It is our responsibility to correctly explain to everyone and anyone willing to listen that America is a political prison. The US has the largest prison population in the world and no other country comes close in comparison. But this imprisonment is not random; it is for the purposes of racist and capitalist hegemony and American empire building. Lynne Stewart, Herman Wallace, Mutulu Shakur, and Mumia Abdul-Jamal dedicated their lives to liberating Black people and oppressed people from all forms of American enslavement and terrorism. They are locked away because their existence is dangerous to the American imperial order. Ruth Wilson Gilmore has written extensively about the ideological meaning of prisons. Prisons, and political prisoners within them, send a clear message that challenging the US imperial order, or merely being disruptive to the dictates of private property, can lead to human disappearance.
The US imperial order’s belly is on fire. The military-state continues to conduct surveillance and war while 800,000 workers are laid off and services like SNAP and WIC are reduced. Our very existence on this planet is endangered every day that US imperialism is allowed to live on. The dominance of the US corporate media makes it more likely for a person to watch Miley Cirus’s new documentary than to know the story of Herman Wallace, Lynne Stewart, or any US political prisoner. We need to bring our repressed and forgotten heroes into any popular movement that seeks to stand up to the national security surveillance state, mass Black imprisonment, and US imperialism’s social, political, and economic oppression in general.
On November 1st in Roxbury, activists in the International Action Center are screening Mumia Abu Jamal’s film Long Distance Revolutionary as a small step toward forwarding the struggle to free all political prisoners. Viewers of this film will quickly understand that Mumia, Herman, and Lynne are not the result of bad government policy. Political imprisonment is intentional, and part and parcel of a decaying empire. We must celebrate Herman Wallace’s life and work to save Lynne’s and all political prisoners who remain in America’s gulags. If they aren’t free, none of us can ever be free.
Danny is a social worker for the homeless in the Greater Boston Area. Danny has primarily been involved in struggle around race, class, and US empire. He can be contacted at d-revolution@riseup.net
Article Appeared @http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/we-must-open-our-eyes-america%E2%80%99s-political-prisoners