Detroit City Council supports exiled revolutionary

Assata Shakur

The Detroit City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring July 17, “International Hands Off Assata Day” in support of the African American freedom fighter, Assata Shakur. July 17 is Shakur's birthday.

The resolution included a brief synopsis of Shakur's political history, including her being a target of the FBI's racist Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro) during the 1960s and 1970s. The resolution denounced the $1 million bounty put on Shakur's head by the U.S. government May 2 to encourage her being kidnapped from Cuba. She has been living in exile there since her escape from prison in the United States in 1984.

To read the resolution in its entirety, go to www.workers.org/2005/us/resolution-0825/index.html.

---Monica Moorehead

Leftbooks.com carries ‘Assata: An Autobiography’