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Mutulu Shakur (Tupac's Step Father)
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Big Mongo
Jul 18, 2023, 6:57:49 PM7/18/23
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https://www.workers.org/2023/07/72312/
By Akinyele Umoja
This article was originally published in Black Agenda Report on July 12.
Mutulu Shakur passed away [on July 6] just seven months after being paroled. Like other political prisoners he was released only when he was terminally ill. The U.S. has more political prisoners and incarcerates them for 30, 40, 50, and even 60 years, far longer than any other country.
The New Afrikan Independence Movement and revolutionary Pan-Afrikanists salute our freedom fighter, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, who joined the Ancestors on July 7, 2023. Dr. Shakur was a grassroots organizer, teacher, soldier, anti-repression activist, healer, and unifier of the youth and street forces (whether in the community or inside prison walls).
Dr. Shakur defined himself as a revolutionary nationalist, Pan-Afrikanist, and anti-imperialist. He joined the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) as a teenager in 1966. He was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA) in 1968 and a founding member of the New Afrikan People’s Organization (NAPO) in 1984.
Dr. Shakur lived underground for four years due to his involvement in the New Afrikan Freedom Fighter wing of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). Dr. Shakur was captured on February 12, 1986, and convicted on conspiracy charges that included revolutionary acts of expropriation of capitalist institutions to support movement institutions, including armed defense capacity, providing material support to the Afrikan liberation struggle (particularly in Zimbabwe). The imperialist prosecution also included the 1979 liberation of freedom fighter Assata Shakur from imprisonment in the charges against him.
During his captivity in federal prisons, Dr. Shakur organized and provided political education and health care to his fellow prisoners and continued to be a human rights advocate. Dr. Shakur continued to be a target of political repression during his captivity. He was constantly harassed and unjustly segregated from other prisoners, despite his work to bring peace, literacy, and end violence in prisons he was held in.
The conditions of his captivity significantly compromised his health. He battled strokes, COVID-19 and cancer as result of his confinement and isolation. Dr. Shakur was released from captivity in December 2023 due to a vigorous campaign for compassionate release by grassroots activists, artists, clergy, elected officials, and academics. He continued to advocate for the national liberation of New Afrika, the freedom of political prisoners, and people’s medicine in the last months of his life. Dr. Shakur also championed the leadership of women in the national liberation and human rights struggle.
Dr. Shakur’s political legacy must include the fight against political repression and state violence. He taught much of the Black Liberation Movement about political repression as the Director of the National Task Force for Cointelpro Litigation and Research. He also fought for the release of the Wilmington 10, Imari Obadele and the Republic of New Afrika 11, Assata Shakur and other BLA prisoners of war, and Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt). We must continue to challenge political repression and call for the freedom of the movement’s political prisoners as the state intensifies its criminalization of our resistance.
Mutulu Shakur
Live like him
Dare to Struggle
Dare to Win
Free the land
Free em all
Akinyele Umoja is a scholar-activist and author of We Will Shoot Back (NYU Press, 2013) and co-editor of the “Black Power Encyclopedia: From ‘Black is Beautiful’ to Urban Uprisings” BLACK POWER ENCYCLOPEDIA (Greenwood, 2018)
By Akinyele Umoja
This article was originally published in Black Agenda Report on July 12.
Mutulu Shakur passed away [on July 6] just seven months after being paroled. Like other political prisoners he was released only when he was terminally ill. The U.S. has more political prisoners and incarcerates them for 30, 40, 50, and even 60 years, far longer than any other country.
The New Afrikan Independence Movement and revolutionary Pan-Afrikanists salute our freedom fighter, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, who joined the Ancestors on July 7, 2023. Dr. Shakur was a grassroots organizer, teacher, soldier, anti-repression activist, healer, and unifier of the youth and street forces (whether in the community or inside prison walls).
Dr. Shakur defined himself as a revolutionary nationalist, Pan-Afrikanist, and anti-imperialist. He joined the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) as a teenager in 1966. He was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA) in 1968 and a founding member of the New Afrikan People’s Organization (NAPO) in 1984.
Dr. Shakur lived underground for four years due to his involvement in the New Afrikan Freedom Fighter wing of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). Dr. Shakur was captured on February 12, 1986, and convicted on conspiracy charges that included revolutionary acts of expropriation of capitalist institutions to support movement institutions, including armed defense capacity, providing material support to the Afrikan liberation struggle (particularly in Zimbabwe). The imperialist prosecution also included the 1979 liberation of freedom fighter Assata Shakur from imprisonment in the charges against him.
During his captivity in federal prisons, Dr. Shakur organized and provided political education and health care to his fellow prisoners and continued to be a human rights advocate. Dr. Shakur continued to be a target of political repression during his captivity. He was constantly harassed and unjustly segregated from other prisoners, despite his work to bring peace, literacy, and end violence in prisons he was held in.
The conditions of his captivity significantly compromised his health. He battled strokes, COVID-19 and cancer as result of his confinement and isolation. Dr. Shakur was released from captivity in December 2023 due to a vigorous campaign for compassionate release by grassroots activists, artists, clergy, elected officials, and academics. He continued to advocate for the national liberation of New Afrika, the freedom of political prisoners, and people’s medicine in the last months of his life. Dr. Shakur also championed the leadership of women in the national liberation and human rights struggle.
Dr. Shakur’s political legacy must include the fight against political repression and state violence. He taught much of the Black Liberation Movement about political repression as the Director of the National Task Force for Cointelpro Litigation and Research. He also fought for the release of the Wilmington 10, Imari Obadele and the Republic of New Afrika 11, Assata Shakur and other BLA prisoners of war, and Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt). We must continue to challenge political repression and call for the freedom of the movement’s political prisoners as the state intensifies its criminalization of our resistance.
Mutulu Shakur
Live like him
Dare to Struggle
Dare to Win
Free the land
Free em all
Akinyele Umoja is a scholar-activist and author of We Will Shoot Back (NYU Press, 2013) and co-editor of the “Black Power Encyclopedia: From ‘Black is Beautiful’ to Urban Uprisings” BLACK POWER ENCYCLOPEDIA (Greenwood, 2018)
radioacti...@gmail.com
Jul 18, 2023, 11:18:59 PM7/18/23
to
Egad!
Thanks tons for finding this, Mongo. You should know your headline had me expecting the life and times of an ordinary guy who fathered a celebrity, such as we read after Micheal Jordan's father's murder.
Sure sounds like this later Shakur guy was a horse of a different, uh, breed. Of course, the AP coverage may be somewhat less cheerleading, I would think.
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
Thanks tons for finding this, Mongo. You should know your headline had me expecting the life and times of an ordinary guy who fathered a celebrity, such as we read after Micheal Jordan's father's murder.
Sure sounds like this later Shakur guy was a horse of a different, uh, breed. Of course, the AP coverage may be somewhat less cheerleading, I would think.
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
radioacti...@gmail.com
Jul 18, 2023, 11:28:45 PM7/18/23
to
ADDENDUM:
Above I clearly failed to note the not-father-but-step- relationship, so my comparison to the Jordans' sad tale is only partially apt. (It would have helped had Akinyele Umoja, hyperventilatingly writing for The Workers, would have bothered to mention how he happened to marry the late celebrity rapster's mother.)
And was he raised by his father, or only the late step-father?
STYBLE/Florida
Above I clearly failed to note the not-father-but-step- relationship, so my comparison to the Jordans' sad tale is only partially apt. (It would have helped had Akinyele Umoja, hyperventilatingly writing for The Workers, would have bothered to mention how he happened to marry the late celebrity rapster's mother.)
And was he raised by his father, or only the late step-father?
STYBLE/Florida
mik...@live.com
Jul 19, 2023, 1:27:02 AM7/19/23
to
radioacti...@gmail.com
Jul 19, 2023, 1:50:09 AM7/19/23
to
As you've repeatedly noted, I don't possess the smarts to be clever, and yes, I envy your evident cyber-navigation skills; what I gather is your flawless posting; and of course your superior eyesight and more detailed knowledge base. (Yet those repeated admissions on my part to you constitute "pompousness"?)
Good health and only luck to you and your family, Sir or Madam "mik". (It's fathomless to me why you so enjoy condescendingly demeaning me, but I gather it would be pointless to ask you to please desist.)
STYBLE/Florida
Good health and only luck to you and your family, Sir or Madam "mik". (It's fathomless to me why you so enjoy condescendingly demeaning me, but I gather it would be pointless to ask you to please desist.)
STYBLE/Florida
mik...@live.com
Jul 19, 2023, 2:23:35 AM7/19/23
to
"It's fathomless to me why you so enjoy condescendingly demeaning me" ......um, ya think it may have something to do with you being a crashing bore and probable egomaniac?
Adam H. Kerman
Jul 19, 2023, 8:34:25 AM7/19/23
to
Big Mongo <bigmon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>https://www.workers.org/2023/07/72312/
>By Akinyele Umoja
>This article was originally published in Black Agenda Report on July 12.
>Mutulu Shakur passed away [on July 6] just seven months after being
>paroled. Like other political prisoners he was released only when he was
>terminally ill. The U.S. has more political prisoners and incarcerates
>them for 30, 40, 50, and even 60 years, far longer than any other
>country.
We do?
>https://www.workers.org/2023/07/72312/
>By Akinyele Umoja
>This article was originally published in Black Agenda Report on July 12.
>Mutulu Shakur passed away [on July 6] just seven months after being
>paroled. Like other political prisoners he was released only when he was
>terminally ill. The U.S. has more political prisoners and incarcerates
>them for 30, 40, 50, and even 60 years, far longer than any other
>country.
>The New Afrikan Independence Movement and revolutionary Pan-Afrikanists
>salute our freedom fighter, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, who joined the Ancestors
>on July 7, 2023. Dr. Shakur was a grassroots organizer, teacher,
>soldier, anti-repression activist, healer, and unifier of the youth and
>street forces (whether in the community or inside prison walls).
>Dr. Shakur defined himself as a revolutionary nationalist,
>Pan-Afrikanist, and anti-imperialist. He joined the Revolutionary Action
>Movement (RAM) as a teenager in 1966. He was also a signer of the
>Declaration of Independence of the Provisional Government of the
>Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA) in 1968 and a founding member of the New
>Afrikan People's Organization (NAPO) in 1984.
>Dr. Shakur lived underground for four years due to his involvement in
>the New Afrikan Freedom Fighter wing of the Black Liberation Army (BLA).
>Dr. Shakur was captured on February 12, 1986, and convicted on
>conspiracy charges that included revolutionary acts of expropriation of
>capitalist institutions to support movement institutions,
Let's take this a tiny bit seriously, can we please?
Conspiracy to aid bank expropriation, Dr. Shakur was charged
under the U. S. conspiracy laws known as "Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organization" or 'RICO' laws (8 counts). The U.S.
government alleged that Mutulu's political associates
constituted a racketeering enterprise. Aiding in the escape of
Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard).
That's from a Web site created in his favor.
https://mutulushakur.com/case-facts/
It says the evidence was illegally seized, but that doesn't prevent the
government from presenting it against third parties. In example: A
suspect used a gun in a crime. There is a garden shed at the back of a
neighbor's property. He asked the homeowner for permission to store
something in the garden shed. No warrant is requested to enter and seize
evidence from the garden shed. Police raid the garden shed and find the
gun that was used illegally. The gun may be presented as evidence in
court against the suspect who used it illegally, but no charges may be
brought against the homeowner for conspiracy after the fact or anything
else related to allowing evidence of a crime to be hidden on his
property or possession of evidence of a crime, whether the homeowner
knew what the suspect had used his garden shed for or not.
Giving him the benefit of a doubt, I'll guess that there were a lot of
defendants in that trial and the jury had trouble figuring out or
remembering which evidence was against which defendant, and he got swept
up. It's likely that he had participated in some of the crimes but not
other crimes. I don't believe he was actually innocent of all crimes.
I don't buy the prisoner of war claims, sorry.
>including armed defense capacity, providing material support to the Afrikan
>liberation struggle (particularly in Zimbabwe).
countries.
>The imperialist
>prosecution also included the 1979 liberation of freedom fighter Assata
>Shakur from imprisonment in the charges against him.
>. . .
radioacti...@gmail.com
Jul 19, 2023, 5:55:35 PM7/19/23
to
Terrific contribution, Adam; your point-by-point response is a sterling take-down of that malarkey.
STYBLE/Florida
STYBLE/Florida
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