Let Our Motto Be Resistance! Free Etana & Mecca Shakur and All Political Prisoners!
Mecca and Etana Shakur are two sister-comrades from the Black Riders Liberation Party who were targeted for a racist, sexist assault by an Inglewood cop while distributing their newspaper and educating the community on Century and Crenshaw Blvds. They defended themselves when the cop, without legal justification, grabbed Etana, a nursing mother. They were falsely charged with assault and battery on a police officer. They are in court on Wed., Sept. 18, in the Inglewood Courthouse, One Regent Street (1 block s. of Florence between La Brea and Fir; 8:30 AM) seeking a ruling on a motion to dismiss the bogus charges. At their last court appearance, bailiffs and sheriffs tried to keep the Riders and their supporters from entering the courthouse, but we were successful in forcing them to admit everyone, and we packed the courtroom. There ain’t no justice -- just us! We have to rely on our own collective power and creativity to find our own community-based solutions and build a better world. The 1% of the corporate elite and the politicians they buy and sell to us like soap or hamburgers are part of the problem; no jobs or solutions but more war, more cops and more prison cells. Black and brown youth want to walk or drive without putting their lives at risk to racial profiling. Our kids and grandkids deserve to breathe clean air, eat fresh food, drink clean water and live free lives. We have the human right to defend ourselves against racist assaults, from vigilantes like George Zimmerman or from racist, sexist pigs like the Inglewood cop who assaulted Mecca and Etana. Look at the example of the prison hunger strikers. They put their bodies on the line in a hunger strike that helped them overcome the racism and divisions the CDCR promotes, push for unity and an end to hostilities inside. Where are our so-called representatives like Maxine Waters? Is she speaking out to meet the hunger-strikers’ demands? Does she support our human right to self-defense? Will she demand that the cops, judge and prosecutor who let Zimmerman walk for be fired? Instead of ending unemployment or reversing the transfer of wealth from poor Black and Brown families to Wall Street, Obama’s invaded Africa with drones and troops. Eric Holder had the FBI put Assata Shakur on the ‘most wanted terrorists’ list. Is there an office holder demanding freedom for the political prisoners or an end to mass incarceration? It's past time to take our future in our own hands, to expose the politricksters and the domestic and international war machine that serves the interests of the super-rich. We can't beg the fox to guard the wolf, because they both see us as prey. Justice for Oscar Grant and Trayvon Martin means building our capacity for community self-defense against racist police and vigilantes. Struggling for the 5 core demands of the hunger strikers means generating a struggle that can ensure “no business as usual” for the CDCR – the CA Dept. of Corruption and Repression. Freeing our political prisoners and freedom fighters requires that the state see it will pay a higher political price for continuing to hold them than for releasing them. Join the Black Riders, new generation Black Panthers, and the Inter-communal Solidarity Committee, in following the example of the prisoner hunger strikers to overcome racial, religious and national divisions in the interests of unified resistance in the fight for humanity and a better world. Get involved in Break the Lock, Hood Health, the George Jackson Freedom School, Turning the Tide, the Watch-a-Pig program and the other serve-the-people/survival programs that are charting a path to peoples’ power! Call 323-289-4457 for more information. Here's the facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/158173167717165/?ref=14 And here's the wepay page to donate funds: https://www.wepay.com/donations/shakur-defense-education
