-cultural movement hit in Nixon times and the bastinado was as likely to be our home as the new Garden. Still Jim Morrison as the “new man” (new human in today speak) made a lot of sense to me although when he fell down like many others to the lure of the dope I started reappraising some of my ideas -worried about that bastinado fate.  

So I’ll be damned right now if I could tell you that we had such a voice, and maybe that was the problem, or a problem which has left us some fifty years later without a good answer. Which only means for others to chime in with their thoughts on this matter.         

*Honor Native American Heritage Month- From The "Bob Feldman '68" Blog- The Song "Free Leonard Peltier"- Free Leonard Peltier Now!

*Click on the headline to link to the "Bob Feldman '68" Blog- Listen To The Bob Feldman Song "Free Leonard Peltier"- Free Leonard Peltier Now!

*Honor Native American Heritage Month- Those Who Fight For Native American Leader Leonard Peltier's Freedom Are Kindred Spirits- From The Pen Of Peter Matheissen

Click on title to link to a "The New York Review Of Books" article by writer Peter Matheisssen, "The Tragedy Of Leonard Peltier vs. The United States", detailing his long personal struggle to gain freedom for Native American leader Leonard Peltier. Hats off. Leonard Peltier Must Not Die In Prison!

Honor Native American History Month- Bob Feldman 68: 'Free Leonard Peltier!'-A Guest Commentary- He Must Not Die In Jail

Click on the title to link to the "Bob Feldman 68" blog for a commentary on Leonard Peltier.

Markin comment:

This space had as one of its original intents,and continues to do so today, of propagandizing the plight of class war prisoners. Native American leader Leonard Peltier's story, without question, is a prime example of vagaries of the American 'justice' system. Those, like Bob Feldman, who publicize his case are kindred spirits. Again, Leonard Peltier must not die in jail!

Honor Native American Heritage Month- Films to While Away The Class Struggle By-"Incident At Ogala: The Leonard Peltier Story"- Leonard Peltier Must Not Die In Jail

Films to While Away The Class Struggle By-"Incident At Ogala: The Leonard Peltier Story"- Leonard Peltier Must Not Die In Jail

Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some films that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. In the future I expect to do the same for books under a similar heading.-Markin

DVD Review

Incident At Ogala: The Leonard Peltier Story, Leonard Peltier, various leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM), defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, witnesses and by-standers, directed by Michael Apted, 1991

Let’s start this review of this documentary of the incidents surrounding the case of Leonard Peltier at the end. Or at least the end of this documentary, 1991. Leonard Peltier, a well-known leader of the Native American movement, convicted of the 1975 murder, execution-style, of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota after he had been extradited from Canada in the wake of the acquittal of two other Pine Ridge residents. In an interview from federal prison in that period the then still relatively young Peltier related that after receiving his life sentences and being told by prison officials that that meant his release date would be in 2035 he stated that he hoped not, for he would then be an old, old man. Here is what should make everyone interested in the case, and everyone interested in the least sense of justice, even just bourgeois justice, blood boil, he is now an old sick man and he is still in jail for a crime that he did not commit, and certainly one that was not proven beyond that cherished “reasonable doubt”

This documentary, narrated by Robert Redford in his younger days as well, goes step by step through the case from the pre-murder period when Native Americans, catching the political consciousness crest begun in the 1960s by the black civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam war movement, started organizing, mainly through the American Indian Movement (AIM), on the Indian reservations of the West, some of the most impoverished areas in all the Americas. The focal point of this militant organizing effort came in the war zone-showdown, the siege at Wounded Knee in 1973. The tension that hovered in the air in the aftermath of that war between the American government and its Indian agent supporters on one side, and the AIM-led “warrior nation” on the other is the setting for this incident at Ogala.

Through reenactment of the crime scene; eye witnesses, interested and disinterested, voluntary or coerced; defense strategies at both trials from self-defense to lack of physical evidence, and on appeal; the prosecution's case, its insufficient evidence, and it various maneuvers to inflame white juries against unpopular or misunderstood Native Americans in order to get someone convicted for the murders of one of their own; the devastating, but expected effect of the trials on the political organizing by AIM; and the stalwart and defiant demeanor of one Leonard Peltier all come though in this presentation. As a long time supporter of organizations that defend class-war prisoners, like Leonard Peltier, this film only makes that commitment even firmer. With that in mind- Free Leonard Peltier-He Must Not Die In Jail!

*In Honor Of Our Class-War Prisoners- Free All The Class-War Prisoners!- Free Oso Blanco

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!

From The Partisan Defense Committee-Down With Solitary Confinement of Leonard Peltier! -Free Leonard Peltier Now!

Click on the headline to link to the Partisan Defense Committee website

Down With Solitary Confinement of Leonard Peltier!

On July 9, the Partisan Defense Committee sent the following letter of protest to Thomas Kane, Acting Director of U.S. Prisons.

It has come to our attention that political prisoner Leonard Peltier has been placed in solitary confinement at USP Lewisburg. This is an outrage especially given this courageous man's serious medical conditions. This vindictive treatment puts his very life at risk.

Mr. Peltier is an innocent man who has been unjustly incarcerated for over 35 years because of his activism in defense of the rights of Native Americans. During that period his health has seriously deteriorated. He suffers from high blood pressure, a heart condition, failing eyesight and diabetes. As he is at risk for kidney failure, blindness and/or amputation, it is critical that Mr. Peltier be released from solitary confinement immediately and afforded all necessary medical treatment.

We, along with millions of others, do not believe that Leonard Peltier should have been incarcerated at all. We demand his unconditional release from prison.

*Those Who Fought For Our Communist Future Are Kindred Spirits- Honor Wendell Phillips

Click on the title to link to a "Wikipedia" entry for radical abolitionist Wendell Phillips

Every January, as readers of this blog are now, hopefully, familiar with the international communist movement honors the 3 Ls-Lenin, Luxemburg and Leibknecht, fallen leaders of the early 20th century communist movement who died in this month (and whose untimely deaths left a huge, irreplaceable gap in the international leadership of that time). January is thus a time for us to reflect on the roots of our movement and those who brought us along this far. In order to give a fuller measure of honor to our fallen forbears this January, and in future Januarys, this space will honor others who have contributed in some way to the struggle for our communist future. That future classless society, however, will be the true memorial to their sacrifices.

Note on inclusion: As in other series on this site (“Labor’s Untold Story”, “Leaders Of The Bolshevik Revolution”, etc.) this year’s honorees do not exhaust the list of every possible communist worthy of the name. Nor, in fact, is the list limited to Bolshevik-style communists. There will be names included from other traditions (like anarchism, social democracy, the Diggers, Levellers, Jacobins, etc.) whose efforts contributed to the international struggle. Also, as was true of previous series this year’s efforts are no more than an introduction to these heroes of the class struggle. Future years will see more detailed information on each entry, particularly about many of the lesser known figures. Better yet, the reader can pick up the ball and run with it if he or she has more knowledge about the particular exploits of some communist militant, or to include a missing one.

*President Obama Talks To The Tribal Nations- Question: Where Is Leonard Peltier's Place At The Table?

Click on title to link to "The Washington Post" article about President Obama's meetings with various Native American tribal leaders. My question in the headline stands.

The Trail Of 1000, No, One Million Tears- The Native American Struggle-Free Leonard Peltier-He Must Not Die In Jail!

Click on title to link to the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Website.