Free Sekou Odinga

Sis. Dequi Kioni-Sadiki joins us to discuss the condition of enslaved African descendant people living within the United States and taught us the difference between a political prisoner which the United States do not recognize just as they do not recognize they are holding prisoners of war. Sis. Kioni-Sadiki is married to current POW Sekou Odinga and she is active in the struggles against police violence, criminal justice, and women's reproductive rights. She also educated us on the movement Bro. Odinga was involved in to establish an independent Black nation on the North American continent called the Republic of New Afrika.


Download Podcast

She is a former member of the Black Panther Collective, the NYC Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, and now serves as co-chair of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee of which Baba Herman Ferguson serves as Chairman Emeritus. She served as national co-chair of the People of African Decent Caucus for the Washington, DC based United States Student Association, and currently works with the NYC Jericho Movement in the campaign to free united states political prisoners and prisoners of war. Dequi is an artist, poet, public speaker, educator for liberation and WBAI radio producer.  In 1983 Bro. Sekou Odinga was convicted of charges for the liberation of Assata Shakur and the expropriation of an armored truck and was sentenced to 40 years and a $50,000 fine. He was also convicted of New York State charges which arose out of the capture and the murder of his comrade Mtayari S. Sundiata and was sentenced to 25 years to life to be served consecutively to the federal sentence. He is a freedom fighter, fighting for the freedom, liberation and self-determination of our people.

On Jan. 24, 1979 the United Nations passed a specific resolution stating that the General Assembly declares that Freedom Fighters captured during the struggle for liberation must be entitled to Prisoner of War status in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Geneva Convention. Since his imprisonment he has seen many loved ones pass away without being able to say goodbye, including his grandparents, parents, an older sister and two brothers. The biggest loss of all was his dear son Yafeu A. Fula. In the rap world he was known as Yaki Kadafi of the Outlawz, back up group and collaborator with Tupac Shakur. Much more info on this heroic freedom fighter is available at http://www.sekouodinga.com/

Political Prisoner Radio w/ Lorenzo "Komboa" Ervin

Talking to Bro. Lorenzo "Komboa" Ervin tonight on Political Prisoner Radio. Bro. Ervin is a former political prisoner, former Black Panther, long-time Black anarchist organizer, author, and currently working in Memphis on a conference and major activity to uplift the Black community.


DOWNLOAD PODCAST

He is an Ex-Political prisoner confined after activism in the military against the Vietnam war, then civil rights activism in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and a brief stint in the Black Panther Party. After COINTELPRO repression of the Black Left, he was imprisoned with two Life sentences for hijacking a plane to Cuba in 1969. He was a Black prisoner organizer and leader during the high stage of the Attica-era Black and revolutionary prison movement, was a leader of the federal prisoners union and part of the labor organizing and strike wave in the federal and state prison systems in the early to mid 1970's, was an active campaigner against the Behavior Modification and Control Unit program that officials established in the 1970's to put down the radical prisoners movement in federal and state prisons.

Was released in 1984, served 15 years before he was freed by an international "Free Lorenzo" movement, led by the Anarchist Black Cross, and other movements. 


 Bro. Ervin is now working with other activists to have a Black power conference on June 9, 2012 called "Let's Organize the Hood", where issues related to mass imprisonment will be discussed, and a new movement will be created around the issue. He and his wife, JoNina Ervin, are both authors, with his forthcoming book, "Let's Organize the Hood" by August 2012, and his wife's book, "Driven By the Movement: Interviews with Black Power Activists of the 1960's and 70's" already in print, the latter of which can be ordered from her directly at organize.the.hood@gmail.com

Free activist Sundiata Acoli

Guests: Fayemi Shakur is a freelance writer, creative consultant and the managing editor of HYCIDE Magazine. She has been working on behalf of the Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign for many years. Walidah Imarisha is a poet, writer, educator and organizer. She has been involved in the movement for political prisoners since her first protest at 15. She currently teaches at Portland State University and Oregon State University.


DOWNLOAD PODCAST

 Political Prisoner: Sundiata Acoli, one of the longest held U.S. political prisoner of war, is a mathematician, and computer analyst. He was born January 14, 1937, in Decatur, Texas, and raised in Vernon, Texas. He graduated from Prairie View A & M College of Texas in 1956 with a B.S. in mathematics and for the next 13 years worked for various computer-oriented firms, mostly in the New York area. During the summer of 1964, he performed voter registration work in the notoriously racist State of Mississippi.

 In 1968, he joined the Harlem Black Panther Party where he took up community work around political issues of schools, housing, jobs, childcare, drugs, and police brutality. In 1969, he and 13 others were arrested in the Panther 21 conspiracy case but two years later he and the others would be acquitted, by a jury deliberating less than two hours. However Sundiata Acoli could never get back the two years he spent in jail where he was held without for a crime he did not commit.

Sundiata is 75 years of age and has been in prison 39 years resulting from a driving while black stop of his car by state troopers on the NJ Turnpike in 1973. The incident led to gunfire that resulted in the death of his passenger, Zayd Shakur, and NJ state trooper, Werner Foerster. Sundiata was wounded at the scene, captured in the woods 40 hours later and subsequently sentenced to life in a NJ State prison. He is now the longest held prisoner in New Jersey's history of similar convictions having long ago satisfied all requirements for parole. He is a political prisoner. More info on Bro. Sundiata, including his writings, artwork and ways to provide support are at http://sundiataacoli.org.

Political Prisoner w/ Marshall "Eddie" Conway

Our guests tonight will be Sis. Dominque Stevenson and Political Prisoner and former Black Panther Marshall "Eddie" Conway. Dominque Stevenson is the mother of four children. An activist who speaks extensively about political prisoners and the prison industrial complex, she is currently the director of the Maryland Peace with Justice Program of the Middle Atlantic Region of the American Friends Service Committee in Baltimore, Maryland.


DOWNLOAD PODCAST

She coordinates prisoner run mentoring projects in Maryland prisons. The program, A Friend of a Friend, helps foster healing, and connects young men with prison mentors who help them develop the skills necessary to navigate violent situations, and prepare for a successful return to their communities.

She is the co-author of Marshall Law: The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther, and has written a novel, Blues Before Sunrise. Marshall ''Eddie'' Conway is a former member of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party. In 1969, he uncovered evidence of the FBI's infiltration of the Panthers as a part of the COINTELPRO initiative, and found himself locked away one year later, convicted of a murder he did not commit. Currently into his fourth decade of incarceration in a Maryland correctional facility, he has played a leading role in a variety of prisoner support initiatives, including the formation of the Maryland chapter of the United Prisoner's Labor Union, and the ACLU's Prison Committee to Correct Prison Conditions as well as the American Friends Service Committee's A Friend of a Friend program. Mr. Conway is the author of two books, The Greatest Threat: The Black Panther Party and COINTELPRO, and his memoir, Marshall Law: The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Social Science from Coppin State University.

Free Russell Maroon Shoats

Sis. Theresa Shoatz is a long-time prison activist, organizer, and daughter of Russell "Maroon" Shoatz, a dedicated community activist, founding member of the Black Unity Council, former member of the Black Panther Party, soldier in the Black Liberation Army, and US-held prisoner of war. Now 68 years of age, "Maroon" has been held at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) Greene in southwestern Pennsylvania for nearly 40 years, 30 of those in solitary confinement.


DOWNLOAD PODCAST

During this time he has earned a reputation amongst prison staff and prisoners as a leader because of his consistent support for human rights inside and outside the walls. Prison officials claim that Shoats is a security threat due to past escapes and attempts, though new evidence has surfaced that his continued solitary confinement is based on secret and fraudulent evidence of a non-existent plan to takeover a prison in the 1980s.

Prison officials also identified Maroon's political associations as a basis for continuing to torture him via solitary confinement. He has been unable to hold his children or grandchildren or interact with others in a humane setting during this time, despite not having violated prison rules in two decades. He has suffered severe psychological anguish and his physical health has been worsened by the stress of prolonged isolation.

 Supporters of Russell Maroon Shoatz have launched a campaign to have him released from the torturous solitary confinement that he has been held in for more than twenty years. A letter-writing and petition campaign has been launched and supported by the nation's leading human rights legal organizations, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild, along with the Human Rights Coalition, a prison abolitionist organization co-founded by Maroon.

An evening of music, spoken word and discussion on Maroon’s life is eagerly anticipated for May 5th, 2012, 6-8pm, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 521 W 126th Street, New York, NY 10027. This event is FREE and open to the public!! Please visit the website for more information: http://russellmaroonshoats.wordpress.com/