>
> WW News Service Digest #69
>
> 1) Atlanta media tries to convict former Black Panther
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 2) WW interview with FARC-EP
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 3) Gays up against the brass
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 4) WWP memorial for Key Martin
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Apr. 6, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>ATLANTA MEDIA TRIES TO CONVICT FORMER BLACK PANTHER
>
>By S. Tomlinson
>Atlanta
>
>The trial of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin began in Atlanta
>before there had been a grand jury indictment, an
>extradition hearing, jury selection, or any evidence
>presented.
>
>Al-Amin, a respected leader in Atlanta's Muslim community
>for close to 25 years, was already on trial by the media
>for the March 16 shooting death of one Fulton County deputy
>sheriff and the wounding of another.
>
>After a week and a half of media accusations, Al-Amin was
>finally indicted on March 28, charged with the shooting of
>the two officers as they attempted to serve him a warrant
>for failure to appear in nearby Cobb County on charges of
>theft by receiving, no proof of insurance and impersonating
>an officer.
>
>These initial charges stemmed from a traffic stop that
>almost certainly originated with racial profiling. Al-Amin
>had been driving a late-model vehicle with temporary dealer
>tags in an upscale area of Atlanta.
>
>According to the police, the officers attempted to serve
>the warrant at about 10 p.m. at the address of the
>community store that Al-Amin has operated for years in the
>West End neighborhood in Atlanta. That community is home to
>more than 100 Muslim families who have settled in the
>neighborhood since Al-Amin founded a mosque there in 1976.
>
>The door was locked and no one was there, so the deputies
>got back in their car and drove around the block. When they
>returned, a black Mercedes was parked at the corner near
>the store. Police claim that when they ordered the occupant
>to get out of the car and show his hands, he began firing a
>.223-caliber assault rifle.
>
>Although the two deputies were wearing bulletproof vests,
>each was shot several times in the lower body and
>extremities. They fired their guns at least 10 times.
>
>Al-Amin's trial by media began immediately after the
>shootings--when the local media referred to him as a
>controversial former Black Panther and a violent and
>dangerous fugitive. Many references to alleged criminal or
>violent behavior by former Black Panther members were
>included as "background" for stories about Al-Amin.
>
>The Atlanta media used photographs of him from the 1960s
>when he was known as H. Rap Brown and was a member of the
>Black Panther Party, instead of current photos showing him
>as Imam of the Atlanta Community Mosque and leader of his
>West End community for over two decades.
>
>More recent photos were used later--showing Al-Amin in an
>orange jail jumpsuit or a mug shot from a 1995 arrest.
>Members of the FBI Anti-Terrorist unit, Alcohol Tobacco and
>Firearms agents, and the Atlanta Police Department had
>arrested him on charges that he shot William Miles in the
>leg. Miles later recanted and said he was pressured by
>authorities to identify Al-Amin as the man who shot him.
>
>In the days since Al-Amin's arrest in Lowndes County,
>Ala., every comment supporting his character and history as
>a leader in the predominantly Muslim neighborhood of West
>End has been accompanied in the media by inaccuracies,
>character assassination and outright lies.
>
>One method the police and media are employing is to issue
>statements or publish articles one day, then retract or
>change them the next. One early article, for example,
>quoted a police source as saying Al-Amin was a suspect in
>20 unsolved murders in the West End community. Later it was
>changed to 10 unsolved murders. Now it has been dropped.
>
>Another early report stated that the assailant had been
>wounded in the shootout and left a trail of blood. However,
>Al-Amin was not wounded. Now the blood trail is considered
>by authorities to be irrelevant to the case.
>
>The trial by media is an all-out onslaught to disparage
>Al-Amin on several fronts. Racist sentiments are used to
>stir up deeply held resentment against civil-rights
>activists in the South. Anti-Muslim bias is shown in the
>way the media describe Muslim residents of the West End and
>Lowndes County. There has been an attempt in the media to
>contrast the slain deputy and Al-Amin, both of whom are
>Black men.
>
>The Atlanta Journal-Constitution characterized Al-Amin as
>a two-timing, big-spending deadbeat living beyond his means
>and running a store and mosque for "members of the Atlanta
>Community Mosque [who] cut a distinctive path through the
>West End. Most wear non-Western clothing: veils and scarves
>for the women, long flowing robes and skullcaps for the
>men. But they combine their dress with `60s black militant
>gear: combat boots and fatigues."
>
>Meanwhile, the slain deputy is honored as a family man
>renting a modest home in a neighborhood where "children
>played in the front yard and churchgoers climbed the steep
>hill at the end of the street."
>
>This is clearly intended to divide the Black community of
>Atlanta. Now that a grand jury has indicted Al-Amin on 13
>counts, he will likely face a Fulton County jury made up
>mostly of members of that community. With only
>circumstantial evidence and the testimony of the wounded
>deputy, the district attorney will need to divide in order
>to conquer.
>
>The trial by media is simply the groundwork for that
>attack.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <006201bf9e97$68a4bbe0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] WW interview with FARC-EP
>Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 20:39:32 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Apr. 6, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>WW INTERVIEW WITH FARC-EP: "BUILDING A NEW COLOMBIA"
>
>[Workers World submitted questions about the situation in
>Colombia to the International Commission of the
>Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-
>EP). Below is part one of their reply, prepared by Marco
>Leon Calarca and Olga Lucia Marin.]
>
>
>MUCH HAS HAPPENED IN COLOMBIA SINCE OUR LAST INTERVIEW IN
>1998. HOW DO YOU VIEW THE CHANGES IN THE STRUGGLE OVER THE
>PAST TWO YEARS?
>
>The last two years have been years of great advance for
>the Colombian revolutionary struggle. Amid state terrorism,
>the popular sectors and their organizations have carried
>out national strikes, blockades and takeovers of highways,
>and huge demonstrations. Further, from the political and
>military standpoint, the guerrilla struggle has been
>strengthened, in particular that of the FARC-EP. It is the
>struggle of Colombian men and women to build a new
>Colombia. It is the struggle against the neoliberal model
>and the capitalist system, which does not solve the
>problems of the majority--on the contrary, it makes them
>worse. It is the struggle carried out in a variety of
>forms, ranging from legal and mass struggle to the
>insurgent struggle.
>
>COULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR EXPERIENCES SO FAR IN THE TALKS
>WITH THE PASTRANA GOVERNMENT? HAS THE GOVERNMENT EXPRESSED
>WILLINGNESS TO SERIOUSLY ADDRESS THE SOCIAL ROOTS OF YOUR
>36-YEAR STRUGGLE?
>
>Beginning on Jan. 7, 1999, when the talks were publicly
>inaugurated in San Vicente del Caguan, we have moved
>forward in our search for a solution to the Colombian
>conflict. There is a common agenda, as a basis for
>discussion, consisting of 12 points that lead toward
>solving the causes of war and toward establishing the
>foundation for a New Colombia of peace, with social
>justice, dignity and sovereignty.
>
>We have also agreed on the mechanisms for citizens'
>participation through Public Audiences. These are face-to-
>face assemblies where the Colombian people, the majority of
>the country, will present their proposals for a solution.
>This mechanism is in accordance with the promise, obtained
>by the FARC-EP, to carry out the talks in the open and with
>the participation of the country.
>
>There is a summit site for carrying out the talks and the
>realization of the Public Audiences. Public participation
>is facilitated by free mail, email, telephone and fax.
>
>An important gain has been the building of certain levels
>of confidence at the talks.
>
>But one of the central advances has been showing the world
>the true dimensions of the Colombian conflict. We are
>living in war, which the enemies of peace--U.S. and
>Colombian--do not want to recognize. The process of
>building peace allows this reality--the war and its true
>causes--to be unveiled. Through this process, our enemies
>have had to recognize that the struggle we are carrying
>out--arms in hand since they allow no other option--is a
>political struggle, an exercise of our rights of rebellion
>and self-determination. And it has been proven that we, the
>FARC-EP, are the true political opposition to the system.
>
>RECENTLY, A HIGH-LEVEL DELEGATION OF THE FARC-EP TOURED
>EUROPE WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT.
>WHAT DID YOU ACHIEVE FROM THAT EXPERIENCE?
>
>The gains described above have been reinforced during the
>tour, such as the building of confidence within the
>Discussion Table and showing the world the Colombian
>reality: the war we have been living for 50 years and the
>need to address its causes.
>
>Equally important, the grave problem of disinformation in
>the international community about our reality became clear.
>This is a product of manipulation by the big Colombian
>media in defense of their class interests.
>
>The tour served in large part to advance one of the
>fundamental objectives of the FARC-EP: to internationalize
>peace, not war. This in the sense that it was shown that
>war can have different solutions, which is what we are
>looking for with this process, and that the international
>community can give support without intervening in our
>internal affairs and without interference that damages the
>process.
>
>THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS REPORTED THAT, DURING THE EUROPEAN
>TOUR, THE FARC-EP AND THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT WOULD BE
>LOOKING AT "ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC MODELS." COULD YOU EXPLAIN
>THE FUNDAMENTAL ECONOMIC PROBLEMS IN COLOMBIA TODAY? HOW DO
>YOU ENVISION THE COLOMBIAN ECONOMY OUTSIDE THE "NEOLIBERAL"
>ECONOMIC ORDER?
>
>The only thing neoliberalism has done is accentuate the
>problems of our peoples, aggravating them. It can't offer
>any solution for a dignified and sovereign life in any
>nation. There has been an excessive concentration of
>riches, where 5 percent of the population owns 90 percent
>of what is produced. Real unemployment runs at 60 percent.
>Seventy percent of the population lives in poverty--30
>percent in misery.
>
>These are some of the indicators of the situation that
>compels us to carry out the political struggle to build a
>new society in which the economy functions for the well-
>being of the majority. But there are others.
>
>An immensely rich country, with possibilities of food
>self-sufficiency and the capacity for exporting fishing
>products, is surrounded by hunger as a product of the
>neoliberal model. A country with the potential in energy
>production to surpass its needs cannot guarantee minimum
>energy services to its population. In a country with one of
>the greatest water riches in the world, sometimes people
>die of thirst while other times people die in floods, as a
>result of the incapacity, indolence and corruption
>generated by the system. A country where a huge and
>permanently growing number of peasants find it necessary to
>move to the agricultural margins and subsist from the
>cultivation of illicit crops while the best lands are
>dedicated to unproductive extensive cattle raising and the
>legal crops are not marketable thanks to the economic
>opening. It seems incredible, but now we are going to
>import coffee--Colombia, the land of coffee.
>
>For this reason we propose: that foreign investment be
>negotiated fairly to both sides' benefit, but fundamentally
>for Colombia, the owner of the natural resources. That the
>State be the owner of the strategic sectors of the economy,
>and its use and development go toward the benefit of the
>majority, including the future generations. It is necessary
>to redistribute the wealth and create the conditions where
>
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