Political Prisoner/P.O.W: Revolutionaries & Social Justice Activists

George Jackson

It is important to understand that the Black Power Movement was not some sort of, temporary, cultural trend in adventurism. It was a bonafide, effective revolutionary initiative that rapidly drew the attention and admiration of a significant portion of, not only the American public but, the worldwide global population.

Its greatest threat was its ability to demonstrate a very real, viable alternative approach, to the blood-sucking system of capitalism, that provided ways to meet the basic needs for the masses of humanity. Hence, given the rash, ruthless nature of those at the helm of the U.S. government and the multi-national corporations that control it; it was an obvious strategic decision to use the full brunt of the military and para-military apparatus at their disposal to do whatever was required to squash it.

Consequently, the entire collective of revolutionary formations of that era were viciously attacked to set a clear example of what would happen to any who dared rise-up and challenge the authority and legitimacy of the U.S. and its ruling-class.

Those being held today as P.P.’s and P.O.W.’s by the U.S. government, in the aftermath of the revolutionary activity of the 60’s and 70’s, are in their current predicament in-lieu of the programs and work they did in addressing the issues of abuse, brutality, crime and murder committed by rabid police; decent, fair housing and tenant rights; quality education and medical care in addition to access to healthy, wholesome food.

Their objective was to attain a high standard of living for the common people who they viewed as being just as entitled to such living standards as those of the higher echelon and upper-class strata of society. It is a bit of a contradiction that today’s social justice advocates who are campaigning for the very same rights; ignore and overlook P.P.’s and P.O.W.’S who have been held imprisoned for decades on account of initiating a revolutionary struggle that took the many of the same issues they’re fighting for ‘head-on’ with an admirable degree of effectiveness.

Today’s up and coming generation of social-justice advocates should forge a union with the ‘old-guard’ of ‘freedom-fighters’ and revolutionaries who ‘paved-the-way’ for todays’ social justice initiative through the revolutionary struggle that started with R.A.M., the Black Panther Party and the Republic of New Afrika. There is ‘first-hand’ experience to share and lessons to be learned so that the mistakes and pit-falls encountered in the past can be avoided. There must be a convergence of generations, if we are to achieve the ultimate objective in the struggle for justice that must be established before there can be any peace in the world.