ms: What do you think about the over 100 political prisoners and prisoners of war held in the United States? What do you think the Left should be doing about their cases right now?

assata: i think it's a damn shame, that's what i think about it! i think it's horrendous. The fundamental reason there are so many political prisoners in the united states is because the united states government's policy is to destroy anybody who poses a threat to the policies of its government.

There's a secondary reason why those political prisoners are still in prison -- so many political prisoners are still in prison. There are a lot of people in the united states who are brain-washed; there are a lot of people on the left who are brain-washed and who claim to understand that COINTELPRO was real and that COINTELPRO under another name, whatever they call it now, it still real. Even though people claim that they understand the history of the united states, that they understand McCarthyism, the problem of AIDS, the repressive role of the FBI, the police agencies, etc., there still seems to be a kind of mind warp in terms of supporting and freeing political prisoners. Because a lot of people, even though they claim to understand all that, they claim to see all that, but they are not actively supporting political prisoners. There's this kind of double psychology, "they must have done something". i think it has to do with the way that many of us are not conscious to the extent which the media shapes and forms the way We conceive of a given event.

So you have 200 and i don't know how many, political prisoners -- some of who have been in prison for more than 20 years. And you have a left that claims to be opposed to government repression, but has not done the job it should have been doing to free political prisoners. You have the case of Dhoruba bin Wahad who, after 19 years in prison, the government finally admitted that they played with the evidence, withheld evidence that would serve to free him and proved his innocence. And after 19 years, the government said, "yeah, well, you know..."

Can we deal with a reality where those who are victimized by the government are going to have to go to the government files to prove that the government victimized them? And when that same government, through the Freedom Of Information Act, sends blank pages, half or three-quarters of all of the pages blank, now how can you prove -- how can political prisoners be forced to prove they're innocence? How can they prove that their acts are political acts made in the valid struggle for Self-Determination and the liberation of their people?

i think that the only way We can principally deal with the question of political prisoners and prisoners of war in the united states is to demand amnesty for all political prisoners and struggle around that. It's important to work in defense committees, but as a movement, We have got to make decisions. We have to agree on certain basic things: a) That oppressed people have the right to struggle for their liberation, to struggle to end their oppression, and they need to be supported -- whether We agree with their particular line, organization, whatever; and b) That it is in fact true that the united states government frames people, sends them to prison, kills people, etc., and We have to be conscious that anybody who poses a threat, imagined or real -- is subject to that kind of repression. So that it is key to not deal with the specifics of the cases, but to demand amnesty for all political prisoners, period.

And also to realize, as political activists, if i do not struggle to liberate those who have been in prison for so long, then i am creating a situation where the government feels freer and freer to come after me. If We do not struggle to liberate those political prisoners who have been in prison since the 60s; since the beginning of 1970, then what are We saying to our youth? Are We saying: "Alright you struggle, if the FBI frames you, well, it's your problem. We're not going to defend you, we're not going to fight for your liberation. We accept the propaganda. We accept the right of the poor to be used as a repressive instrument, We accept that. We accept the position of the government. We accept the position of accusations of the government".

...If white people want to know what they can do in terms of struggling, one of the things they can do is struggle on a much more intense level to liberate political prisoners.

**********THE SIG**********

i'm a tru pisces tryna flow in the direction of both of these okplayer quotes:

"I m raising a fuckin angelic being who is going to replenish this fuckin earths cuz in 2G all we fuckin do is talk.....im teachin my seed to turn his spirit inside out and spread beams of green light"
-nebbie

"GOd give me the strength to change the things i can, understanding for those i cannot and the muthafuckin heart to stand up for my beliefs and principles, so that when the government that is suppossed to protect me turns against me and my people we will have the means, the might and the muthafuckin gun power to blow away our oppressors
umm amen"
-earthqueen

and last but not least:

"all things considered, i'd rather be me"
-bfnh