From: AliBeyH@aol.com
Tribute to Susan Burnett
September 26, 1999
To think of Susan Burnett is to think thoughts mingled now with sadness and
joy. The sadness is real because the pain in her passing is real. Yet the
joy is real as it reflects a life lived fully. To think of Susan is like
thinking of a powerful force of nature; for her love was as wild and
wonderful as her rage. This dear sister had a profound love for people -
poor people, black people, any who rebelled against injustice. She simply
loved real people. But phonies beware! She could read you like a script and
blast you with the heat of the summer sun. And like the force of nature her
great and terrible gifts left many of us in awe and wonder.
Our loss is monumental but it pales beside the loss to her beloved husband
and companion Ali-Bey. To see those two together was to witness one of the
greatest love matches of our time. Yet, although there is sadness, there is
still joy to have known her, to have shared laughter with her. To have felt
her Great Spirit is to have shared the joy of her being. It is that joy that
we celebrate. It is that joy that we remember. It is that joy that will
remain in the heart of each of us as long as life lives.
She lived life boldly, with a fierce and wonderful spirit that one recognized
as Family from the first moment of meeting. She will be missed, or more
important, she will be remembered with love. ONA MOVE.
Long Live Susan's Spirit
Long Live John Africa
Brother Mu
=============================================>
From: "Greg Butterfield" <theredguard@hotmail.com>
FROM DEATH ROW
Open letter to brothers and sisters at
historically Black colleges
Dear younger brothers and sisters:
For far too many of you, while the sound of my name may be somewhat
familiar to you, you really have no solid idea what I'm about, what my
real history is, or even what the Black Panthers were about. It is not
truly surprising that students in historically Black colleges really
have no significant knowledge of the Black liberation movement, or
that the names Assata Shakur, Sundiata Acoli, Huey P. Newton, Fred
Hampton and the like means virtually nothing to them.
I am reminded of a startling conversation I had with a bright young
man several years ago. Newly arrived on Death Row, he walked up to me,
"Yo, Oldhead. I heard you was down with the Black Panthers back in the
day. What was y'all, a gang or somethin'? Whassup?"
Now , while he wasn't taught in a historically Black college (he went
to community college and Temple University) I found his question
shocking, and it showed me how fully that Black Panther Party history
has been eradicated from the common, popular history of Black
Philadelphia and Black America. I taught him the truth using old texts
from the writings of Huey P. Newton, George Jackson and others.
There's an old saying: "The victors write history." In the battles for
Black liberation that raged in the late 1960s and the 1970s, those
that won (the state) wrote (or erased) the history of these
revolutionary times.
In the years that a new generation emerged, the forces of white
supremacy and capitalist dominance waged a relentless war on Black
America, to promote their vision of history, and to supplant,
disparage and "disappear" the revolutionary movements of the past, to
promote a more accommodationist, reformist history.
There are still brothers being held in U.S. dungeons for acts of
resistance against the state almost 30 years ago, like Mondo We Langa,
Ed Poindexter, Russell "Maroon" Shoate, "Cinque" Magee, Dr. Mutulu
Shakur, Herman "Hooks" Wallace, Albert Wood, et al. Many have been
framed for crimes they did not commit; some were convicted in
demonstrably unfair and heavily politicized trials; all were tried for
being members of Black nationalist and African American resistance
movements.
For many of you who are reading this letter, I think it is safe to say
few know these names--names of soldiers and warriors in the longest
American war: the war against Black America. It begs the question: How
can highly educated Black college youth not know these names? Why
don't they know these names? Why don't they know these movements?
The answer shows that this is not a mere mistake, but a matter of
design. For the men and women who built, defended and expanded the
Black Panther Party, and tried to raise the right of revolution were
young people-just like you. They wanted to free an oppressed people,
and to establish a free nation.
They are your immediate ancestors, ones you should know about-that is,
if you want to know our people's true history. Let us begin.
Ona Move!
Revolution is the only solution!
Mumia Abu-Jamal
If you want to begin (or, for some, continue) the education denied you in
the schools of the Black bourgeoisie, here are some suggested texts:
1) Can’t Jail the Spirit: Political Prisoners in the U.S., published by
Committee to End the Marion Lockdown; phone 312-235-0070 (Chicago: CEMP,
1998)
2) The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered), Charles E. Jones, editor.
(Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1998)
3) War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America,
Newton, Huey (New York: Harlem River Press, 1996)
4) Revolutionary Suicide, Newton Huey. (New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1973) (Reprint New York: Writers and Readers Publishers., 1995)
5) Look for Me in the Whirlwind: The Collective Autobiography of the New
York 21, Balagoon, Kuwasi, et al., eds. (New York: Vintage, 1971)
6) Assata: An Autobiography, Shakur, Assata. (Westport, Ct.:
Lawrence Hill, 1987)
7) Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African American Trial
Lawyer Who Defended the Black Liberation Army, Williams,
Evelyn. (Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 1993)
8) “Racial Matters”: The FBI’s Secret File on Black America, 1960-
1972. O’ Reilly, Kenneth. (New York: Free Press, 1989)
9) Negroes with Guns. Williams, Robert. (New York: Marzani and
Munsell, 1962)
10) Resisting State Violence: Radicalism, Gender and Race in U.S.
Culture. James, Joy (Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press, 1996).
(Remember, this is just a beginning! But it represents a positive and
necessary step forward!)
================================>
From: DADJI@aol.com
Update on what's happening in San Diego...
Friday, Oct 1st 6:30
There will be a gathering at the Tubman Chavez Center at Euclid and Market
across from the Malcom X Library sponsored by the International Action
Center. Speakers will include Njeri Shakur and Gloria Rubac of the Texas
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. There will be an update on the
stuggle to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and a report by a member of the Demetrius
Dubose Coalition.
The San Diego Coalition to Free Mumia meets at San Diego City College on
Tuesdays at 5pm in Room D121. Our focus now is on our Emergency Response
plan. In the event the Death Warrant is signed we are continuing to develop
a phone list of people in the community to meet in force downtown at the
County Jail house. We want our faces to be seen and our voices to be heard.
Stop the Unjust Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. We demand a New TRIAL!!!
====================================>
There are a slew of positive, upful report-backs on MUMIA ACTION
WEEK, will try to get them posted in the very near future. Thanks
to all who participated in making it PLAIN to the WORLD that
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL IS AN INNOCENT MAN ON DEATH ROW and that
WE WILL **NOT** SIT QUIETLY BY AND ALLOW HIM TO BE MURDERED
BY THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA!!
=======================================
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 19709 - Philadelphia, PA 19143
Ph: 215-476-8812 / Fax: 215-476-7551
Web: www.mumia.org / E-mail: mumia@webcom.com
MUMIA MUST LIVE! TIME IS RUNNING OUT!