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Greetings From Prisoners The New Abolitionist welcomes your comments and will be publishing selected excerpts of correspondence in these pages. Editorial responses are posted in red. Make your comments
by e-mail, regular mail, or via our reader poll. Editors' note: the previous New Abolitionist carried an appeal by ex-prisoner Ronald "Cornbread" Owens to prisoners to commemorate John Brown Day in whatever ways they deemed appropriate. Following is a selection from their responses, many addressed to "Cornbread" personally: I am in receipt of a missive from comrade Ronald Cornbread Owens calling for those of us within the death kkkamps to observe May 1, 1999 John Brown Day for the commitment and dedication he gave to end slavery and the white skin privilege he so rejected. Please note that this will be honored by me and other comrades of PPWC [Political Prisoners of War Coalition] at the death kkamp i'm in. The missive from comrade Ronald Cornbread Owens was shared with other comrades here and we throw a clenched-fist salute to the brotha for his firmness in struggle; for surviving the hellish conditions of death kkkamps; for coming out of the death kkkamps not forgetting those of us who are still in these kkamps. May all of you remain strong and dedicated in this time of mass confusion. We must destroy in order to rebuild. In the trenches... -- Ali Khalid Abdullah #148130 / Saginaw Correctional Facility / 9625 Pierce Road / Freeland, MI 48623 John Brown is one of the few white persons that I look upon as a true hero. He was a man of high morals and strong convictions, and a brilliant military strategist who had no problem in distinguishing the right side of the great issue of his time and in acting resolutely on it. I salute John Brown and his spiritual descendents, those whites who struggled with arms during the Black Liberation Era against U.S. oppression of people of color and people in general. May John Brown's spirit march on! -- Sundiata Acoli #39794-066 / (Squire) PO Box 3000 / USP Allenwood / White Deer, PA 17887/ New Afrikan POW Long live freedom's struggle! Free all oppressed folk-now! Revolutionary greetings to all on this day of celebrationæJohn Brown's day! Many times those who actively seek out justice, fairness, freedom from this reform world system will shy away from the word revolution, don't want to be known as a revolutionary. But that is exactly what John Brown was, whether he called himself that or not! Because once you strive for change in this wrong ass system you are engaged in revolution! Move's founder, John Africa teaches: "when you are not satisfied with the system you are talking about change, when you are talking about change you are talking about revolution because you have confessed to revolutionary doctrine by expressing the need for change, and you might as well say you are talking about revolution or confess to intellectual mind-gorging...." So we should all feel proud to call ourselves revolutionaries, and to celebrate the life and struggles of a revolutionary like John Brown, and all the other freedom fighters that have given their life in the war against this oppressive system -- in the past and in the present! John Brown dedicated himself to freeing the oppressed slaves of his time, and the same fierce dedication should be emulated today. The word should be spread to all those still deceived by this system. There are still an oppressed nation of folk caged in plantations across this country! Lying politicians, and an apathetic general public have allowed an ever-growing population of prisoners. And, in addition, the even faster growing population of those sentenced to legal murder by the state! If the government is successful in murdering Mumia Abu-Jamal, they will increase the murder rate even more! As has been shown in Illinois recently, there are far too many examples of innocent men and women being sent to death-rows across the country. This legal murder must be stopped! So, in the spirit of John Brown, George Jackson, the '85 Move martyrs, and Merle "China" Africa, Fred Hampton, Nat Turner, and all the other freedom fighters who have moved on, keep up the struggle! Educate the children to who the real heroes are! On the move! Love to all the righteous freedom lovin' folk! -- Delbert Africa AM4985/ State Correctional Institution at Dallas / Drawer K, Dallas, PA 18612-0286 / Minister of Defense, the Move Organization I have found it quite difficult to write this one to you. Being the man that I am, I always attempt to be and have somethin positive to share when dealin with the folks. B'cause I've been so down and out of thangs being of late -- I've found it extremely difficult to be and share somethin positive in here with you. I did want to write and let chu know that I received your warm message. Please accept this one as at least ah touchin base kinda thang from me to you. I've followed chu and your progress thru t.j.i. it is always heartenin to see that ah brother prisoner can make good on his word. take much Care. -- ibn Kenyatta #74A3701 / Fishkill C.F. / Beacon, NY 12508 REFLECTIONS ON JOHN BROWN John Brown. Ol' Captain John Brown, freedom fighter, abolitionist, stoked the conscience of America by raising the sword of justice and cutting down the ignoble slave holding racists. Just before the U.S. government executed him in 1859, he spoke prophetically saying, "I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood." On this 199th anniversary of his birth (he was born May 9, 1800), it is past due time for us to recall the principles and example that John Brown lived and died for. Here in 1999, as klansmen turned Republicans run for Congress, while a Liberal Democrat President turns war criminal as he leads his NATO gang into wars of aggression; as police from coast to coast gun down African men and women with sickening frequency, while the murder and mutilation of Black people by non-uniformed twisted racists happens so often it is considered normal! Meanwhile two million women and men, the majority being people of color, are packed into the largest prison/slave system in the world today. John Brown, the country needs you, the people need you. The ugly reality of white supremacy and the racial discrimination and worse that it fosters remains as real and present today, as we approach the year 2000, as it was in the nineteenth century of John Brown's day. The positive progressive future of this land and its people depends upon our dealing with and eliminating the ideology and practice of white supremacy and racism. From all angles, strategic, tactical, just plain old human rights and morality, it is necessary to overcome this primary division and point of injustice in order to move forward. Here exactly is where John Brown's life and work can be instrumental for us today. John Brown came to understand the essential evil in slavery and the racist system that maintained it. He thought about it, talked about it, preached and agitated about it. He worked on many levels to fight it, establishing schools for Blacks, military academies and economic alternatives. He also organized and led forceful and armed actions against the institutions and some of the notorious individuals of slavery. He was a white person who put his anti-racism into concrete action. This made him a person who could be believed and trusted by Black people and all those who shared anti-slavery principles. Today also, it is crucial that white people put their anti-racist and anti-white supremacy principles into concrete practice. In small everyday ways and perhaps sometimes in dramatic large ways, white people can-and I would urge should-put their humanity and basic justness out there by rejecting and resisting white supremacy. Teach your children, show your friends and associates that whatever so-called benefits white supremacy offers you as a white person are not worth the price that accepting the horror of a white supremacist system exacts. It's not worth it on a personal moral self level and it surely isn't worth it on the societal level that racist, unjust, war maker imperial America is today. As a political prisoner in captivity some 15 years now, as an activist since the 60's, and perhaps even more importantly as a father and white man living in the U.S. today, it is apparent to me that racist injustice is part of the basic structure of U.S. society, especially in its government organs. The efforts to resist and change this societal injustice are likewise hampered, held back and sometimes even destroyed by aspects of white supremacy that exists within some of the progressive and revolutionary organizations. Dealing with, that is rejecting, white supremacy is an important part of what needs to be challenged in the government and system generally. In order to successfully do this, we must work to build unity among all the victims and powerless elements in the U.S. This means listening to and taking leadership from Black and other people of color, as we build real multinational unity based on respect and rejection of white supremacy. So for me, John Brown's life and work provides a noble and righteous example of how a white person can and should reject white supremacy. I think it is exactly in this way that we can successfully resist and overcome the racist unjust government of the U.S., which is founded and steeped in the harsh ugliness of white supremacy. -- Jaan Laaman #10372-016 /PO Box 1000 / Leavenworth, KS 66048 / Ohio-7 political prisoner Today is not just a day to stand over a grave and relish in the memories of a man who stood up and fought back, today is a day that should provide an inner light and inspiration for the next 364 days. Today is a day to make a commitment to follow in his footsteps, to act on your beliefs, to take them beyond mere words into our community and into the lives of others. Today is a call to arms, a call for action and movement. To think or do anything else is pure disrespect to the memory of a great defender of truth and justice. It is also a day to consider what could have been done to save a man like John Brown from the clutches of the state, there are people alive today sitting in the prisons of the United States who have committed actions very similar to the ones John Brown urged, and encouraged us to do, yet they are not given solidarity or much needed support in their daily battles. We can never win if we don't accept the responsibility for our brothers and sisters behind the wire, it is our obligation. Refuse Resist Exist! -- Chris Plummer #677345 / Anarchist Political Prisoner / Rt 2, Box 4400 / Gatesville, Texas 76597 Peace Comrade! It's good to know that you have finally had the good fortune to extract yourself from that concentration camp. I'm in receipt of your call for participation in the John Brown Day affair. It sounds like a worthy project, and you have my support... though my oppressors will not let me show up (this year anyway). Brother, please maintain the same patience and consistency that helped you survive the "death camps" with your mind, heart, and body intact. In a time of mass awakening (like now) it's important that veterans like you be around to lend your experience and insight. Relay my greetings to all. -- Russell "Maroon" Shoats AF-3855 / 1040 E. Roy Furman Hwy / Waynesburg, PA 15370 I am so deeply sorry I did not send a solidarity message for the John Brown Day observation. I had thought it was to be on May 9th, and that a message sent today would arrive in time. Then I reread your letter and saw that the gathering was held on May 1st. I am very unhappy to have missed this opportunity to add my voice, along with those of Marilyn Buck and Linda Evans. We three believe as strongly as ever in the pressing urgency of the struggle against white supremacy, in all its many forms. As an exprisoner, you know well how actively that struggle must be engaged every day inside the walls. All of us hope that this observation of the tradition of John Brown will mark an advance in the fight for liberation. And we hope you are doing well -- we know it is not an easy task to reenter what passes for "society" in the U.S.! We send our love and much solidarity. I'll be released in August, after 14+ years, and I hope we can work together in some way. -- Laura Whitehorn #22432 037 A / 5701
8th Street, Camp Parks / Dublin, CA 94568 |
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