12 February 2016
Greetings from Class-War Prisoners
(Class-Struggle Defense Notes)
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Mumia Abu-Jamal 2 December 2015 Gazing Out on a Field of Blood It’s Christmas Season in America, ca. 2015, and when we look at the national landscape, we can hardly ignore the gore, both literal and figurative, that litters the landscape of the US in this historic epoch. American streets are virtual shooting galleries, where cops pour the people’s sacrificial blood on the foul altars of the police state. Where there is repression, there is too resistance: the mass protests of Black Lives Matter—so named because in this era of black political ascendancy (i.e., the age of Obama) black lives don’t matter. But it is there, the stirrings of mass discontent with a rancid system of repression in defense of capital. In the field of politics we see the tendrils of the emergence of fear and fascism—the capitalists represented not by the well-practiced actors of politics, but by the superrich themselves—who apparently no longer trust their minions to get the job—unlimited capital accumulation from the poor and working class—well and truly done. Fear of foreigners in a nation of foreigners, calls for walls—and war. This is the politics of capitalism’s degeneration. Marx said that the depravities of marching imperialism abroad always and ultimately returns home—with repression, prisons, cops and the nets and fetters of law. Cops today look like the Robocops of yesterday’s fantasy fiction; Star Wars and its imperial storm troopers, killing machines to defend the rapacious criminal banks and the millionaires and billionaires now playing politicians. A field of blood before us—unless the people are resolute enough to unite—and rebel—to write a new future for us all. Ona Move! Mumia Abu-Jamal P.S.—Last night, I saw a report on the crises faced by many, many Vietnam-era vets, who, because of blood transfusions during the war, have contracted Hepatitis C. The VA recently announced, “Sorry there’s a cure (Sovaldi and Harvoni) but we can’t afford it. If you survive the next few years, we’ll see.” It sounds remarkably similar to what state gov’ts are saying to thousands of state prisoners, yes? MAJ Jaan Laaman 15 December 2015 Hello, to my PDC comrades and to all you good activists, organizers, revolutionaries and PDC supporters, who are here tonight for this Partisan Defense Committee holiday event. This is Jaan Laaman, coming to you from deep in the Sonoran Desert, at the u.s. prison in Tucson, Arizona. As many of you already know, I am a long held political prisoner and a long time recipient of political and material support from the PDC. I’d surely enjoy being there with you right now, listening to remarks and having some good conversations. Actually, like other political prisoners around the country, I am right there with all of you, in positive and militant spirit and with these words. There are many struggles, issues, worthy campaigns and organizations that reach out for and need people’s support. The concrete work the Partisan Defense Committee does and has been doing for 30 years (and I do know, because at this point, I have been in captivity for 31 years), is truly important for us class war prisoners. The PDC’s work is also pretty unique and it is certainly real revolutionary solidarity and support. Your participation and support at this event, as well as your continuing awareness of and support for political prisoners held by the u.s. government, is a solid act of solidarity and important to us behind the walls. As u.s. imperialism reaches and prepares for more and new wars, particularly in Syria, while cops shoot and murder people of color and others daily, it is important that we continue to resist on all levels. As you talk, work and struggle, keep us class war prisoners, political prisoners in mind too. For more direct information on and from political prisoners, check out www.4strugglemag.org. Have a great event and remember— Jaan Laaman (10372-016) * * * (reprinted from Workers Vanguard No. 1083, 12 February 2016) Workers Vanguard is the newspaper of the Spartacist League with which the Partisan Defense Committee is affiliated. |