The United States targets and incarcerates activists, organizers and others affiliated with progressive and radical movements for social justice. Many of these people, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Oscar López Rivera, Sundiata Acoli, Jalil Muntaqim and Herman Bell, have been imprisoned for decades. Some have been recognized internationally as political prisoners; others are unknown beyond their families and supporters. Many of them are victims of COINTELPRO (the FBI’s program of surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting and disrupting domestic political organizations, especially those fighting for self-determination and liberation for Black, Puerto Rican and Indigenous peoples). These political prisoners need ongoing support, including representation at parole hearings, access to proper medical care, and the ability to remain connected to their families and activist communities. In the long term we must free our political prisoners. This panel explores options and strategies for providing immediate support as well as how to build movements that can bring sufficient political pressure to free all U.S. political prisoners. Chair/Facilitator:
Speakers/Co-Facilitators:
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| Session | Room | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Session 6 | 1.82 | Sun 12:00pm - 01:50pm |
Two polarized positions mark the ongoing debate over gun violence and mass killings in the United States. These positions rest on the text and interpretation of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The gun lobby and its constituency argue that the Second Amendment guarantees the right for every citizen to bear arms, while gun control advocates maintain that the Second Amendment is about states having a militia, emphasizing the language of “well regulated,” and that this is manifest in the existing National Guard.
The elephant in the room in these debates is what the militias were to be used for, indeed that the militias already long existed in the colonies and were expected to continue fulfilling two primary roles: destroying Native communities, driving the residents off their land, and taking that land, as well as controlling the enslaved African population, that is the taking and maintaining of private property—in land and in bodies, both for wealth production. How can the Left develop an alternative narrative?
Johanna Fernandez teaches in Black and Latino Studies at Baruch, and is editor of the prison writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal and will present both Mumia’s and her own analysis of the origins of anti-Black police violence. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States, will present on the origins of the Second Amendment and its relation to the colonization of Native Nations in North America. Libero della Piana will chair and comment on the presentation in terms of his own experience as an African-American man.
Chair/Facilitator:
| Name: Libero della Piana | View Details |
Speakers/Co-Facilitators:
| Name: Johanna Fernandez | View Details | ||
| Name: Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz | View Details |
The Next Left – Leadership for Tomorrow
Schedule Info
| Session | Room | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Session 6 | 8.61 | Sun 12:00pm - 01:50pm |
The Old and New Project engages in cross-tendency, cross-generational revolutionary dialogue about historical analysis, theory, and contemporary issues. Together with PM Press, an independent publisher of radical, Marxist, and anarchist literature, they will host a discussion on the features, strategies, and tactics of today’s revolutionary movements to develop in order to strengthen our effectiveness.
Sponsoring Journal:
PM Press
Presenters include: dequi kioni-sadiki (Malcolm X Commemoration Committee) Matt Meyer (War Resisters International Africa Support Network Coordinator, and a United Nations/ECOSOC representative of the International Peace Research Association) Raymond Nat-Turner (Black Agenda Report Poet in Residence) Carmen Perez (The Gathering for Justice/ Justice League NYC) Brittany Williams (Million Hoodies for Justice)
Chair/Facilitator:
| Name: Deborah Engel-Di Mauro | View Details |
Speakers/Co-Facilitators:
| Name: Matt Meyer | View Details | ||
| Name: Raymond Nat Turner | View Details | ||
| Name: Brittany Williams | View Details | ||
| Name: Carmen Perez | View Details | ||
| Name: Dequi Kioni-Sadiki | View Details |
Free Them All! Political Prisoners and POWs in the US
Schedule Info
| Session | Room | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Session 7 | 1.82 | Sun 03:40pm - 05:40pm |
The struggle for the freedom of US Political Prisoners has reached a critical stage. Aging prisoners incarcerated over long periods for their beliefs and their participation in the Black Liberation struggle and/or the struggle to free Puerto Rico remain in prison despite the fact that they pose little threat. Parole Boards around the country are making it almost impossible for several noted Political Prisoners to be released. How can we organize to secure the freedom of those wrongly incarcerated? This panel will also attempt to link the struggle to free all Political Prisoners with Black Lives Matter and the movement to stop Mass Incarceration.
Chair/Facilitator:
| Name: Basir Mchawi | View Details |
Speakers/Co-Facilitators:
| Name: Sekou Odinga | View Details | ||
| Name: Suzanne Ross | View Details | ||
| Name: Susan Rosenberg | View Details | ||
| Name: Mujahid Farid | View Details | ||
| Name: Laura Whitehorn | View Details |
SOURCE:
New York City Jericho Movement
P.O. Box 670927
Bronx, NY 10467
www.jerichony.org
https://theblacklist.net/
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