On Saturday, January 15^th, the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee will host its annual dinner tribute to Black political prisoners and their families.

            This special event, cohosted by the SEIU Activists, will take place at the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center, 1199 Union Headquarters, 310 West 43^rd Street, Manhattan from 3-7p.m. Dinner will be served at 4pm.

            The theme for this year’s dinner tribute is “Fanning The Flames of Liberation: Educating Our Community About Our Freedom Fighters!”

            This year’s guest speakers will be Rosa Clemente, former Green Party vice-presidential candidate, and former political prisoner Jihad Mumit, now chairman of the Jericho Movement.

            Guest performing artists will include Wayne D. Russell, Hakim Green of Channel Live and Ndigo Washington of the Healing Drum Circle.

            “It’s time to bring in some new faces and new voices into this critical battle for our freedom fighters, and we are excited about our role in making that happen,” said Dequi Kioni-Sadiki, co chair of MXCC.

            Tickets for this special event are $40 in advance ($45 at the door). All proceeds go the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee Political Prisoner Commissary Fund.

            2010 proved again to be a difficult year for political prisoners. In this area, several political prisoners were denied bids for parole, including Robert ‘Seth’ Hayes, Herman Bell, Jalil Muntaqim and Sundiata Acoli.

Sundiata’s case was especially bad because he was given another 10 year ‘hit,’ which means he cannot even be considered for parole again for another six years. He will be 79 years old then. All of these freedom fighters have been in prison for more than 35 years.

            Incredibly, in April, NY State’s parole board had no problem releasing Talmadge Hayer, a confessed shooter of Malcolm X himself. MXCC organized outrage and resistance to this callous hypocrisy.

            Black Panther pioneer and revolutionary journalist Mumia AbuJamal was denied an important hearing at the Supreme Court, and his last hearing in the appellate courts only addressed the incorrect manner of his sentence.  That bogus hearing only sought to address whether he should now be given the death penalty, in spite of the error at trial, or life in prison, and in no way addressed the new evidence issues or the rampant Constitutional violations throughout the trial.

            Further than that, reactionary circles used a Black conservative filmmaker, Tigre Hill, to make a dangerously biased film against Mumia called ‘From The Barrel Of A Gun.’ Progressives forces answered this pro-death and repression propaganda effort, however, when area historian Johanna Fernandez put together an awesome film entitled ‘Justice On Trial,’ addressing the incredible evidence issues with Mumia’s case. Prof Hernandez later embarrassed Hill in a debate after a showing of both of their films recently at Philadelphia’s Constitution Center. Mumia remains in grave legal danger.

            “These men and women fought for a better world, one in which our children could live without racism and oppressive conditions.” said MXCC co-founder and chairman emeritus Herman Ferguson. Furious about what our political prisoners have been facing, Ferguson, an original member of Malcolm’s Organization of Afro American Unity and himself former political prisoner, also said this angrily.

“It is outrageous that these elders have spent 30-40 years behind bars while the man who confessed to killing Malcolm X was this year granted full parole after spending the last 20 years in a work-release program!”

To purchase tickets in advance for this moving tribute, please call 718 512 5008 or email the Committtee at mxcc519@verizon.net…

THE MALCOLM X COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE

PO BOX 380-122,BROOKLYN, NY 11238

718-512-5008, mxcc519@verizon.net

December 27, 2010

CONTACT: ZAYID MUHAMMAD, PRESS OFFICER @ 973 714 9638