Nuh Washington
I think also of those of us who died like Jonathan and George Jackson
-- a commemoration for Black History Month, 1995In 1971, when the Black Panther Party split, I went underground into the Black Liberation Army. COINTELPRO didn't come out until a few years later and by then many of us in the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army were imprisoned, dead or in exile. COINTELPRO along with inexperience helped to neutralize us as an organization and derail our movement for national liberation.
Today, a new Congress is determined to push Black and other poor people down to prop up the middle class. There is a strong class and caste antagonism within the country today, as well as an increase in police powers and harsher prison sentences and conditions. Conditions are ripe for class struggle but the state is more sophisticated with its technology and laws. Racism is still the number one divider of people. Competition for jobs has only heightened the antagonism between white workers and minorities. Proposition 187 in California is an example of fear controlling politics.
The failure of the Black Liberation Movement and the New Left to consolidate its gains in the 1970s allowed the right to push its agenda using the politics of fear and separation to gain control over the country. When I think of all of us who have languished in prison for over twenty years, I think also of those of us who died like Jonathan and George Jackson.
This August 7th [1995] will be the 25th anniversary of the Marion Court House attempt to liberate three Black prisoners by 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson. Jonathan, along with James McClain and Bill Christmas, died in a hail of bullets fired by San Quentin prison guards. Ruchell Magee was wounded and has remained in prison until this day. The August 7th shootout began a new chapter for the Black Liberation Movement and took the struggle to a higher level.
We must never forget Jonathan's sacrifices, so let this Black History Month begin the commemoration of this young Black Freedom Fighter. The issue of Black Freedom Fighters and political prisoners are the reasons behind August 7th. August 7th embodied two aspects: 1) the attempt to liberate Black political prisoners, and 2) the demand for the release of three political prisoners, the Soledad Brothers. In honoring Jonathan, we honor the best of ourselves, for as young as Jonathan was he was at the highest stage of development of a freedom fighter, assault rifle in hand and willing to die for what he believed. I, along with one of my comrades, Anthony Jalil Bottom, was captured in a shoot-out on the day Jonathan's older brother and mentor, George Jackson, was buried. August 28, 1996, will be 25 years that George has been buried in the ground and we buried behind prison walls. So remember what George said, he wanted to be more than a hump in the ground. Read his letters, especially those to Jonathan, and look at conditions and you will see the truth of the age-old adage, "The more things change, the more they remain the same." Both brothers showed us that we could rise above conditions to demand and fight for freedom and human dignity.
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!
All Power to the People!Albert Nuh Washington
Black Panther Party/Black Liberation Army
Political PrisonerNote: The statement above was read at "A Benefit Honoring Black Political Prisoners" in February 1995, sponsored by Prairie Fire Organizing Committee and Crossroad Support Network and held at DePaul University in Chicago.
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Letter on Nuh's health and status, February 2000
Nuh Washington: No Death in a Cage! - column by Mumia Abu-Jamal
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