Ode To Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War

My courageous she-roes and heroes from way back when

Unethical discrimination and all isms were far worst back then

As bold ones rallied and marched to a mothers cry

There were those who struggled, dared to win or laid down to die

You fought the good fight

Some forced to run or take flight

Escaping cruelty and other persecution from the law

 Because you stood up for the meek and for the poor

All while teaching, feeding and organizing the people

Their voices echoed for justice just to be equal

The coward enemies of the people continued to hold us back

Masses of our people were under constant attack

The staunch resistors, mostly black and latino brothers and sisters  

The brave, the bold and the strong took a stand

They crated formations of SNCC, FPO, BPP, BLA, YLO, with support from some Weathermen

The battle fields covered with freedom fighters blood

By occupying pigs shooting bullets like rain soaked grass covered with mud

Like reigns of pouring CoIntelPro

 Telling the movement to go straight to hell

While their soldiers are honored enjoying the rapture

Our militant soldiers to endure a brutal capture

Behind enemy lines some will rot and sit

For years left to linger in the devils pit

Yet today we still feel the struggle, the strife

From the enemies gun and well honed knife

Plotting and planning to take another hue-man life

Wake up black people, Stand up black people

So that we never re-live the pain and the torture from way back when

Rise up my courageous black she-roes and heroes from way back then.

By David X

Anger In Trenton

Anger In Trenton

So why am I so angry?

What makes me so damn mad

Is it because my momz raised us with no help from my dead beat dad

Momz no actor, but she plays her two roles

Working two jobs so I and my siblings can eat

Seldom resting, endless days never complete

Will we get by another day, only she knows

So why am I so angry?

Is it because I wear my brothers hand me downs

Or eat another dinner of rice, cabbage and pork rounds

Not anticipating early morning breakfasts of bagged cereal

Mom definitely provides to make ends meet

Never to complain or admitting to defeat

Survival mode is so real

So why am I so angry?

Years gone by, growing older I realize

My life was not exactly as I had visualized

I found with no job, no career, I wanted more

I wanted better things for my family and myself

Materialistic things, expensive top of the line, and top shelf

I now understood that we were dirt poor

So why am I so angry?

Now I needed fast money so I hustled

Weaker chumps money I muscled

I had to step up my street game

Needing to be ruthless for respect

With my street investments to protect

Just another face in the hood, reputation attached to my name

So why am I so angry?

I’m on my grime, I gotta rob, cheat and steal

It satisfies my hungry stomach, my next meal

I have to have more

I go out at night, on my side is my gat

To stick up some unwilling cat

Because I’m gonna get mine

So why am I so angry?

I run into my next vic, pulling out my gun

A struggle ensues; I shoot down another mother’s son

Damn, I got my first homicide

With so many crimes committed

If I’m caught there’s no chance I’ll be acquitted

So why am I so angry?

I’m playing back my lifes tape in my mind

Rewinding, trying to forget how I got into this bind

Fast forward, the cops sought after me

Street life had caught up to me

Now looking at some hard time

All this for living my life of crime

I sit in my jail cell numb

How could I be so dumb

So why am I so angry?

Two families feel the pain

One love lost, another with nothing to gain

Lives ruined, I had made my choice

Making poor decisions was the voice

I should not have listened to

So why am I so angry?

I am angry because I’m behind bars doing life

But I didn’t have to.

By David X

Freedom Fighters

Ode To Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War

My courageous she-roes and heroes from way back when

Unethical discrimination and all isms were far worst back then

As bold ones rallied and marched to a mothers cry

There were those who struggled, dared to win or laid down to die

You fought the good fight

Some forced to run or take flight

Escaping cruelty and other persecution from the law

 Because you stood up for the meek and for the poor

All while teaching, feeding and organizing the people

Their voices echoed for justice just to be equal

The coward enemies of the people continued to hold us back

Masses of our people were under constant attack

The staunch resistors, mostly black and latino brothers and sisters  

The brave, the bold and the strong took a stand

They crated formations of SNCC, FPO, BPP, BLA, YLO, with support from some Weathermen

The battle fields covered with freedom fighters blood

By occupying pigs shooting bullets like rain soaked grass covered with mud

Like reigns of pouring CoIntelPro

 Telling the movement to go straight to hell

While their soldiers are honored enjoying the rapture

Our militant soldiers to endure a brutal capture

Behind enemy lines some will rot and sit

For years left to linger in the devils pit

Yet today we still feel the struggle, the strife

From the enemies gun and well honed knife

Plotting and planning to take another hue-man life

Wake up black people, Stand up black people

So that we never re-live the pain and the torture from way back when

Rise up my courageous black she-roes and heroes from way back then.

By David X

Hands Off Assata Shakur

This reward poster provided by the New Jersey State Police, announces the federal reward of $1 million for the capture of Joanne Chesimard in West Trenton, N.J., May 2, 2005. Chesimard, who now calls herself Assata Shakur, was convicted of the murder of Trooper Werner Foerster but escaped from prison in 1979 and has been living in Cuba under the protection of Fidel Castro’s government. Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron on Tuesday, May 24, 2005, is calling on the United States to rescind the $1 million bounty for Chesimard, describing her as an innocent victim of racial bias. Photo: AP Photo/New Jersey State Police

(FinalCall.com) - One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist and so goes the story of Assata Shakur. To many around the world, Assata Shakur is a freedom fighter that escaped the chains of oppression to Cuba where she has been living in exile since 1984.

 

The FBI doesn’t see it that way and classified her in 2005 as a domestic terrorist and offered a $1 million reward for assistance in her capture.

 

New Jersey’s Attorney General Jeffery S. Chiesa announced in February with the support of New Jersey’s State Police that they want to add Ms. Shakur (born Joanne Chesimard) to the FBI’s Top Ten and the Top 25 Most Wanted Terrorists lists plus increase the reward for her capture from $1 million to $5 million.

 

“Adding Chesimard to your Top Ten list and the Top 25 Most Wanted Terrorists lists would very much aid local New Jersey law enforcement in their efforts to finally bring Joanne Chesimard to justice,” wrote New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez to FBI Director Robert Mueller.

 

“Given that law enforcement has worked collaboratively on this effort for nearly 33 years, I feel these final steps are necessary to ensure that Chesimard is captured and returned to the United States to serve her sentence.”

 

On March 10, in Newark, the New Black Panther Party rallied ‘In Defense of Assata.’

 

“We are pathetically living in an era where the U.S. government’s foreign policy is crippling the world with its doctrine of ‘Regime Change,’” explained an angry Zayid Muhammad, a longtime friend and supporter of Shakur and organizer of the rally.

“This new attack is highly provocative and is not only a renewed threat on Assata’s life, it could be a real, election year opportunistic, threat to the national sovereignty of Cuba.”

 

Mr. Muhammad is concerned that in an economic crisis raising the reward is provocative and might encourage people interested in the money to respond militarily against Cuba. He told The Final Call, “This is a threat to peace. People should be warned that Cuba would defend itself if attacked.”

 

“This is a matter of principle. She’s our sister, our freedom fighter. I’m one of her cubs. This is a propaganda campaign to further demonize her. When the devil acts up the righteous have to do what we have to.”

 

The year is 1973 and an incident of what would now be called “racial profiling” takes place on the New Jersey Turnpike. Ms. Shakur, actively involved in the Black Liberation Army, is traveling with Malik Zayad Shakur (no relation) and Sundiata Acoli. State troopers stop them, reportedly because of a broken headlight.

The three are made to exit the car with their hands up. All of a sudden, shots are fired.

That much everybody seems to agree on.

 

When all was said and done, State Trooper Werner Foerster and Malik Shakur were dead. Ms. Shakur and Mr. Acoli were charged with the death of state trooper Foerster.

The trial found them both guilty.

 

“I was shot with my arms in the air. My wounds could not have happened unless my arms were in the air. The bullet went in under my arm and traveled past my clavicle. It is medically impossible for that to happen if my arms were down,” Ms. Shakur told The Final Call in a 2002 exclusive interview in Cuba.

 

“I was sentenced to life plus 30 years by an all-White jury. What I saw in prison was wall-to-wall Black flesh in chains. Women caged in cells. But we’re the terrorists. It just doesn’t make sense.”

She spent six and a half years in prison, two of those in solitary confinement. During that time she gave birth to her daughter Kakuya.

 

In 1979 during a daring escape that continues to infuriate the New Jersey State Troopers, she was freed. There was a nation-wide search for her. In 1984 she went to Cuba and was united with her daughter.

“I felt it was important for me to be there,” Gail Walker, Executive Director of Pastors for Peace that coordinates humanitarian aid to Cuba told The Final Call.

 

“The rhetoric and vitriol about her is still so high. It’s amazing,” she said. “Ironically someone so physically and emotionally disconnected from her family for all of these years still gets this kind of publicity.”

“For those of us who have traveled to Cuba and understand the role she’s played and Cuba’s role in social issues have to be supportive. She’s an inspiration.”

Vigilantism

Vigilantism 101 in 2012
By Alton H. Maddox, Jr.

 "Vigilantism" is not new to American jurisprudence.  It predates the Articles of Confederation and it certainly predates the U.S. Constitution.  Vigilantism is an arm of white supremacy and also an arm of the white, business community Black's Law Dictionary defines "Vigilantism" as follows: The act of a citizen who takes the law into his or her own hands by apprehending and punishing suspected criminals.

 Vigilantism is a part of a tripartite relationship.  The other components are the business community and the law enforcement community.  The business community funds vigilantism and the law enforcement community protects vigilantism which, in turn, protects the private ownership of property.  This is a function of capitalism.

 In the history of the United States, it has been rare for the criminal justice system to punish a white vigilante for inflicting harm on a person of African ancestry.  You can count those cases on the fingers of one hand.  Congress has never passed anti-lynching legislation.

 A case in point is State v. Johnson.  In an unprecedented fashion, the U.S. Supreme Court assumed original jurisdiction of the lynching of Ed Johnson who allegedly raped a white woman.  Afterwards, law enforcement personnel would hound the two Black lawyers out of the United States.  They had successfully confronted vigilantism in the U.S. Supreme Court.

 There is more to the shooting of an unarmed Trayvon Martin than what is being printed or aired in the news media.  George Zimmerman, the vigilante, is being protected by the law enforcement community, the business community and the news media.  A special prosecutor has been appointed to hide the motives of these special interests.

 Vigilantism is a complex system and it has antennas in many quarters.  For any prosecutor, the killing of Trayvon Martin should be a cakewalk but the prosecution will be hampered by organized, white supremacists.  Blacks can win but it will take more than those who are currently hollering No Justice! No Peace!

 I will be discussing the legal structure of vigilantism and its use as a tool to protect capitalism.  This discussion will happen at an in-depth legal seminar at the Cotton Club, 656 West 125th Street in Harlem this Saturday, March 31 at 9:00 a.m.  The mission of this legal seminar is to protect the mission of Medgar Evers.  His mission was to uproot censorship.

 Thomas Jefferson, a white supremacist, said that "the cost of freedom is eternal vigilance".  This is a truth and it can be spoken by anyone including a white supremacist.  Black's Law Dictionary defines "vigilance" as follows:

Watchfulness; precaution; a proper degree of activity and promptness in pursuing one's rights, in guarding them from infraction, and in discovering opportunities for enforcing one's lawful claims and demands.

Florence M. Rice turns 93

Consumer Advocate, Economics and Community Activist, Florence M. Rice recently celebrated her 93rd birthday.
Harlem's distinguished and honorable elder along with The Friends of Florence M. Rice celebrated her life and work at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Harlem State Office Building last week. The offices of Senator Bill Perkins and Council Woman Inez E. Dickens helped to facilitate this gala for Ms. Rice.
Harold Sharp, Linda Wood-Guy and Earlene Hilton helped to orchestrate the event along with the host Monifah Maat.
Capturing the magnificence of the affair was 360 Media Group which consisted of Veronica Keitt, Nat Wood, David L. Baughan (David X), Sheila Berry and LaVerne Cody-Gittens.
Family and friends joined in to honor this Harlem legend that has worked gallantly for the Harlem community for over 70 years.
"Flo" as she is so affectionately called received several lifetime achievement, notable citations, certificates, and other awards, including an honorary doctorate.
Ms. Florence M. Rice is the founder and director of the oldest African-American consumer organization in the country, called The Harlem Consumer Education Council (HCEC).

She has worked with most of the community leaders in Harlem such as former Governor David Patterson, former Congressman Charles Rangel, Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell Jr., Senator Bill Perkins, and the late Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. just to name a few. Ms. Rice has taken on corporate giants such as banks, The Federal Trade Commission, Con-Edison, Verizon, and the now defunct Bell telephone company. She is an activist and voice for consumer rights, education, facts and has taken her message and shared her knowledge throughout the entire country as well as Europe. She is often seen wearing her green button, "Economic Racism" on her lapel or jacket. Ms. Rice is indeed a one woman army who continues to struggle and continues to fight the corrupt and unjust corporate systems in America.

If you would like to continue to support Ms. Florence M. Rice in her constant fight for consumer rights please make a donation to:

Florence M. Rice directly or Harlem Consumer Education Council
(501c3 Corp.).

Contact: Harold Sharp for more information at 646-731-8458

Article & photo by David X

People's Survival Program

The Peoples Survival Program (PSP):
"Harlem's Monthly Free Meals, Clothes & Health Screenings For The People Project"
The Revolutionary Legacy Of The Young Lords & Black Panther Party Continues....... Then & Now


"SERVE THE PEOPLE DAY"

Every Third Friday 12noon - 6:00pm
@ 125th Street/Lexington Ave. In Harlem, NYC
(S.E. Corner "Next To The Recycling Machines")

We Need Folks To Come @ The Following Times To Help Out With.........
Food/Supply Transportation: 12noon-2pm
Security: 12noon-5pm
Site Set Up: 1pm-2pm
Serving The People: 2pm-5pm
Site Break Down: 5pm-6pm

PLEASE BRING A DISH AND/OR YOUR OLD, USABLE & CLEAN "WINTER ONLY" CLOTHING FOR THE PEOPLE!
INFO: peoplessurvivalprogram@aol.com or contact
Bro. Shaka: 917-420-8662 - shakashakur777@aol.com or Bro. Shep: 212-650-5008 - Panthershepcat@aol.com
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Red For The Blood That We Have Shed In The Freedom Struggle
Black Is For Our People & The Origin Of All Things In The Universe
Green Is For Mother Afrika & The Rebirth Of Life And For Our Children

The Currently Active Projects Of The Peoples Survival Program (PSP):

01. Free Food, Clothes & Health Screenings Project
02. Gye Nyame University Educational Youth Project
03. Emergency Preparedness Project
04. Anti-Pig Terror & Community Control Of The Police Workshop
05. Community Political Education & Revolutionary Black History Cultural Class
06. Guillermo Morales-Assata Shakur Center Coordinating Committee
07. Political Prisoner/POW, Exile Letter Writing & Support Project
08. Youth Crisis Intervention, Conflict Resolution & Violence Prevention
09. Self-Defense & Community Security
10. Health, Healing & Wellness Womens Circle (NEW)
11. The Circle Of Brothers
12. Food Security & Community Gardens
13. Housing Assistance & Organizing (NEW)
14. Prison Re-Entry Assistance & The Campaign To End The New Jim Crow (NEW)

The Legacy Continues..........

"All these programs satisfy the deep needs of the community but they are not solutions to our problems. That is why we call them survival programs, meaning survival pending revolution. We say that the survival program of the Black Panther Party is like the survival kit of a sailor stranded on a raft. It helps him to sustain himself until he can get completely out of that situation. So the survival programs are not answers or solutions, but they will help us to organize the community around a true analysis and understanding of their situation. When consciousness and understanding is raised to a high level then the community will seize the time and deliver themselves from the boot of their oppressors"
- Huey P. Newton
_________________________________________________________________________________________

THIS IS HIP HOP! Check Out Below: PEOPLES SURVIVAL PROGRAM (PSP) In Action On Youtube
As part of their 38th anniversary events members of the Universal Zulu Nation joined forces with the New Black Panther Party, Black Spades, Nation of Gods & Earths, Moorish Science Temple, United Muslim Alliance, MXGM, CVC and other grassroots organizations to do the People's Survival Program (PSP) on 125th & Lexington in Harlem , NY. Providing information, free food, clothes, and health screenings! MUSIC BY LORD MASTER for ALL1 Ent/ GPI

Subject: PSP http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VE6ypvdObPc

http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/ for more info on "original" Black Panther Party Survival Programs