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The Perils of Black Political Power
by
Mumia Abu-Jamal | 08.13.2008
If Barack Obama wins the White House, it will be a considerable political achievement. It will be made possible only by the votes of millions of whites, most especially younger voters. This does not diminish such an achievement, it just sharpens the nature of it. But Black faces in high places does not freedom make. Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio BroadcastsHigher Quality Audio files available info@prisonradio.orgCopyright 2008 Mumia Abu-Jamal/Prison Radio"The Perils of Black Political Power "recorded 8-6-008
The Perils of Black Political Power [col. writ. 8/6/08] (c) '08 Mumia Abu-Jamal
As we are on the eve of what may be the most powerful Black achievement in U.S. history, it would be well to examine the history of Black political leadership in this country. Most historical researchers look to the 1967 election of Carl Stokes, (1927-1996), as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio as the emergence of black political power in major American cities. Many Blacks saw this as the beginning of an age of freedom for our people. From the 1960's to now, we most certainly have been disabused of that notion. For while black political leadership has surely been a source of pride, they have not been a source of black political power. That's because as agents of the States, they must defend the interests of the State, even when this conflicts with the interests of their people. For example, let's look at the experience of Mayor Stokes. Shortly after taking office, Stokes appointed former U.S. Army Lt.-General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. as his public safety director (a kind of super police chief). Gen. Davis, fresh from the rigors of Vietnam, ordered 30,000 rounds of hollow point (or dum-dum) bullets, items in violation of the laws of war. The object of his ire? The Cleveland branch of the Black Panther Party, and a local office of the National Committee to Combat Fascism, a Panther support group. In Aug. 1970, Gen. Davis resigned from the post, and criticized Mayor Stokes for not giving him sufficient support in his battle against radicals (like the Panthers). Stokes, the more politically adroit of the two, made Davis look bad for ordering ammo which violated the Geneva Conventions, but Stokes' personal papers revealed meetings between the two men, and their agreement on dum-dums as appropriate arms to be used against Panthers. Just because he was a Black mayor, didn't mean he wasn't dedicated to destroying a Black organization. Indeed, in times of Black uprising and mass discontent, Black mayors seem the perfect instrument of repression, for they dispel charges of racism. If Barack Obama wins the White House, it will be a considerable political achievement. It will be made possible only by the votes of millions of whites, most especially younger voters. This does not diminish such an achievement, it just sharpens the nature of it. But Black faces in high places does not freedom make. Power is far more than presence. It is the ability to meet people's political objectives of freedom, independence and material well-being. We are as far from those objectives as we were in 1967. --(c) '08 maj [Source: Nissim-Sabat, Ryan, "Panthers Set Up Shop in Cleveland," p.111; from Judson L. Jeffries, ed., COMRADES: Local History of the Black Panther Party (Blomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007), pp. 89-144.]
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Comments
Obama Isn't a Law & Order Nut
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 8:49amObama never carried on about putting drug dealers in jail, making the streets safe or other code words to indicate he is what Mumia abu-Jamal claims.
Obama from a broken family, went on to Harvard, and I hope will go further. Mumia’s father died when he was young and his desperately poor mother had to raise the family. According to his older sister, Mumia used to sit on the steps and read to the other little kids. At Harvard Obama headed the law students interested in civil liberties.
Mumia, give another brother, not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, a chance. In 7 ½ years, on his last day of office he will pardon you and Leonard Pettier, instead of his rich friends like Bill Clinton did. Mumia you dream of revolution and now that Hispanics aren’t supporting McCain and thus can’t be blamed for the McCain depression, perhaps starving Americans will actually have a Cuban style revolution, if you help get McCain in the White House. But there are revolutions that turned out far worse like North Korea, and there is no reason for a new American revolution to turn out as good as Cuba’s is, which happened to be quite harsh in the beginning.
You claimed in your court avadavat that you were doing cab paperwork at 4 in the morning near a busy intersection, hardly noting the police stopping a car in your rear view mirror, heard a scream noticed it was your brother and heading toward your brother a cop shot you, not even noting whether it was the Officer Faulkner who was standing near your brother Billy. Billy ends up with a suspended sentence for punching a cop even though for two days the police were threatening to also charge him with murder if he didn’t cooperate.
Old times in Philly know that no one in Philly is telling what happened, not you, the police or your brother, and have trouble getting worked up to support you like they do in LA and NY, which gets twisted by the police lobby into the claim that Philly thinks Mumia is guilty.
Meanwhile, my letters in the Metro and Delaware County Times got twisted around to conclude the opposite of what I said.
The early Quakers were somewhat fanatics like Move used to be. They refused to stand when the judge entered, and when asked to swear on the Bible explained that the Bible said swearing was Satanic. Several, as they were being dragged out of church for disrupting the services, began ripping off their clothes, demanding that the priest follow their example and rip off his evil vestments as well.
The Quakers have given a precious dread of too much authority to civilization, and Move may add a dread of too much technology and relying on experts instead of ones inner feelings to civilization, that is, unless you help McCain mess everything up.
The following link is Mumia’s affidavit, http://www.phillyimc.org/en/node/34590 also see, http://www.phillyimc.org/en/node/34590
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/10094
PS I have trouble publishing on big sites like Huffington Post and was kicked off of Oped News
RichardKanePA
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