redFlags

Carl Dix: 50 Reasons

Former Black Panthers/BLA under attack

For anyone not familiar, raids in several states have nabbed eight former Panthers on charges that date back 35 years. This terrorization of comrades from the Black liberation movement is intolerable and all support is due. Though there are no complete histories of the Black Liberation Army currently in print, quite likely because of the continuing government interest in hounding these comrades across the globe, brother Kaz recently wrote up a short history of the deceased freedom fighter Kuwasi Balagoon that gives some flavor of the movement and its rank-and-file militants. RedFlags is here reposting an announcement from the Jericho Movement, an organization dedicated to supporting and assisting political prisoners and prisoners of war.

To all Jericho chapters, members and allies:

It is with urgency that we call on you to be alert right now in light of this latest assault on our movement coming from California and New York. By now you have heard the news that fascism has called for the arrest of at least eight (8) former members of the Black Panther Party, two of whom are already serving life sentences in New York state prisons. The incident occurred back in August 29, 1971, when, if I remember correctly, a unit of the Black Liberation Army attacked a precinct in San Francisco in retaliation for the assassination of Field Marshall George Jackson the week prior.

As with many actions of the BLA, large-scale corralling measures were taken and numerous folks, community revolutionaries and unaffiliated community folks were arrested and charged with criminal bs. Torture and other illegal but totally characteristic measures were used by local, state and federal forces to coerce “confessions” and manufacture evidence where there was none. But that's war, aint it?

Kenya: World Social Forum Diary

by Jordan Flaherty

Nairobi, Kenya — This week, tens of thousands of people, representing nearly every nation and people, are gathered to strategize, debate and struggle for solutions to worldwide problems of injustice and inequality. For the first time, the World Social Forum has come to Nairobi, Kenya. The global conference is situated in a massive sports complex neighboring the slum of Korogocho, where tens of thousands of Kenyans live in abject poverty, a vivid demonstration of the themes discussed at the Forum, and a contrast to the wealth of many of the conference participants from the so-called “developed world.”