FORMER Black Panther leader Dhoruba Bin
Wahad, a victim of the US government's counterintelligence program, (COINTELPRO)
in the 1970s, was released from prison in
New York state on March
22, 1990 after having spent 19 years in maximum security prisons on trumped-up attempted murder charges. However, the courts have recently reinstated his conviction.
Dhoruba spoke on June
4, 1992 at a meeting in
Paris organized by the
Committee in Support of
US Political Prisoners as part of a European tour to build support for his case and those of other US political prisoners.
OULD you update us on developments in your case since you were last here in Paris?
The last time I was here was in December of 1991. It was a very difficult time for me politically.
At that time, I was waiting for a decision in my case which would determine whether I would remain free or go back to prison.
In December of last year, the courts in the United States reinstated my conviction and I went to Africa in order to await the outcome. I had to make a political decision whether I would go back to the United States or become exiled as a consequence of the 15
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SINESE coming son. USA Panther fights for justice
International Viewpoint # 233 • July 20, 1992
USA court's actions.
I spent 19 years in prison so it is difficult for me to even envision going back to prison voluntarily. But, it was very important to me and to our movement that the victory that my case represented should not be snatched away from Black people. So 1 decided to go back to the United States and face whatever awaited me there. When I arrived in the United States in February and walked into the court room there were over 400 people present.
The people who came to court represented a broad spectrum of progressive people in New York City. There were Black people, there were Latin Americans, there were white progressive people, there were people from the gay and lesbian movement, there were representatives of various Black political figures.
I believe that it was their presence in court that prevented me from being sent back to prison. People came to court from Washington D.C., Boston, Vermont, and from New Jersey. They rented cars and vans to come to court. These were Black students, Black activists and in some cases just ordinary
This shocked the DA and the judge. Indeed when I walked into the courtroom the DA turned white as a sheet! He fully expected me to stay in Africa and never return to the US. He wanted to declare me a fugitive, dismiss my claims, and say to the press and to the public that I was a common criminal who fled justice.
My return thwarted that strategy. As for the judge, he wanted to get rid of the whole matter, and the easiest way of course was for me not to come back. This made it all the more impor-
Now when I go to court on June 23, I do not know whether I will go back to prison or whether the judge will dismiss the case.! In many ways I am in the same position I was in February. But I believe that as a consequence of our efforts we have the upper hand, in spite of the fact that my conviction was reinstated.
So when I go to court on June 23 it would be with the expectation that perhaps this ordeal would come to an end. If it does not we expect to have a date set for the hearings. • Your case is one of several important cases concerning Black political prisoners that is currently 1 6 about some of these other cases? pendina. Could vou tell us a bi
This month alone there are three political cases that are going to the courts. On June 15 the Queens Two will appear in court. The Queens two are two former members of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the Black Liberation Army (BLA) who were imprisoned as a consequence of a gun fight with NYC policemen.
They have been in prison for about twelve years. They have been granted a limited hearing on the issues of their case. Another case that is appearing on June 26 is the case of the NY 3. These were three former members of the BPP and BLA who have been imprisoned for 21 years. This is the first time that they have been granted a hearing in Federal court?.
Geronimo Pratt is one of the longest held political prisoners in the US. He has been in prison for 22 years. There is ample documentation in Geronimo's case that he was framed by the FBI and the California police authorities. Senators and movie stars have come forward and called for the freedom of Geronimo Pratt. Amnesty International has recognized Geronimo Pratt as a political prisoner.
We need to get the word out to progressive people in Europe that Black people in the US are an oppressed nation. And that there are political prisoners and prisoners of war from this oppressed nation in the US. I think that this is so important at this juncture that I cannot overemphasize it. In the case of Mumia Abu Jamal, it's a matter of life and death. In the cases of some of the political prisoners coming up for parole it's a matter of freedom or continuing imprisonment. And in the cases of the political prisoners who have cases pending, it's a matter of whether they will get a fair hearing or whether their cases will be pushed aside once more.
Therefore we intend to mobilize as many people as possible to support these cases. In my case I appear in court on June 23. So as you can see June promises to be a particularly significant month for Black political
We have also a situation in the US that I would like to bring to your attention. As you well know, there are a number of political prisoners, Puerto Rican, Black and white in the US who are in the federal penitentiary at Marion Illinois.
Marion federal penitentiary is one of the most notorious prisons in the world. Amnesty International has qualified it as inhuman. We would like people to demand that the federal government transfer political prisoners
The federal government is building a new prison in Colorado that they intend to replace Marion with. Words to describe this prison are lost on me.
We are talking about a place where prisoners will have absolutely no human contact, where everything is automated, where the prisoner does not even come into contact with the prison guard, where they are locked in their prison cell 23 hours a day, where their every action including their bowel movements are photographed on close circuit television.
When they leave their cell, the cell doors open by remote control. They are moved through the facility by a series of opening doors and voices on close circuit radio. The are fed by remote control robots and they live in sterile environments completely devoid of any humanity or any sensiti-
This prison is almost complete. You can believe that federal political prisoners and prisoners of war will be sent to this prison. We must raise our voices in protest over the construction of this prison. We must demand that political prisoners are not sent to this prison.
This prison will be a model for the maximum, maximum security prison. We can expect that every major nation will send their prison officials to the US to study this prison. It will represent the state of the art in prison technology. I urge you to write to the federal bureau of prisons and protest the construction of this prison and demand that political prisoners not be sent there.
We cannot wait for the prison to come on line and wait for the political prisoners to be transfered there. There are things that you can do. The committee here in France for instance, sent a letter to the ambassador of the US and to the governor of the state of Pennsylvania demanding that Mumia Abu Jamal be released from death row. This must be done again and again and the letters must be compiled and sent to the UN commission on human rights which should be requested to look into this matter and that of other political prisoners. • In what ways will the current political situation in the U.S. as you see it affect these cases?
The riots in LA subsequent to the Rodney King case have created a climate which will affect the outcome of these hearings. Whether it effects the outcome positively or negatively is up
to us. By that I mean it is up to us to mobilize people.
I emphasize this because I want you to understand that the work you do here in France and elsewhere is very important and is going to be increasingly important over the next period. Given the events in LA, it would be very difficult for the judge to send me back to prison, especially given the fact that I have become more or less a spokesperson around a number of issues for young Black people.
The US government intends to carry out a comprehensive reconstruction of its criminal code. The bill that would permit this has already worked its way through the US Senate. It permits the death penalty for certain terrorist attacks. It sanctions preventive detention on a much more intensive scale than already exists. We too have to begin to focus in on this type of repressive activity on the part of the US government.
The US Supreme court has struck down almost every progressive law that has been passed over the last twenty years. In regards to prisoners' rights and the rights of the accused in criminal proceedings. They have struck down the rights of common citizens to be safe and secure in their own homes. They have increased police surveillance powers, they have endorsed preventive detention.
All these things mean that even given our ability to mobilize people, there is a likelihood that the forces that control the state judiciary are arrogant enough to believe that they are impervious to the people's response to their racism. So we have our work cut out for us. • How would you characterize the state of the Black liberation movement in the wake of the Los
The Rodney King verdict has awakened a number of Black youth to the idea of anti-racist struggle. We believe that an entire generation of Black activists is being developed right now in the United States. In the ghettos of America there is an increasing call for the establishment of a new Black Panther Party. Young Black people who are the victims of these attacks want to fight back. So they have rediscovered Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party and the philosophy of Black nationa-
The state, in order to counteract this, is promoting certain Black leaders and Black cultural figures as Black leaders. Black activists and Black people in general are beginning to realize that there are Black enemies of Black
They are beginning to realize that Clarence Thomas and Colin Powell and Jesse Jackson can be enemies of Black people, and that the reason why they can be enemies of Black people is because they identify with the system of oppression that oppresses their people, and they refuse to lead their people out of that system.
You know perhaps about Jesse Jackson in regards to the LA riots. Of course he flew to LA to cool out everything and nobody listened to him. That is because the Black youth in the streets of LA don't relate to Jesse Jackson. So if we build a strong movement in the US it will push people such as Jesse Jackson further and fur-
David Dinkins will run again for mayor of New York city next year and he will expect to get the Black vote but Mayor Dinkins has not paid any attention to the Black community in the three years he has been in office. The next city election in NY promises to be an arena of class struggle.
When Black people ask why there is no unity in the Black community, it is the issue of class that comes up. When Black people ask where is the movement that will liberate us, it is the issue of class that comes up.
This is increasingly becoming an issue across the US, the issue of class. This issue of class in the Black community is important because until it is tackled head on, Black people will be unable to tackle militant leadership and project that militant leadership into the political arena.
My trip to Africa was both personal and political. It was personal because as an African in diaspora it is very important for us to establish a link with our brothers and sisters in the Motherland and build an international pan-African movement that is revolutionary and anti-imperialist. * 1. The Judge presiding over this case cancelled the June 23 court date and rescheduled Dhoruba's hearing for next September 3. 2. No definitive ruling on the New York 3 or the Queens 2 came out of the June hearings. New trial dates for the defendants in these two case were set for next October and August 3, respectively. 3. Mumia Abu Jamal, an outspoken Black journalist, has spent ten years on death row.
USA / COLOMBIA