i went to attica last month to visit ex-black panther jalil muntaqim. he’s one of the longest held political prisoners in the world. i wrote about my visit and about jalil’s case (he was arrested under COINTELPRO). that article was just published in countercurrents. here it is.
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Jalil is no run-of-the-mill human being. He acquired a college education whilst being incarcerated; in 1976 he initiated the National Prisoners Campaign to Petition the United Nations to recognize the existence of political prisoners in the US; in 1997 he launched the Jericho Movement to demand amnesty for American political prisoners on the basis of international law; he has written books and maintains a blog; he’s quelled prison riots; he’s involved in literacy programs and has wonderful ideas about vocational training in prison running parallel to community programs outside so that released prisoners can transition effortlessly into them and chances of relapse are minimized. For all these efforts at organizing, Jalil is transferred relentlessly from one correctional facility to another.
Jalil understands that we have reached a racial crossroads in America. Black kids are being murdered for the clothes they wear or the music they listen to, stop-and-frisk and racial profiling have become institutionalized, books like Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” explain how a caste system rooted in mass incarceration has replaced segregation and slavery, Vietnam War protestors and activists have revealed how they stole FBI COINTELPRO files and books like Betty Medsger’s “The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI” delineate the disturbing history, machinations and criminality of the FBI. Jalil’s concern is that this “spark” might ignite people’s anger rather than become the impetus for constructive organizing. He hopes for liberal movements to unite and coalesce as they did during the Civil Rights era. He wants to hearken back to MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign and forge links between racism and economic inequity, between Trayvon Martin and Occupy Wall Street. More here.