Continuing the focus on the Indiana prisoner rebellion in 1985 at the Indiana Reformatory (now Pendleton Correctional Facility), this interview spotlights Christopher “Naeem” Trotter. Trotter, in solidarity with John C. Cole aka Balagoon and their comrades, led the takeover of a cellblock inside the Indiana reformatory for 15 hours. . . .
Liberation Archives
Women in the Zimbabwean Revolution
A speech by Naomi Nhiwatiwa of ZANU-PF given in Los Angeles, CA in July 1979 It is a very strange feeling to be a delegate from the United States of America. I was a ZANU delegate from the United States of America, therefore I carried the burden of the United States and I had to explain myself many times. I had to explain what is happening in the US and why. I told them that there were progressive people in the US who are sympathetic to our cause even though it appears that the majority of Americans seem to be supporting . . .
African History – An Underused Weapon for Liberation
Mama is excited. She grabs her husband’s arm and smiles broadly as their daughter marches proudly to the microphone. She is perhaps 11 or 12-years-old, but at this moment, with her head held high and her perfect erect posture, she possesses the poise of a young woman twice her age. What happens next is magic – at least it is in the minds of the girl’s adoring parents who have been mesmerized from the moment their pride and joy first emerged from stage left. The young orator places her portfolio on the lectern, and while making her best efforts to . . .
The Mistake of the First African Summit Conference – Shirley Graham DuBois
This is an excerpt from a speech given by the great Shirely Graham DuBois at UCLA on November 13, 1970, almost a decade after the African Summit Conference in Ethiopia where Pan-Africanists from all over the world came together to sign the Charter of African Unity. You can listen to the section below here, or the entire speech here. . . .
Women as Leaders
The exigencies of this present age require that women take their places beside their men. White women are rallying all their forces and uniting regardless of national boundaries to save their race from destruction, and preserve its ideals for posterity. . . . White men have begun to realize that as women are the backbone of the home, so can they, by their economic experience and their aptitude for details, participate effectively in guiding the destiny of nation and race. No line of endeavor remains closed for long to the modern woman. She agitates for equal opportunities and gets them; . . .
International Women’s Day and the Struggle for Peace
Written by Claudia Jones in 1950 Women in the Struggle For Peace and Security On International Women’s Day this year, millions of women in the world-wide camp of peace headed by the mighty land of Socialism will muster their united forces to make March 8, 1950, a day of demonstrative struggle for peace, freedom and women’s rights. In our own land, there will be over fifty celebrations. On New York’s Lower East Side, original site of this historic American-born day of struggle for equal rights for women, and in major industrial states, such as Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, Massachusetts, . . .
George Jackson: Black Revolutionary
By Walter Rodney, November 1971 To most readers in this continent, starved of authentic information by the imperialist news agencies, the name of George Jackson is either unfamiliar or just a name. The powers that be in the United States put forward the official version that George Jackson was a dangerous criminal kept in maximum security in Americas toughest jails and still capable of killing a guard at Soledad Prison. They say that he himself was killed attempting escape this year in August. Official versions given by the United States of everything from the Bay of Pigs in Cuba to . . .
Kuwasi Balagoon: Love, Power and Peace by Piece
Freedom is a habit and for Africans throughout history, it is one that can cost you dearly while under the repressive state apparatus of an imperialist power. Despite this, it has rarely discouraged those who’ve taken up the program for Black liberation from making the ultimate sacrifice out of their love for the people. Recognizing the colonial status of Africans in the US and in the diaspora is only the first step. Through organization, struggle, uniting around a set of principles and an unwavering commitment to the movement is where some of the strongest and most fierce of the litter . . .