APPEAL FOR SOLIDARITY
Angola 2 fight La. prison hell
Excerpts from a talk by Malik Rahim at the Communist
Manifesto conference Dec. 5.
I'm here on behalf of two revolutionary freedom fighters
that have spent the last 26 years in solitary confinement in
Angola, a state prison in Louisiana. I met these freedom
fighters as a political prisoner in 1970. I was in a shoot-out
with the police in New Orleans as a member of the Black Panther
Party.
While incarcerated, the prison administration, in the hope
of killing all of us, mixed what they called Black gangsters
with revolutionaries, in the hopes that we would cancel each
other out.
But instead many of them joined the party and organized the
first prison branch of the Black Panthers. Four of the people
that were instrumental in forming the Angola branch were Albert
Woodfox, Herman Wallace, Gilbert Montague and Roy King
Wilsonson.
In 1971 the state of Louisiana, in a way of making the
prison more cost-effective, laid off two-thirds of their prison
guards and made inmates act as guards. Albert Woodfox and
Herman Wallace led a work stoppage to end the practice of using
inmate guards.
Soon after, Albert and Herman were convicted of killing a
prison guard. They was convicted because an inmate was promised
a carton of cigarettes a week and a pardon. His testimony was
the only evidence against them.
Albert went to court in a racist town, a prison town, and
was found guilty of killing the guard, Brent Miller.
These brothers have spent the last 26 years without any
support. But they haven't lost their revolutionary principles.
They never say, "I'm not concerned with anyone else, only with
my case." They have helped over 40 prisoners in Angola obtain
their freedom.
Herman was able to get every inmate on Louisiana death row
to sign a petition on behalf of Mumia.
Now Albert has been granted a retrial. They can't try him
again in the parish that he was first convicted. They gave him
a change of venue to the town that the prison guard lived in.
The town he is buried in. This trial begins Dec. 7.
His legal defense is a public defender who doesn't even have
enough money to fly witnesses to Louisiana on his behalf. The
prosecutor says that Albert was a member of a racist
organization, that the Black Panther Party hated all white
people and because of this, he killed this guard.
They've taken another inmate who wasn't even in prison when
this event happened. This white inmate is saying Albert told
him that he killed the guard. That's the only evidence they
have against him.
I know that you will get involved and that you'll help end
this injustice, not only towards them but towards other
political prisoners. Together we will make a difference.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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