FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL! - PRISON ISSUES - PT. 2 (END)
Marpessa Kupendua
From: Nathan Newman <new...@garnet.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: List of Your Lists
To: Bob Witanek <bwit...@igc.apc.org>
==============================
E-MAIL LISTS FOR NEWS OF ORGANIZING
=================
With massive organizing happening around immigrant rights,
affirmative action, prison reform, and new union movements, there
is a need for targetted information in different issues areas.
For this reason, UC-Berkeley's Center for Community Economic
Research has established a variety of electronic mail lists to assist
such exchange.
The lists include:
LEFTNEWS: Low volume distribution of news of interest to left
activists
187-L: News & Organizing around Prop 187 and Immigrant Rights
AFFAM-L: News & Organizing around Defending Affirmative
Action
3STRIKES: News & Organizing for Prison Reform & against "3
Strikes"
LABNEWS: News of Labor Unions and Workplace Organizing
To subscribe, send a message to: list...@cmsa.berkeley.edu
To subscribe to any list, send a message to
list...@cmsa.berkeley.edu
In the body of the message, type:
sub [listname] YourFirstName YourLastName
i.e. sub AFFAM-L Jane Doe
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To get the list in digest form (meaning one long message every
day), add a line:
set [listname] digest
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To unsubscribe at any time -- REMEMBER THIS!!!!!!
send a message to list...@cmsa.berkeley.edu
signoff [listname]
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These lists are sponsored as a public service to promote education
around these issues by UC-Berkeley's Center for Community
Economic Research. You can find other information of interest to
the community at the Center's EDIN web site at:
http://garnet.berkeley.edu:3333/ or its gopher site at
garnet.berkeley.edu 1251.
In Solidarity,
Nathan Newman
Center for Community Economic Research
-------------------
From: Cr...@aol.com
Zolo Agona Azania
(Zolo Agona Azania is a Muslim and a conscious New Afrikan
Freedom Fighter. He was born Rufus Lee Averhart on December
12, 1954. He changed his name in 1977. He is a writer and an
accomplished artist. His specialty is oil painting. He is the author
of several works including, "Who Is The New Afrikan?" "World
Gangsters" and "Our National Name". His work has appeared in
the pages of CROSSROAD and other magazines, newsletters, and
journals throughout the world. He has illustrated books by Prince
Cuba, Gamba Mateen Rastafari, and Adib Rashad's "Aspects of
Eurocentric Thought". )
An ex-offender and tireless activist on behalf of the downtrodden,
Zolo Agona Azania (a.k.a. Rufus Averhart) was a marked man.
On August 11, 1981, on his way to the grocery store, Azania was
stopped by the police, handcuffed, pistol-whipped and arrested
without warrant or explanation. The next day the prosecutor filed
death penalty charges for the murder of a Gary, Indiana police
officer during a bank robbery. Azania was not advised of his rights
nor read an arrest warrant of any kind. There was no preliminary
hearing, no pre-trial identification, no evidence presented for
probable cause for arrest. Instead, he was held incommunicado at
the county jail for nine days. On the tenth day, the prosecutor
(Lake County, Indiana) secured a Grand Jury indictment based on
false and misleading evidence. A paraffina gunshot residue (GSR)
test performed on Azania's hands by the police shortly after
his arrest, showed that he hadn't fired a gun. This exculpatory
evidence was never disclosed by the prosecutor to his defense
counsel, nor was the grand jury informed of it, Azania was not
able to even prove that the test existed until four years after being
found guilty. On the thirteenth day the prosecutor secured an arrest
warrant based on the grand jury indictment.
Azania was framed on trumped-up charges, tried by an
all-white jury, and sentenced on May 1982 to electrocution in the
Indiana chair. His conviction was for "unarmed robbery class C
felony murder" - a non-existent crime. There is no such law or
statute on the books in Indiana! Two other men convicted of
the same murder were given prison sentences.
On May 27, 1993, the State Supreme Court of Indiana
found that the police and trial attorney, David R. Schneider, was
ineffective during the penalty phase. The court reversed the
judgement of the post-conviction court and remanded the case with
instructions to set aside the sentence of death and to grant
post-conviction relief in the form of a new jury and judge for
sentencing, or to impose a sentence of years.
Zolo Agona Azania should be set free. Please write or call
Governor Bayh on Zolo Agona Azania's behalf, demanding that he
be unharmed and granted immediate release from imprisonment.
Refer to Case Number CR-81-401. Please send copies of your
letters to Brother Zolo Agona Azania, #4969 at Indiana State
Prison, P.O. Box 41, Michigan City, IN 46361-0041.
Mr. Evan Bayh, governor
State House, Room 206
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 // (317) 232-4567
For more information please contact Zolo's attorneys:
Mr. Isaiah Skip Gant, Esq.
222 Second Ave, Ste 415
Nashville, TN 37201 // (614) 259-0072
Ms. Michelle A. Simmons, Esq. Attorney at Law
119 1/2 West Maumee Street
Angola, IN 46703 // (219) 665-9779
*************************************************
(NOTE FROM SIS.: Bro. Zolo provided MUCH of the artwork
for the aforementioned publication "API Notes.")
Azania On Art
"Culture is an indispensible weapon in the freedom struggle.
We must take hold of it and forge the future with the past."
- Malcolm X
(El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz)
As far back as i can remember, i've always had an interest in
drawingpictures. i have liked drawing since childhood. i wanted to
be a cartoonist; then i aspired to be an architect. i studied drafting
in junior high school in 1967 and in high school in 1972.
i work in all mediums of arts and crafts. My specialty is oil
painting. Brother William "Rooster" Turner taught me how to
paint while We were serving time in prison in 1975. I also took a
formal art course while in prison andreceived a certificate for over
a thousand hours of training in theory and practice.
Art is an integral part of human culture. i am trying to
communicate a sense of self-determination through my art. People
can create their own way of life like an artist can create a painting
on canvas. i am trying to communicate to the poor and oppressed
a vision of hope and a solution as to what must be done to change
our environment. There is another way of thinking independent
of the enemy (oppressor) ideology; and i try hard to communicate
this message through my art.
Ernie Barnes, Rooster and the millions of Afrikan and indigenous
Indians are my favorite artists. Most are unknown and
unrecognized for their great and magnificent contributions to an
advanced civilization in harmony with nature prior to European,
and in some instances, Arab conquest. Art is a standard by
which civilizations are measured.
Art is an integral part of culture, and culture is a complete way
of life. The living and dead speaks through their art which
indicates many things, including the growth and development of
that society. For example, the only bona fide records that prove
the existence of many tribes or nations of antiquity -- that they did
in fact once live -- is revealed by the unearthing of remnants of
their artifacts.
Contemporary artists who are also comrads here at Indiana State
Prison which i would like for others to know about are Brothers
Kondo Nassor, Carlos Vaden and Lumumba. They are productive
New Afrikans.
Black folks need to have national consciousness here in amerikkka
as a sense of their worth and identity. A nationally conscious
people are in constant movement toward building and constructing
their society providing for their basic material and spiritual needs.
And in the case of being destroyed or conquered, a nationally
conscious people are in the process of organizing a movement to
rebuild what was destroyed.
i attempt via my art to cultivate this national or social
consciousness by giving Black folks in particular a clear vision of
an objective goal in relation to the past. i try to make people think
in terms of revolutionary change and to fight for that change on
every level of society. My art is New Afrikan revolutionary art.
All artists are imitators of life and what We think death is. In my
estimation, contemporary 'Black' art as a whole is a diverse
sub-culture rising. It's a fusion of cultures. The commercialization
of contemporary 'Black' art is counter-productive because it
imitates what is pleasing to the enemy (our conquerors the
colonialists). Money becomes the motivating factor as opposed to
organization and movment independent of the enemy.
Revolutionary change takes place in the mind first. When the
enemy controls. Our art (culture), they also control Our thinking.
They dictate what We are to think and do that is acceptable to
them.
The Black contemporary artist must produce art that inspires or
motivates the poor and oppressed to be free and independent in
every respect. People who fight for their freedom and take it are
dignified and highly admired.
As-Salaam Alaiku Rebuild to Win!
Brother Zolo Agona Azania #4969
Indiana State Prison
Death Row
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Free All New Afrikan Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War!
-------------
Sender: par...@igc.org
Status: U
ANNOUNCING THE PAPERBACK PUBLICATION OF
"COMMITTING JOURNALISM: THE PRISON
WRITINGS OF RED HOG," BY DANNIE M. MARTIN AND
PETER Y. SUSSMAN
Dannie Martin was a bank robber, a heroin addict, a longtime
federal prisoner and, he later wrote, "a criminal by any definition
I know of." But in 1986, the self-educated convict's life changed
dramatically when he submitted a freelance article on AIDS in
prison to San Francisco Chronicle editor Peter Sussman. That
article began a years-long collaboration in the course of which
Martin wrote more than 50 eloquent and revealing profiles of
prison life.
Along the way, Martin and Sussman ran afoul of federal prison
authorities, who threw the author into the hole two days after he
criticized his warden in print.
What followed was a high-profile First Amendment lawsuit. As
Martin later framed the issue: "I committed bank robbery and they
put me in prison, and that was right. Then I committed journalism
and they put me in the hole. And that was wrong."
In "Committing Journalism: The Prison Writings of Red Hog"
(published by W.W. Norton in hardback in November 1993 and
in paperback this summer), Martin and Sussman, recipients of
numerous major journalism and First Amendment awards,
reprint Martin's riveting prison articles and tell the
behind-the-scenes story of their collaboration and their long
struggle to assure the First Amendment rights of prisoners and
newspapers. Theirs is a story of personal risk and drama
-- and unlikely friendship -- as well as the record of a
path-breaking legal dispute.
Martin and Sussman's book has received favorable critical reviews
in many publications, including the Washington Post, the New
York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Phoenix and the
San Francisco Bay Guardian. The Guardian's reviewer, Managing
Editor Tim Redmond, called it "one of the great political
works of our time, a book that ought to be required reading for
every American citizen."
Writer Jessica Mitford has also touted the book highly. Mitford,
a longtime supporter of progressive prison causes and the author
of "Kind and Usual Punishment," wrote in 1973:
"For one who explored the cruel and arcane world of prison two
decades ago, this book is nothing short of thrilling. At last, we
have some first-rate description of life behind those clanging gates
-- but far more than that, we have the remarkable story of how and
why Dannie Martin's prison writings got published by an intrepid
editor, Peter Sussman, in the face of almost unbelievable
roadblocks erected by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It is not only
an exciting, well-told story -- it may well prove to be one of those
rare phenomena, a book that could become a catalyst for real
reform. I only wish that a copy could be placed in the in-basket of
every member of President Clinton's staff, cabinet, and above
all of our new Attorney General."
The most eloquent testimony to the significance of the
collaboration of editor and convict is in Martin's powerful essays
from inside the joint.
_____________________________________________________
Prison Activist Resource Center| PeaceNet Prison Issues Desk
PO Box 3201 Berkeley CA 94703 |<priso...@igc.apc.org>
ph: 510/845.8813 fx: 845.8816
http://www.igc.apc.org/prisons/prisondesk.html
e-mail: par...@igc.apc.org | +++ a resource for educators
& activists +++
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For progressive & radical info on prison issues, e-mail the Issues
Desk or <parc...@igc.apc.org> for an auto-response w/ details
on many resources.
---------------------------
Rev Greetings all Mumia supporters,
Just got a word from Standing Deer (Wilson), a political prisoner
being held down in Texas for those who aren't familiar with him.
The main reason for putting this out is to add his name to the
hungerstrike list.
He wrote in response to a booklet of solidarity statements from
PP's & POWs that Milwaukee Anarchist Black Cross put together
to help fund local Mumia activities - if anybody would like one
please send $2.00 (if you can't afford it we will send them free -
they are free to prisoners as well) to:
Milwaukee ABC
c/o BCAC
P.O. Box 93312
Milwaukee, WI 53203
Standing Deer letter follows:
Sagoli!
What a magnificent job you did on the booklet "Solidarity
Statements for Mumia Abu-Jamal" I just received it and read it at
once and it made me grit my teeth and punch out the wall.
Mumia's July 12 Statement is so powerful with him in the jaws of
death and still pouring truth from his mouth without letup. And
Assata comparing Mumia with Malcolm X - so true - and urging
the people "to fight tooth and nail to save Mumia's life and
to free him from the grips of his oppressors." Somebody raised
Assata from the beast's belly. And the bro'z from Lewisburg and
Herman Bell who I haven't seen since Marion and my brother
Leonard Peltier. oh yeah, and the RAF and everybody, what an
honor it was to be in such good company.
I fast every year from August 6 - 9 for the Hiroshima/Nagasaki
dead, but tomorrow when I kick it off it will be from August 6
through August 17 to honor and pray for Mumia. I give many
thanks to you sisters & brothers who put that booklet into
existence.
My love and strength are with you all.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Standing Deer
Write to Standing Deer at:
Standing Deer #640289
aka Robert Hugh Wilson
Ellis 1
Huntsville, TX 77343
Attached also is a piece Standing Deer wrote for Bro. Mumia
earlier this year.
IF THEY WERE GOING TO KILL MY BROTHER
If they were going to kill my brother
I would raise him...rescue him
steal him away from the murderous thugs of the state.
They don't need his life nohow!
They can sell it for twice what it's worth
'cause there ain't that much money in the world.
So what for do they want it?!?
He don't mean nothin' no way
'cept to those who love him
and need him
and can't do without him.
I always wonder why we let freedom fighters
rot their lives away in some jail
or go down in a murder-for-hire plot
rigged by the state.
Folks be marching and hollering
and carrying signs carrying his name
demanding his freedom, but
if signs and words could free him
he woulda been free a long time ago.
This is not about revolution and we don't need
the masses to rise up and wrest away the means
of production from the criminal class.
This is about our brother's life. His life!!! and it only takes a few
of us
who don't want him dead.
There is no magic in a uniform and badge
even if the State, Nation and World Rulers
are behind those symbols
so if somebdoy wants him free there he is
over there in that dungeon guarded by folks
that bleed when they're hurt just like you and me
Jonathan, the child/man had the idea
and the brains
and the courage...
he just didn't have the understanding that the state will
throw away functionaries within their apparatus
like they were dirty toilet tissue, and never look back.
Frederick Douglas said: "Power concedes nothing without a
Demand. It never has and never will."
Carlos said: "You do things with bullets
because bullets are real."
It has to start somewhere and sometime
What better place than here?
What better time than now?
Free Mumia Abu Jamal!!!
By Standing Deer
++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++
++++ see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm
------------
Much Respect!
Sis. Marpessa
TOGETHER WE WILL WIN!