Salute comrade, today we stand on this crest of time as we reach through
the recess of our minds and commemorate, honor and salute our collective
struggle as a people and our daring revolutionary heroes.
The month of August and September – Black August and Bloody September as
it is referred to by many New Afrikan comrades, cadres and revolutionary
organizations – are both months rich with our blood, our struggle, and
our resistance as a people. During August and September we focus our
energies around the discussions of New Afrikan revolutionary political
education, progressive actions and revolutionary history.
As progressive revolutionary thinking men and women, we do not view
history through the lens of the bourgeoisie, who separates history into
sub-parts. Under the Eurocentric bourgeois thought process history is a
dead relic, a souvenir or memento of past events to be waved at with
fleeting thoughts and no real or concrete links to the present.
The bourgeois power structure uses the disconnection of the past from
the present as a tool or weapon of divide and conquer. The divide and
conquer strategy has never been more effective than it is today: cut
them off from their past, make them feel alienated, alone and separated
from a collective history, and you weaken them enormously. This moment
of weakness gives our enemies great power to maneuver us into the corner
of political, social, economic and cultural inaction.
But through the lens of a dialectical-materialist, we must see history
as a never-ending stream of past events that gave and constantly give
birth to present realities. This chain of historical events is
constantly moving us forward into the ocean of endless possibilities. We
must use this view of a “living history” as a source of defining who we
are and the direction we’re heading as a people.
A tree without roots is dead, and so is a people who is not rooted in
their history. So let’s use Black August and September as months of
mental reflection as we unearth and trace the glorious and bloody
footprints of our past as a people. Let this reflection galvanize us
forward into a new level of political struggle and resistance.
Historical Overview
The 1960s and 70s liberation struggle and movement gave birth to New
Afrikan revolutionary heroes such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Jonathan
Jackson, Huey P. Newton, Sundiata Acoli, and many, many others.
Historically then, as it is now, the United States judicial arm was used
as a weapon of repression and class subjugation.
Men such as Malcolm X and George Jackson went to prison as colonial
criminals. But within those prison walls the alchemy of human
transformation began to take place. Inside the deep dark confines of a
United States concentration KKKamp they both began to turn the cells
that held them into libraries and schools of liberation. George and
Malcolm both unceasingly strove to create new social relations and
social realities in the world around them by and thru revolutionary
transformation. They both knew to create a new world that they
themselves had to be representations of this new being, this new man, in
word, thought, actions and deeds. So as their cells became classrooms,
they internalized the most advanced ideas about human development.
George Jackson stated: “I met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels and Mao…they
redeemed me. For the first four years, I studied nothing but economics
and military ideas. I met the Black Guerrillas, George ‘Big Jake’ Lewis,
James Carr, W.L. Nolen, Bill Christmas, Tony Gibson, and many others. We
attempted to transform the Black criminal mentality into a Black
revolutionary mentality.”
George Jackson and his comrades became living examples and inspiration
for organized resistance for prisoners across the country. On August 21,
1971, George Jackson and two other New Afrikan prisoners were
was killed (along with three prison guards) in a gunfight
inside one of California’s maximum-security prisons called San Quentin.
[CORRECTION from a California Prisoner: This information is not only
erroneous but also serves to advance the state/CDC/law enforcement in
general, who spun the mysterious manifestation of the 9mm handgun and a
wig. There was no gunfight that dreadful day, nor were there three
brothers killed either. The only brother lost on August 21st 1971 was
mwenzi George.]
To many, George Jackson was the embodiment of the New Afrikan man.
George was fearless, upright, daring, self-educated and intelligent with
revolutionary style. He took the lead with his brains and muscles.
In response to the murder and assassination of George Jackson, prisoners
in one of New York’s prisons called Attica immediately responded. On 22
August 1971 some 800 prisoners went into the chow hall not saying a word
as they sat with black arm bands as a tribute to George Jackson. As one
set of events leads to the next, 19 days later Attica prison went up in
a revolt. The September 9, 1971 prison uprising and revolt in Attica led
to the colonial captives controlling parts of the prison. In an address
to the Amerikkkan people, the rebels stated: “We are men! We are not
beasts and do not intend to be beaten or driven as such.”
On September 13, after five days of a heavily armed siege, the NY
Governor Nelson Rockefeller gave the order to the state troopers to
retake the prison. The state swine opened mass fire killing 32 colonial
captives and 11 prison swine who were held hostage.
So today as we reach our hands through time and space, connecting our
past to our present, let’s use Black August and Bloody September as a
moment of reflection, study, observation and movement in the direction
of striking terror in the hearts of our captures by unifying in
principle and action. We’re calling on all colonial captives/prisoners
of war and political prisoners to
stand
up as a collective in a work stoppage. Our aim is to bring attention
and awareness to our collective situation.
George Jackson stated: “You will find no class or category more aware,
more embittered, desperate or dedicated to the ultimate remedy –
revolution. The most dedicated, the best of our kind – you’ll find them
in the Folsoms, San Quentins and Soledads.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: See the MIM Notes supplement
“Lessons from the
Attica Prison Uprising” for more historical information on this
important event.
One aim, one goal, one destiny.
