HANDS OFF ASSATA SHAKUR!

The FBI has announced that Joanne Ches­i­mard, best known as Assata Shak­ur, aka JoAnne Ches­i­mard (Tupac Shakur’s God­moth­er), a former Black Lib­er­a­tion Army mem­ber is the first woman on its list of liv­ing ter­ror­ists.  In addi­tion to the des­ig­na­tion, the reward for the cap­ture has been doubled to $2 mil­lion dollars.

Assata: In her own words:

My name is Assata (“she who struggles”) Shak­ur (“the thank­ful one”), and I am a 20th cen­tury escaped slave. Because of gov­ern­ment per­se­cu­tion, I was left with no oth­er choice than to flee from the polit­ic­al repres­sion, racism and viol­ence that dom­in­ate the US gov­ern­ment’s policy towards people of col­or. I am an ex polit­ic­al pris­on­er, and I have been liv­ing in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a polit­ic­al act­iv­ist most of my life, and although the U.S. gov­ern­ment has done everything in its power to crim­in­al­ize me, I am not a crim­in­al, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I par­ti­cip­ated in vari­ous struggles: the black lib­er­a­tion move­ment, the stu­dent rights move­ment, and the move­ment to end the war in Viet­nam. I joined the Black Pan­ther Party. By 1969 the Black Pan­ther Party had become the num­ber one organ­iz­a­tion tar­geted by the FBI’s COIN­TELPRO pro­gram. because the Black Pan­ther Party deman­ded the total lib­er­a­tion of black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it “greatest threat to the intern­al secur­ity of the coun­try” and vowed to des­troy it and its lead­ers and activists.”

Assata: Exile since 1979

On May 2 1973, Black Pan­ther act­iv­ist Assata Shak­ur (fsn) JoAnne Ches­i­mard, was pulled over by the New Jer­sey State Pol­ice, shot twice and then charged with murder of a police officer. Assata spent six and a half years in pris­on under bru­tal cir­cum­stances before escap­ing out of the max­im­um secur­ity wing of the Clin­ton Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­ity for Women in New Jer­sey in 1979 and mov­ing to Cuba.

On May 2 2005, the xxth anniversary of Assata’s escape, The U.S. Depart­ment of Justice, the U.S. Attor­ney Gen­er­al, and the New Jer­sey State Police raised the reward (read: blood bounty) being offered for the cap­ture of Assata Shak­ur to $1,000,000 US Dol­lars, encour­aging mer­cen­ar­ies and freel­ance joy seekers to find, kid­nap and if neces­sary break Cuba law so that Assata might be returned to the U.S. to resume her sen­tence and be tried on addi­tion­al charges. Charges which also include the ridicu­lous and slandeor­us descrip­tion of “domest­ic terrorist”.

This obsess­ive and bar­bar­ic attempt to malign, impris­on and/or asas­sin­ate import­ant and legit­im­ate Black (Afrik­an) act­iv­ists is an ongo­ing expres­sion of the con­tempt and hatred that the U.S. gov­ern­ment has always shown Black people and their lead­er­ship in Amer­ica. It is all out assault on our rights as both cit­izens of the United States and human in gen­er­al, to voice, dis­sent and chal­lenge social, eco­nom­ic and polit­ic­al obstacles that hinder our pro­gress, threaten our lives and derail our des­tiny. The gov­ern­ment wants us dumb, silent, docile and com­pli­ant. Assata Shak­ur is one voice that will not be muffled!

For more inform­a­tion please vis­it :  http://assatashakur.org/ | Face­book Page

 

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Gata Malandra

Edit­or / Research­er at No Bounds
Gata is a music and arts lov­er, stud­ied anthro­po­logy, art man­age­ment and media pro­duc­tion ded­ic­at­ing most of her time to cre­at­ive pro­jects pro­duced by No Bounds.

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About Gata Malandra

Gata is a music and arts lover, studied anthropology, art management and media production dedicating most of her time to creative projects produced by No Bounds.

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