Who Do You Call
When the Police Are the Problem?
RAMONA AFRICA
Speaking at Faith United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, CA 17apr04
Transcribed by Paul Goettlich
from the video by Ralph Cole of JusticeVision
Democracy University volume 60.1
The moderator for this event was Sister Thandisizwe Chimurenga, co-host of
"Some of Us Are Brave" on KPFK 90.7 FM.
Capitalized words, except MOVE, indicate emphasis by Ramona.
Thandi:
I attended a lecture a couple of weeks ago. And people came to see this particular speaker. The people who with him said, "Well, you all love with his person is. That's why you're here. So here he is." I thought that was an interesting introduction.
You all know who Ramona Africa is. You all have some semblance of an idea. That's why you're here tonight. But I still believe in giving credit and recognition where it is due.
I've been with Sister Ramona for a couple of days now, and I find it hard to introduce her without almost giving her lecture. I don't want to do that. But I do want to, as I said, give credit where credit is too. And I do want to tell you something about this Sister.
Ramona Africa is the Minister of Communication for the MOVE organization. And I would like to say that Ramona Africa grew up in Catholic schools...grew up attending Catholic schools in Philadelphia. She graduated from Temple University. And she was set to go into law school when she encountered the injustice and oppression that was meted out towards the MOVE organization.
Subsequently [she was] introduced to the teachings of John Africa and it changed her life.
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Screen captures from the 2003 film "MOVE"
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Ramona Africa is a survivor of the 1985 massacre of the MOVE organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where C-4, a military explosive was dropped on her and her family's home. Six adults and five children who were subsequently murdered in that massacre. Ramona is the only adults to survive. One child survive with her.
The city block was destroyed. Sixty-one black folk's homes were destroyed by the fire caused by the military explosive dropped by the city of Philadelphia in conjunction with the state of Pennsylvania, and the federal government of the United States of America.
No one has served a day in jail because of that crime against humanity. Sister Ramona however, because she survived, was convicted of survival and spent seven years in prison. She was sentenced to a minimum of 16 months or a maximum of seven years. After the 16 months they told her, "We to let you go if you leave the MOVE organization." She told them where they could go. And she did her entire seven year sentence.
She was released in 1992. She hit the ground running. She has not stop yet.
The Jericho Amnesty Coalition Los Angeles exists to raise awareness of the existence of political prisoners, prisoners of war, and exiles, to agitate for their release and for amnesty. It is in this vein that we have brought Sister Ramona Africa here to Los Angeles so that she will tell you about her story and the story of her family, about the MOVE 9 who have been in prison since 1978, about Mumia Abu-Jamal's case and the newest developments.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, an award-winning, brilliant writer, commentator on KPFK, brilliant journalist...a brilliant journalist who is on death row as we speak, sentenced to death wrongly in 1981 for the murder of a Philadelphia policeman. His sentence of death was overturned yet he remains locked on death row. April 24th will be Mumia Abu-Jamal's 50th birthday. It will be his 23rd birthday behind prison walls.
This is why we have brought Sister Ramona Africa here. Just remind you... I know you all know who she is, but as we said, we must give credit where credit is due.
Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, friends and allies, Sister Ramona Africa.
[Audience applauds wildly]
Ramona Africa: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Ramona says that anybody who wants more information about MOVE or Mumia can contact them at P.O. Box 19709 Philadelphia, PA 19143. Call MOVE at (610) 499-0979. Call the Mumia office at (215) 476-5416. Mumia's website is www.mumia.org
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I appreciate the warm welcome. It does my heart good. Thank you very much.
And I want to thank Sister Thandi. I want to thank everybody involved in bringing me here to the West Coast and making this program happen. I want people to know that Thandi has worked tirelessly arranging programs for me to speak at. And she too deserves credit where credit is due.
OK. I generally start a lecture with a quote from John Africa. And I am going to do that. But one thing I want to say before I get into that, just very simply, because we are in a church. And that is John Africa pointed out something to MOVE years ago. And I never forgot it because, as Sister Thandi told you, I went to Catholic school for 12 years...first to 12th grade...I was raised Catholic.
One thing that stuck with me when John Africa told it to me, because of my background, was that if you want to know the mentality of government looked at one thing. Go back to the Bible and look at how when the word spread that the Christ's child was going to be born, this bringer of truth and peace. What did the government to? What did King Herod do?
According to the Bible, he sent out his soldiers to kill every newborn male child because he wasn't about to have truth and peace upsetting his applecart.
The point is that the mentality of government has not changed in 2000 and four years. Because government, on what ever level, is still threatened by truth...by the principal of peace. It is not in their interest. It is not what government is about. And governments have existed to stifle and stamp out truth. So, I just had the point that out because I just remembered so clear when that example was given to me by John Africa.
Now, let me start with a quote from John Africa. This particular quote is very, very important. And anybody who claims to be a revolutionary will see it as important because it's fundamental and it's something that we must all understand.
To quote John Africa, the coordinator:
"You can be wrong and still be legal. But when you say you're right and do wrong, you ain't right now more. Ain't no such thing as a legal right because right eight legal. It's natural. If being legal was the same as being right you wouldn't have legal problems. You got a legal system and your legal system is filled with problems. But if the system was right, it would be just that— right.
When you officials demand people are to follow your procedures to defend themselves, you are demanding that people give up their own procedure. MOVE's against the system. We've made it clear that we're against the system. We ain't benefiting nothing when we do things as the system instead of as MOVE.
Your way is to stop us. Our way is to stop you. So, how can we benefit by you...by doing things as you? It ain't just a question of MOVE against the court. It is an issue of MOVE against the system. And it ain't procedure to help what you're against. And you officials know it. We're against the system. You want to stop us. And to ask us to go along with your procedure is to help you stop us. Volunteer our freedom to be imprisoned. Put handcuffs on our wrists and will lock our own selves up. How else can it be? You ain't for us. You're against us."— John Africa
I want to be certain that people understand exactly what's being said here. What John Africa is telling people is that you cannot look to your oppressor, to your enemy, for the diagram, for the tactic, for the way to stop them from oppressing you.
Could Jews look to Hitler for the means to stop the Holocaust? Could black South Africans look to members of the apartheid regime for the way to end apartheid? Could African slaves brought to this country look to the slave owners for the means to end slavery?
Of course not.
Well, what we have got to understand and the year 2004, for those who don't understand it, is that we cannot look to this system that is oppressing and exploiting and enslaving, not only people but all life, for the means to stop that. Why would they give you the way to destruct them... to destroy them...to end their reign? They're not going to do it.
They have created this concept called legal to trick people... to give you the impression that, of course, resistance is accepted. Of course, protest is accepted. Of course you can challenge anything that you don't agree with. But you have to do it was in our framework. We have created these little procedures based on this concept called legal. And any gripes that you have, you're free to air them. But you have to do it this way.
Well, thanks to John Africa, MOVE is not imprisoned by that concept called legal. It was invented by the oppressor. They are the orchestrator, the script writer of legality. They change it day to day, week to week, month to month. It's one thing one day and something else another day.
That's their reference not ours.
If legal was synonymous with right, then explain how slavery could be legal...apartheid...the Holocaust.
Right now, you have a U.S. Supreme Court that wants you to accept their legal ruling that it's OK to execute an innocent person...that as long as a person had a "fair trial"… as long as they have exhausted their appeals… if they are this close [Ramona holds up her hand with her thumb and index finger nearly touching close on do] to being executed… and someone comes forward and confesses, gives details, and in all likelihood— we can't say positively, but it could be the person who committed the murder— and the person on death row, their lawyer goes running into the courts saying, "Hey look, we got new evidence. You got to stop this. You got to at least have a hearing and check this evidence out."
That's what happened with this case called the Herrera case <http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Leonel-Herrera-Texas12may93.htm>— Spanish brother in Texas, the home of George Bush. The U.S. Supreme Court looked at his lawyer like he was crazy. And they told him very clearly, "We don't have to do anything. At this point, innocence is not the issue."
Now, if innocence is not the issue, then what IS the issue?
They proceeded to EXECUTE that man. And then they did it again and another case based on that Herrera ruling.
It was all legal.
But was it right?
Are we supposed to accept it because they put a label all of legal on it?
No.
This is what John Africa had taught MOVE from the very beginning of MOVE— not to be imprisoned by the training of this system. Because these people are no joke. They TRAIN you how to thank. They train people to start from their reference. "Don’t look beyond that. Start here. And don't go any further."
Well, John Africa took us outside of that box. And we look at things differently than this system. And nobody is going to convince us to accept enslavement, exploitation, [and] insanity because somebody puts the word legal on it, particularly our enemy.
This is the reality… the mentality of MOVE people. So, when you wonder why this system comes down is on MOVE the way it did and still does, it is that kind of thinking. They don't want us influencing others to start thinking like that.
I'm going to read something to and then maybe you can tell me with this is about.
"All experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses reduced them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security." [original text below]
Now, MOVE didn't write that.
The Panthers didn't write that.
The SLA, the BLA didn't write that.
The Young Lords didn't write that.
[Someone in audience asks, "Who wrote that?]
That is the Declaration of Independence. [original text and link at bottom]
And what it's telling you is that this country was supposed to be founded, according to them, on the principal that you when you are reduced under despotism… under oppression by the government, that it is not only you're right, but it is your DUTY, your OBLIGATION to fight back… to make things right, even if it means ABOLISHING that government.
[Great applause and shouts from audience]
The question then becomes, how can MOVE members, Panthers, Mumia, Leonard Peltier, Puerto Rican Independentistas, and a host of others be labeled terrorists… criminal for applying the Declaration of Independence?
You see, you can't have it both ways.
Either resistance and defying of legality in favor of justice and what is right is to be applauded and awarded and encouraged and celebrated, like they do every Fourth of July, OR it's to be penalized and punished and crushed.
But you can't have it both ways.
If you're going to tell me today that the defying legality and going to war with government is completely unacceptable, then wipe the Fourth of July off the map. It doesn't exist anymore.
And if your saying that it is to be celebrated with fireworks and celebration, then why are all these people in prison for doing just that?
How IS it that a Nathan Hale, a Patrick Henry, a Paul Revere are celebrated every year as freedom fighters, heroes? But a Delbert Africa, a Geronimo Pratt, a Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Dylcia Pagán, a Marilyn Buck are called urban terrorists?
How is that possible?
These are things we need to really start thinking about and confronting this system with when it confronts us with those labels of illegality and violence and what we don't have the right to do.
They put it out there. So throw it back in their face when they come at us.
This is what the MOVE organization has been doing for over 30 years now...close to 35 years.
The MOVE organization started out in the early 1970s as a family brought together by John Africa. You know, John Africa brought people together from all different walks of life— rich, poor, educated, uneducated, various races and nationalities, various religions that people were involved in. He brought us altogether and made us a family of revolutionaries.
He gave us one single principal to live by. And that is respect and reference for all life— for our mama… mama nature.
And when you respect life and respect the source of life, you understand that the coordinator of life put EVERY species of life here to live in freedom.
Slavery does not come from life… from God. That's an invention of man that is in CONFLICT with life, with God. And it is NOT to be accepted.
So, the MOVE organization started out with demonstrations— peaceful demonstrations at unsafe boarding homes for the elderly where there were being physically and emotionally abused, where their Social Security checks were all but stolen from them. We demonstrated at the zoo and the circus against the abuse and enslavement of animals. Because if you wonder where the enslavement people comes from, it comes because people allowed another species of life to be enslaved. So when you make an allowance for enslavement, don't think it's going to just stop there.
[Audience applauds]
We did various, various peaceful demonstrations. We confronted representatives of DuPont Chemical, Dow Chemical about them poisoning the environment— putting poison in our air and our water and our soil, causing disease, causing people to be sick, causing life to be sick.
And these people try to trick folks by seemingly admitting that, "Yeah, there's a problem with pollution in the water from their factories. But you know we're taking care of that. Our scientists have invented a water filter that you can buy from us for $29.99. That'll take care of your water."
And MOVE is like, "You must be out of your mind. You're going to make billions of dollars poisoning the environment, poisoning our water, and then create some gadget that poises the water making it, and then you're going to sell it to us? And that's supposed to be the solution to the problem you caused?"
NO, we ain't going for that. And we made people look at that and think about it cannot be tricked by the system.
Initially, officials would send cops out to our demonstrations. They would just standby. They would take pictures of us. They would record what we were saying. And just monitor us.
But as they saw that people were listing to us, that people were coming up to us in talking to us, asking questions and seeing things a little clearer about this system that we live under, they realized they had a problem.
So they did what they always do. You know the pattern of this system don't change. They came at us with the soft soap, you know, the velvet gloves. [Ramona motions as if putting on a glove] they wanted to give us funding so that we could set up an office and, you know, work within the system...that kind of thing.
We let them know straight up that "We don't want your money. We don't want your office. We don't want no position in this system. We don't want ANYTHING from you. All we want from you is to leave us alone."
So, when they realized that we meant it, that we could not be, you know, bought, that we could not be bribed or co-opted, then they came with the next step, which is always the iron fist... you know, the brutality. And when MOVE people would go out to set up a peaceful demonstrations at some institution of this system, the cops would be there as usual. Only this time, they would, to us until us, "You got to pack up and leave. You can not demonstrate here. You got to go."
And we would look at them like, "What is wrong with you? What are you talking about? We got to go? We can't demonstrate? Isn't this America, we tell people you have freedom of speech, freedom to protest, freedom of association and assembly, the freedom to assemble together? What, does the Constitution say "except MOVE"?
Of course they didn't want to hear anything we had to say. And that's when the beating and brutality started. MOVE men would be beaten bloody, into unconsciousness and broken limbs by cops. The MOVE women were beaten by cops. Pregnant MOVE women were beaten, stomped, kicked by cops— beat, stomped, kicked into miscarriage. A three-week old baby was knocked to the ground along with his mother who is told him and trampled to death. His head was crushed.
This is the insanity and brutality that this system came to MOVE with.
MOVE people decided that we needed to make some things clear to this system. We're nobody's whipping post. And we made it clear to this system that we believe in peace. We are a peaceful people. We are uncompromisingly opposed to violence. But we are not stupid. We are John Africa taught. And we understand very clearly the difference between violence and self-defense. We DO NOT believe in violence. But we DO believe in self-defense.
[Audience applauds]
We made it clear that you are not violent when you defend yourself. But you ARE violent if you are attacked and REFUSE to defend yourself because then you are encouraging, perpetuating, and endorsing violence— the worst form of violence. Because then you are masochistic… suicidal. And MOVE is neither masochistic or suicidal. You slap my cheek and I ain't turning the other cheek. I'm going to stop slapping right there.
[Audience applauds]
And there is nothing violent about that. It's STOPPING the violence. Okay?
There is not one species of life that Mama have put on this earth that does not defend itself when attacked.
Who do these people think they are to try to convince you that, unlike any other species of life, you don't have the right to defend yourself?
"If there is a problem you come to us and will take care of it." [As if said by the police]
Well, excuse me. What happens when YOU by the problem? [As if responding to police]
[Audience applauds]
You see, August 8th of 1978, and a video, a very good video that was done on the police attack on MOVE, there's footage of this older black woman. She's being interviewed. And she's saying how she was upstairs on the second floor of her house and all of a sudden her front door busts open and all these people come running at your house because the cops was on horseback… and they're just riding around with their nightsticks beating people, attacking people. People were trying to get away from them and ran into her house. She said she was so upset [because] she saw people bruised and bloody and everything. She ran into her phone. She picked up the phone and...stopped and like..."Well, damn, who do I call? Who do I call?"
[Audience applauds and laughs]
The point is, if you do not defend yourself, how can you expect anybody else to do that for you? Self-defense is THE law. The law of life, the law of God that NOBODY has the right to take from you.
This is what MOVE made clear to this system. Well, you know they wasn't having that. And they didn't want us influencing ANYBODY ELSE with that kind of thinking.
So they tried to manufacture a reason to exterminate the MOVE organization. And this is the best they could come up with in 1977-78. They said, "Well, MOVE, we hate to tell you this, but your home, the house that you all live in has housing code violations. There's no screens and these windows." And you know, a few other ridiculous things like that.
And we said, "Oh yeah. Right. Okay."
And they kept pushing it, that there were housing code violations in the house, and that we had to vacate the house because, you know, it wasn't safe.
Now, when did this government become concerned about poor folks, particularly black folks living in a house that has housing code violations? Why did they become concerned with that?
[Audience applauds]
But this is what they he used try to manufacture a reason to come at MOVE. An order was issued saying that we should vacate MOVE headquarters by August 1st of 1978.
Well, some MOVE people were coordinated to go on other activities in Richmond VA, in Rochester, NY. And the government knew that some MOVE people went to other cities...went on to other activities. I mean, they had us under surveillance. They followed us.
Nevertheless, on August 1st a judge issued warrants not simply for the MOVE people that were still in MOVE headquarters, but for every MOVE member that he could possibly think of...any and every MOVE member that he knew, even though they knew that some of these people were not even in the house. So obviously, that was not the issue— the house. They just wanted an excuse to come in on us.
I guess they got their little plant of attack together. And on August 8th of 1978, in the wee hours of the morning, hundreds of cops and firefighters came out to our home, armed for war with one intent, one mission— to exterminate every living being in that house.
In their frenzy to kill MOVE they ended up killing one of their own. And MOVE can prove it. We know it. And this government knows it. Because a police officer was shot.
He was shot in the back of the neck with a bullet traveling on a downward angle. He was standing on street level leaning against a telephone call, facing MOVE headquarters. MOVE people, by the police's own admission, or in the basement of MOVE headquarters.
Even if you believe that MOVE people were shooting up out of that basement at cops, they would have to be doing just that— shooting up out of the basement.
Now, explain to me how you can shoot up and shoot somebody with the bullet travelling on a downward angle AND around in back of them when they are facing you?
Maybe the CIA and the FBI… the ATF got weapons that do all that kind of tricky stuff. But nobody out on the street has it.
But this is what they must be saying to say that MOVE people killed this cop.
After arresting my family and taking everybody into custody they said bulldozers out and COMPLETELY demolished MOVE headquarters....completely demolished MOVE headquarters. Understand, a murder had been committed. Somebody was dead. The house became the alleged scene of the crime. How do you destroy vital evidence like that? How you destroy the scene of the crime?
That you're telling me that these people believed that MOVE kill the cop and destroyed the evidence at the scene of the crime? Not gonna happen. They destroyed the evidence because they knew all it would show is how they shot thousands of bullets in on MOVE. That's why they destroyed it.
Nine of my family members were charged with murder. Not one charged with murder of the cop was shot with one bullet from one gun… NINE people were charged with murder. Not one charged with murder and the other eight with conspiracy, all nine were charged with murder.
How do nine people fire one bullet? How is that possible?
All nine were tried and all nine were convicted of murder and sentenced to thirty-year minimums and 100 year maximum sentences.
A day or so after Judge Edward Malmed sentenced MOVE people to prison, Mumia Abu-Jamal heard Judge Malmed on a radio talk show in Philadelphia. So he called in. He said, "Judge Malmed I have one question. Who killed police officer James Grant?"
The judge responded, "I haven't the faintest idea."
That's what he said.
After just sentencing nine of my family members to 100 years each in prison, this man admitted that.
Now, you wonder why Mumia is sitting on death row? [It's] because of journalism just like that...exposing these people, asking the simple powerful question.
Our brother Mumia was the ONLY journalist that covered MOVE consistently and accurately. He could not and would not be intimidated. He could not be bought off with a paycheck. He was not looking to be the next Morely Safer, or Ed Bradley, or Peter Jennings. Mumia is truly the voice of the voiceless.
He got his start in journalism writing for the Black Panther Party newspaper. Mumia was not trying to climb up the corporate ladder. He simply wanted to tell the truth… put out information for people… much-needed information.
So, when you wonder why Mumia sits on death row, why they framed him up...well, because of who he is. Mumia is not on death row for the accusation of murder. Mumia is on death row because they cannot control him, or co-op him, and because he exposes them.
[Audience applauds]
That's right. And we don't forget that. You know, we want that made clear to people because we don't burn our energy going back and forth with people, debating with people about this system's interpretation of innocence or guilt.
We KNOW who's guilty. We KNOW who's the criminal. We're not confused about that.
So we fight for our brother. And we don't let NOBODY get in our face telling us that Mumia's guilty and he should be executed.
Let me tell you something.
As the only adult to survive the May 13th bombing, nobody is going to tell me that anybody in this system is in prison for the accusation of murder. If murder was the issue, why aren't those people who bombed and murdered our babies in prison?
Why aren't THEY on death row next to Mumia?
You understand?
NOBODY...nobody is going to convince us that this is acceptable and that their interest is justice.
OH NO! No, no, no, no, no.
So, MOVE continues to fight...
[Ramona takes a drink of water and clears her throat]
I've been talking for days and days...
[Audience laughs]
OK.
NOBODY is going to convince us that this system...that their interest, their goal is justice.
NO WAY!
This government dropped a BOMB… on me in my family simply because we would not accept them keeping our innocent family members in prison.
They tried to tell YOU that the reason they came out to our home in May of 1995 was because some neighbors complained about MOVE.
Well, excuse me, I'm not saying that some neighbors may not have had a complaint about MOVE. Maybe they did. I'm sure they did.
But what neighborhood in this country exists where some neighbor doesn't have a complaint about some other neighbor?
[Someone in audience shouts out, "that's right"]
But the question is, when to this government start caring about black folks complaining about their neighbors? Wonder that happen? When did the FBI, the CIA, state and local governments become involved in neighborhood disputes?
They want you to believe that a few black people at 62nd and Osage had a complaint about their neighbors and got THAT kind of response?
If anybody tells you that… any official tries to get your face and tell you that, you need to slap them for insulting your intelligence. You know?
[Audience applauds and shouts]
They came out to our home in May of 1985 to silence our right to protest of the ongoing imprisonment of our MOVE sisters and brothers. We was turning the heat up on them...EXPOSING them at every turn and they wanted an end to it.
In the words of Wilson Goode, a so-called black man who was mayor at the time— he wanted a permanent end to MOVE— that's what he said.
And toward that end they waged a full-scale war against MOVE on May 12th of 1985. That's when they converged out there and started setting up high-powered weaponry. Mother's Day, Sunday May 12th of 1985. And it went into Monday May 13th. But they came out there on Mother's Day.
What could MOVE have done to warrant them dropping a BOMB on us? We wasn't selling drugs. We wasn't raping and robbing nobody. We weren't accused of murder or assaulting anybody.
WHAT could they POSSIBLY use to justify such a thing?
Nothing.
They really didn't feel like they had to.
They felt like they could just say, "We got some complaints about MOVE."
And when people heard the word MOVE they'd go like, "Oh, well, you know, I can understand that."
That's what they thought. That's what they were banking on. That's what they USED the media to paint a certain picture on MOVE that THEY hoped would cause people to THINK that way and EXCEPT what they did simply because it was MOVE.
Didn't work out that way. People far and wide around the world understood that something foul and dirty happened that day and that there was NO justification for it… NO JUSTIFICATION.
And this system… even though they THINK they got away with it, because no official was EVER legally held accountable for the events of that day...
You know, five babies and six adults were murdered alive...burned alive that day. They dropped a bomb on our home with no notice at all.
And then when the bomb ignited a fire had a fire department was IMMEDIATELY notified that there was a fire, they made a conscious decision that they weren’t going to fight it...that they were going to let it burn.
What situation have you EVER heard of where the fire department is right there… a fire department that put tons of water our house earlier when there was no fire, suddenly makes a decision that now that there IS a fire, they're not been put any water on it. They're going to let it burn.
When have firefighters EVER stood by and decided to let a fire burn, knowing that there are men, women, babies, and animals inside the dwelling that's on fire?
[Someone in audience gives an answer]
Yeah… 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I understand that.
That is the only other time that that has happened where black folks were bombed and murdered by the government....and the KKK...well, same thing. Ain't no difference.
[Ramona laughs and audience claps]
There is no difference.
But the point is, that's what they did. And when MOVE people, who are in the basement of our home realized that our home was on fire, we immediately tried to get our children and our animals out of that burning building...that blazing inferno, only to be met by a barrage of police gunfire deliberately aimed at us to make sure that nobody survived that attack.
At least twice I tried to come out of there and bring some people out of there... bring some children out of there and was shot back in... you know, forced back in.
At that point, you are in a position where you're either going to choke to death on the smoke and burn alive, or you try to get out and possibly be shot to death.
Well, I tried to get out one more time and I was able to get a little boy out of there. And you could hear the gunfire hitting all around us...whizzing all around us.
Police officers surrounding woman [Ramona Africa] who was brought out of Philadelphia house occupied by radical group. Photo: Bruce Kanis |
But we survived that because we got out and got just a little bit away from the house. And cops grabbed us...grabbed the little boy… threw me down on the ground... handcuff me. And we were the only two to survive.
The point is; five babies and six adults were murdered.
I wasn't charged with their murder.
SOMEBODY murdered them. They were not only burned alive, but they were found have bullet fragments in them from when the cops shot at them.
What more to you need to be charged with murder?
They arrested me immediately, even though there was no evidence that I did anything but come out of the house. They ADMITTED to shooting at least 10,000 rounds of bullets in that house by THEIR own admission. They ADMIT to letting the fire burned.
They ADMIT to this stuff. The whole world saw them drop that bomb on our house.
And they get investigated.
I get arrested.
When you investigate something that means you don't know what happened and you're trying to piece together what happened.
But now, if you don't KNOW, how did you know enough to arrest me?
How did you determine that I was wrong?
But they did. They arrested me.
And as Thandi told you, I was eventually convicted of riot and conspiracy. The charges merged into just the riot charge. And I was sentenced to 16 months to 7 years in prison.
They put that stipulation Monday that Thandi told you, and several other sisters and brothers who became eligible for parole.
Not one of us accepted it...that we would leave MOVE...sever all ties with MOVE in order to get released.
NOT ONE of us accepted it.
[Audience shouts and applause loudly]
And because of all or uncompromising stance, and us exposing them, and people far and wide putting pressure on them, it was the government… the parole board that had to BACK UP and parole MOVE people without that stipulation.
MOVE didn't give no ground. They had to. They had to.
And as Thandi told you, I came home in 1992 and have been out here, you know, educating in informing people, hopefully motivating people not simply to free the MOVE 9 or Mumia, but to free yourself. You know?
Understand where freedom comes from.
Freedom is not in leading one building called a prison for another building calls your house, your home, or some other building. Freedom— true freedom— is in the ABSENCE of this system. THAT'S were true freedom lies.
And this is the work that the MOVE organization is doing. And it's the work that our brother Mumia recognized and supported and became a strong MOVE supporter. You know? Which is another reason why they want to get rid of Mumia...another reason.
Our brother is that the very LAST stages of his appeals.
Understand something.
When I told you about the Herrera case, they're doing a similar thing in Pennsylvania with Mumia.
There is a man named Arnold Beverly who came forward and stated... confessed that he was the one that killed policeman Daniel Faulkner. He gave details, describe what he was wearing, where he was at. This information matched statements they had gotten from people back in 1981. It all clicked. It all jived.
- [Text of Arnold Beverly's confession http://www.freemumia.org/articlesnewspg/Beverly-9-26-02.html]
So, when Mumia had evidentiary hearings in the state court, particularly a post conviction appeal hearing in front of Judge Pamela Dembe, the court decided that, "Yeah, well, you know, there's this confession. But we don't believe it's credible. Nobody's gonna to believe that. And furthermore, it's too late. It should have been filed by such and such time, and it's too late."
And MOVE's position is, "It's not credible? You haven't even had a hearing on it. How did you determined that? Based on what?
Secondly, TOO LATE? We're not talking about know meaningless legal procedure here. We're talking about a man's life. He is still alive. He is still in the courts. He still sits on death row. How can it POSSIBLY be too late?"
We're not accepting that."
People should be OUTRAGED that this government would just throw words out there like that and expect you to ACCEPT IT.
MOVE don't accept it.
And we have... I have been going all over telling people about this. You know?... in outrage for our brother Mumia, that they would take this kind of position.
We're saying every day this government shows you how insane it is.
It is OUT OF CONTROL. We cannot expect those who are out of control to behave as if they are in control. WE have to bring them back into control.
We've got to do that.
[Audience applauds]
Those who have some sense and who can see the insanity in this... its OUR work to put things right. And then begins by understanding the value of our own power of purpose, and understanding that we cannot look to, we cannot elect or select, somebody else to do our thinking for us... to coordinate our lives for us... to tell us what we should be doing or shouldn't do... how we should raise our families... all of that stuff. We have to do that ourselves.
And that's evident when you look around you and look at the people that we are SUPPOSED to be getting all of this direction and guidance and support from.
The Governator is going to tell you how to... [audience becomes agitated and vocal]...live your life? He's going to tell you what's best for you? You know?
- [The Governator is Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California.]
George Bush… is going to give you some direction about your life, your family life, high should be living your life? This man can't even keep up with his own two daughters. What's the gonna to do for you?
What's he gonna to do for you?
When Bill Clinton was courting people so that he could get elected president, he pledged his loyalty, his understanding to people. He told people that he was going to give you a better life.. he was going to take care of you... he was going to look out for you... all of that. But when he was courting Hillary, he told her the same thing.
[Audience laughs loudly and claps]
And he didn't mean it... he didn't mean it anymore when he said it to her then when he said it to you, because he don't even know you. He know her. He don't even know you.
So, how many examples do we need to understand that we can't look to these people for anything? ...that we have a brain and our head that we supposed use?
If the God of life... the mother of life didn't want you thinking for yourself and coordinating your own life, why put a brain in your head? Why not just give a brain to George Bush and let him do the thinking for everybody?
That's not how it is. Everybody has a brain in their head to use... to coordinate your own life... to think for yourself.
That is what we have to do. Revolution starts with self... with self.
[Audience applauds]
Now, we got a whole lot of front-line soldiers who are sitting in these prisons… unjustly… because of the system. They have put their lives, they're freedom, on the line for the people. Not for themselves. Not for themselves.
If Mumia, if Leonard, if Sundiata [Acoli], if Mutulu [Shakur], the MOVE 9, Marilyn [Buck], Dylcia Pagán... all of these freedom fighters, political prisoners and former political prisoners... if they were only concerned about themselves, they wouldn't be imprisoned because they'd just going about their business, living your lives. And they wouldn't CARE about changing things to make life better for people.
But they do care. We all care. And they put their lives on the line for us.
They’re not telling you to put your life on the line... to be on the front line. They're saying, "We got that. But do you are part."
Do whatever it is that you can do in this revolution for yourself... for your own freedom... not for them... for yourself... for your family... for your babies. You know?
We don't want to see nobody else's baby BOMBED and burned alive. We don't WANNA see another Amadou Diallo.
We don't WANT anybody else sitting on death row because of this ROTTEN SYSTEM.
We don't want to see that.
But, if you don't want to see that, we've got to do the work to make sure it doesn't happen.
Now, you can work on what ever level you can. If you have a 9-to-5 handiwork in an office and you have access to a computer or a photocopier, USE it for this revolution.
Design a flyer. Send out e-mails. Photocopy information. You know?
If you are a parent or parents that have young children, get together with other parents of young children and work together so that you can take turns watching the kids and you can all be a little more allowed to work together.
If you have a vehicle... and you know that people are working there behinds off... in some people don't have a vehicle and need to get information or literature or pickup things or whatever got to got off for your services to drive people around when you have a little time. Or offer them your car if you comfortable with that. Do that.
If you like to cook... if you're just somebody that likes to cook and your into nutrition and health, or he just simply like to cook... When there's things going on... big programs going on the people are working from sun up to sundown and going half the day or old day without eating... cook some food and bring it to where people are working and feed them. You know? Feed them.
You could be the most bourgeois person in the world. You could have your Louis Vuitton shoes and handbag, and your Versace dresses, and your hair perfectly coiffed, and your nails out to here [indicates fingernails about six inches long] with diamond chips and them.
If that's you're thing then that's you're thing. But if you got a good heart and you know that things are not right anyone to do something, get together with your friends said alike that and put on a fashion show or something and RAISE SOME MONEY.
Do SOMETHING.
[Audience applauds and whistles]
Do SOMETHING.
Just like it is a crime… a sin to oppress, enslave, and exploit, it is JUST as much a crime, a sin not to fight those things... not to work to free yourself from those things.
[Audience applauds]
It is JUST as much a crime.
So, if you don't take anything else away from here tonight, take that one thing with you, that if you didn't know before, doggon' it, you know it now... that you are OBLIGATED to do SOMETHING in this fight for freedom, whatever it is.
[Audience applauds]
Nobody else can do your work for you. I can do MY work. But I can't do yours. You see?
I cannot eat and fill your stomach.
I cannot drink and quench your thirst.
I can't do it.
I cannot sleep and have you feel rested.
You've got to do that for yourself.
And that principle applies across the board.
That's why things are in such a bad shape now... because people have been tricked into thinking that somebody else can carry their weight for them... that you can pay somebody or elect or select somebody to do your work for you.
Can't happen.
Can't happen.
Nothin’ but trouble there. Nothin’ but trouble.
That's a message that I hope you get tonight.
My family, the MOVE 9... actually there are eight people now. My sister Merle Africa was killed in prison in 1998. They said she died from... first they said from natural causes. Then they said she had tumors in her body that travel to her lungs and stopped her breathing. Then they said she had cancer... I mean, they kept changing the story.
We don't believe any of it. Merle was a strong, healthy MOVE woman. To just suddenly died alike that, with nothing preceding it... something is wrong. Something is DEFINITELY wrong there.
So now, it's eight MOVE members. Their appeals are in the first level of the federal district court. We are not looking to the courts for any justice or miracles.
WE KNOW that our people and all political prisoners' way home is through the people, NOT through the courts.
That does not mean that we don't file of the available appeals. We do, because we know that when the pressure from the people FORCES for system to release are people, there's got to be a mechanism there for them to do it.
So, we filed the appeals, but we concentrate our energy on the people... on the people, because THAT is where the power is.
At this point, the only thing that people need to do is be aware, get informed, get information, and figure out what it is that you can do to carry some weight here... to carry your own weight here. Because, see, when everybody is working for freedom, for justice, for what is right, then that's a S T R O N G vibration and everybody's moving in the same direction. And there AIN'T no stopping us when we UNIFY.
You see, some people can do it. But that's like a few raindrops... individual raindrops falling. But when those raindrops turned into a monsoon, then you got some POWER there. And that's full we have to be— the monsoon, not individual raindrops.
So, let's get busy. Let's get to work. Let's get on the move. And STAY on the move...on the move.
Long live the MOVE 9. Long live Mumia. Long live Leonard Peltier, Marilyn Buck, the Puerto Rican Independistas. Long live the Zapatistas. Long live those indigenous grandmothers at Big Mountain in Arizona. Long live those who are fighting for freedom and for their lives in Vieques. Long live Earth First!, the Earth Liberation Front, the Animal Liberation Front. Long live ALL FREEDOM FIGHTERS... all those who love for freedom enough to fight for it.
LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE!
[Audience applauds and whistles loudly]
LONG LIVE REVOLUTION!
LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA!
DOWN WITH THIS ROTTEN-ASS SYSTEM!
ON THE MOVE!
[Audience continues to applaud, whistle, and shall continuously for about a minute]
More reading
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Declaration of Independence original text
" ...all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
source: http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/declaration_transcript.html 30jul04 -
Interview of Mumia Abu-Jamal by HANS BENNETT / The Commemorator 1feb04
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