| Usually, when we hear the words "political prisoner" or "prisoner-of-war"
our minds immediately picture Nelson Mandela of South Africa, or British
and American pilots captured in Kuwait during the Persian Gulf conflict.
Very rarely do we ever picture San Quentin, Folsom, Attica, Lompoc or Lavenworth
as places that hold "political prisoners" and "prisoners of war".
The United States or America has projected an image across the planet as
"the leader of the free world", a "bastion of democracy and freedom", etc.
The reality is that this is a lie. Currently, there are over
100 people locked in America's prisons simply because they dared to oppose
the government of the United States of America. The majority of them
are Black people, male and female, who struggled for the freedom and dignity
of our people. Many of them have been imprisoned since the early
1970's. Sadly, they remain in prison to this day.
How does Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
define Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War?
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement defines "political prisoners" as those
persons arrested, framed-up, and otherwise imprisoned because of relatively
peaceful political activity against the oppressive conditions of our people.
An example of political imprisonment is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and
the hundreds of Afrikans (Black folks) who went to jail for refusing to
utilize "colored only" facilities and white people of goodwill who went
to jail for refusing to utilize "whites only" facilities. "Political
prisoner" also refers to those politically unconscious people locked up
for purely "criminal" offenses, who then became politically conscious while
they were in jail. George Jackson is a classic example of this kind
of political prisoner.
A "prisoner of war" is someone who has been imprisoned either as a result
of using force or arms against the U.S. in order to change the conditions
of Black folks and other people, or, as in the case of geronimo ji Jaga
Pratt, someone who has committed themselves to freeing the Black Nation
in North America by any means necessary, whether they actually used force
or not.
Are there really Political Prisoners (PP's) and
Prisoners of War (POW's) in America,
or are these people just criminals?
We can best answer this question by studying the words of two of the
Black Nation's greatest Freedom Fighters, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Malcolm X. Dr. King taught us that "an unjust law is no law at all",
and that it was sinful for Black people to collaborate in their own oppression.
Malcolm X said that we have the right to free ourselves from the misery
of the United States "by any means necessary".
Fortunately, Internationl Law agrees with both Malcolm X and Dr. King.
On December 12, 1973, the United Nations stated that "(oppressed) peoples
have the inherent right to struggle by all necessary means at their disposal
against (oppressive) Powers and alien domination in exercise of their right
of self-determination."
Resistance to oppression is a Human Right. Martin Luther King,
Jr., Malcolm X, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Gabriel Prusser, and David Walker,
were Black Freedom Fighters of yesterday. Today's Black Freedom Fighters
who struggle against injustice and oppression deserve our support and respect
just as we respected and supported those of yesteryear. We must demand
to the international community that those who fight for our freedom regardless
of the methods they use, are our Freedom Fighters and that they must be
released from prison. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is committed
in organizing our people to do this. |
