Samori Marksman
Respected anti-imperialist journalist dies
By
Monica Moorehead
New York
Faithful listeners to the progressive New York radio station
WBAI-FM and activists everywhere were thoroughly shocked and
saddened by the untimely death of Samori Marksman. Marksman,
51, had been program director at the Pacifica-affiliated
listener-sponsored station. He died March 22 in his sleep from
an apparent heart attack.
Marksman was born on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. He
was heavily influenced by the revolutionary theory and practice
of African-Caribbean Marxists such as Maurice Bishop, C.L.R.
James, Walter Rodney, Eric Williams and Richard Moore. Marksman
studied political science and cinematography at New York
University and was the creator of the critically acclaimed
documentary, "Grenada: The Future Coming Toward Us."
Marksman helped bring the then-Prime Minister of Grenada,
Maurice Bishop, to the U.S. to speak to thousands of people
about the achievements of the short-lived Grenadan Revolution
of 1979. Bishop was assassinated in 1983 during a coup by
military elements claiming to be leftists who were later shown
to be connected to U.S. intelligence agencies. When the
Pentagon then invaded Grenada, Marksman was instrumental in
exposing U.S. imperialism's objectives.
Marksman was very skilled in the art of facilitating
anti-imperialist programming. His programs helped shed light on
some of the most complex and controversial worldwide struggles.
His main interest was on developments in Africa and the
Caribbean, but his broadcasts also focused attention on events
in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe.
He paid particular interest to the U.S. and other Western
imperialists' aggressive moves in the Middle East and the
Balkans. The International Action Center frequently provided
guest speakers to his show who analyzed and condemned U.S.
aggression against Iraq and Yugoslavia.
When Workers World Party chairperson Sam Marcy died last
year, Marksman hosted a special tribute program to him.
Some of Marksman's closest colleagues attribute his heart
failure to growing problems at WBAI over which class forces
will control its airwaves. They say that a number of Pacifica
and WBAI board members were pushing very hard to soften the
political views of the station in order to get more funding
from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and this meant
silencing some of the more radical voices. This has already
happened at a number of Pacifica stations around the
country.
Marksman fought daily to keep the political integrity of
WBAI as an independent voice of anti-imperialist dissent.
Upon hearing of Marksman's death, Workers World Party's
National Committee issued a statement expressing condolences to
his family, friends and associates.
"As a journalist, Samori enlightened the pubic to injustice,
to the lies and hypocrisy of the powers that be, and gave us
the information we needed to fight back," it said in part.
Marksman "lent his keen mind and energy to progressive and
revolutionary struggles across the globe. In his short but
incredibly full life, Samori became a stalwart and a beacon for
those of us in the struggle against racism, imperialism,
exploitation and oppression."
Marksman's voice may now be silent, but his political legacy
will certainly live on.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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Email: ww@workers.org
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