>From: "Jon Corlett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >From: > >http://www.mcs.net/~rwor/a/v21/1040-049/1049/alamin.htm > > > > >Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin in the Clutches of an Unforgiving System >Revolutionary Worker #1049, April 9, 2000 > >Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a Muslim cleric and well-known activist from the >1960s, was captured by an army of FBI agents and police officials in rural >Lowndes Country, Alabama on March 20. He was run down by police dogs in an >Alabama meadow like a fugitive slave. > >Al-Amin has now been charged with killing an Atlanta sheriff's deputy and >wounding another. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard is expected to >demand the death penalty. At a federal court appearance in Alabama, Jamil >Abdullah Al-Amin declared that he is innocent of these charges. As he was >taken out of court in leg-irons, under armed guard, he said, "It's a >government conspiracy." > >There is every reason to distrust all of the claims and charges made by the >authorities. The police activities surrounding Al-Amin have been quite >suspicious and their version of events has been full of holes. > >Al-Amin's lawyer, civil rights veteran J. L. Chester, said, "He said he did >not shoot anyone. He said he did not have a gun. He fled Atlanta to save his >life. He said they had been trying to kill him for years." Chester added >that he believed Al-Amin was targeted "because he's a Black man who has been >fighting the system since he was 16 years old." > >Al-Amin, 56, has been a target of the authorities his whole life, and there >is every reason to believe that he remains a target of the authorities. > >In the 1960s, when he was known as H. Rap Brown, Al-Amin was a militant >leader of the Black liberation struggle--known for his outspoken advocacy of >armed self-defense and inner city rebellions. He was targeted by the FBI's >COINTELPRO program. Congress passed a notorious law, the "Rap Brown >Amendment," specifically aimed at stopping Al-Amin and radical activists >like him from organizing resistance among the people. Rap was sentenced to >prison for his militant activities, where he served three years. > >Since then, even as he embraced Islam and moved away from revolutionary >politics, Al-Amin has been persecuted repeatedly by police frame-ups and >attacks in Atlanta, Georgia, where he has been living. > >Out Front and Fearless During the 1960s >H. Rap Brown was a student from a working class family in Louisiana who cut >short his studies to throw himself into the civil rights struggle during the >mid-1960s. He worked briefly for an anti-government program and quit in >disgust, saying that such programs were designed to buy off activists >emerging from the struggle. He became a leader of the most militant of the >southern civil rights organizations--the Student Non-Violent Coordinating >Committee (SNCC)--and participated in its campaigns to organize Black people >to overthrow Jim Crow segregation. He and fellow SNCC leader Stokely >Carmichael became spokesmen for the radicalization of this >movement--advocating anti-imperialism, Black Power and a spirit of "by any >means necessary." > >Rap, who got his nickname for his powerful speaking style, became a symbol >for the rising revolutionary mood among Black people. He dared say what >needed saying. He strongly upheld the right of the oppressed to use militant >and even armed means to defend themselves and win liberation. He was openly >critical of movement leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr., who worked to >confine the struggle of Black people to whatever was acceptable to the U.S. >ruling class. > >As many young activists stopped upholding non-violence as an absolute >principle, they came under attack for this. Rap answered these >attacks--pointing out that Black people were fighting a system that had used >massive violence for centuries to keep them oppressed, and that was using >such violence on the other side of the world against the Vietnamese people. > >He mocked the hypocrisy of pro-system critics, saying, "Violence is as >American as cherry pie." This famous quote now appears in virtually every >article reporting on Al-Amin--as if this undoubtedly true political >statement was proof of his guilt in the Atlanta shooting 30 years later. > >As powerful rebellions broke out in cities across the U.S. in the late >1960s, Rap Brown supported these uprisings--as a just and powerful form of >resistance. He tirelessly traveled the U.S., speaking on campuses and in >Black communities, organizing people to take the struggle higher. He coined >the phrase, "Burn, Baby, Burn!" > >The Black Liberation Struggle was the greatest domestic challenge to the >U.S. capitalist/imperialist system in the twentieth century--and the >authorities targeted leaders like H. Rap Brown ruthlessly. > >In secret, the FBI developed their "counter-intelligence program" >(COINTELPRO) into a country-wide campaign to disrupt radical organizations >and "neutralize" emerging leaders. Rap was pursued, harassed, spied on, >arrested, and targeted by covert operations. > >One FBI memo called for writing unsigned letters to create distrust between >Stokely Carmichael and Rap Brown. Another FBI conspiracy was aimed at >creating bad blood between Southern-based SNCC and the Black Panther Party >that was emerging in California. The FBI was determined to prevent the >unification of revolutionary nationalist forces--and ceaselessly worked to >create divisions, mistrust and even violent feuds. Rap, who actively >supported an alliance of Black revolutionary forces, briefly accepted >honorary membership in the Black Panther Party in 1968. These unification >efforts ultimately collapsed under an intense-but-secret FBI campaign. > >In 1967, H. Rap Brown spoke at a Black community rally in Cambridge, >Maryland and proclaimed, "Black folks built America, and if America don't >come around, we're going to burn America down." A rebellion followed--during >which Rap was wounded in the forehead by a shotgun pellet.. Several >buildings were burned down. Rap Brown was charged with inciting riot and >arson. > >When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, over a hundred >rebellions broke out in Black communities across the U.S. Six days later, >the U.S. Congress passed the notorious "Rap Brown Amendment" which made it >illegal to cross state lines to "incite" rebellions. It was openly designed >to suppress and criminalize the militant views and activities of H. Rap >Brown and Black liberation activists like him. > >Al-Amin was indicted for "conspiracy" and put on trial in New Orleans. One >observer wrote, "The courtroom was ringed with armed National Guards. Every >day you had to go through the military to get into the courtroom. Every >night Rap Brown would speak to crowds of 10,000 people in the Black >community. It was a city under a state of siege, practically." > >Rap Brown went underground. During a countrywide manhunt, he was put on the >FBI's list of "10 most wanted." In 1971, he was finally captured in an >incident connected to an armed action against a New York City bar known for >its police connections and its distribution of hard drugs in the Black >community. Rap served six years in prison--where he converted to Islam and >took the name Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. After leaving prison in 1976, he moved >to Atlanta's poor Black community of West End Park, where he operated a >grocery store, led a Muslim congregation and worked for community >improvements. > >Even though Al-Amin stopped considering himself a revolutionary--he remained >unrepentant about his previous political activities. And he remained a >target of repeated intense attacks from police. As RCP Chairman Avakian once >said: "The people who run this system are completely unforgiving." > >Evidence of Government Targeting >Evidence has started to surface documenting the extent of previously secret >U.S. government targeting of Al-Amin. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution >reported that for at least five years during the 1990s, the FBI, ATF and >Atlanta police carried out an intensive investigation of Al-Amin and anyone >they considered associated with him. As part of their operations, the FBI >had paid informants within Al-Amin's Community Mosque. The Atlanta Police >Department's Intelligence Squad gathered information on over 130 people , >many of them members of the Mosque, and specifically focused on eight Muslim >men that police considered Al-Amin's "inner circle." This campaign of >political police also spied on Muslim circles in New York City. > >The FBI conducted their spying operation as part of their country-wide >"anti-terrorism task force"--which continued the FBI's Cointelpro operations >in the 1980s and '90s. The Atlanta police conducted their parallel operation >under the guise of murder investigations. Police never brought any charges >against Al-Amin. > >The Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote in its coverage of these government >spy operations: "Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin says the government is out to get >him. For at least five years in the 1990s, that was true." > >In 1995, at the height of this political police campaign, Al-Amin was >arrested by a huge force including Atlanta's FBI Anti-Terrorist Task Force >and ATF agents--he was accused of shooting a man in the foot. This police >set-up fell apart when the man announced that the police had pressured him >into accusing Al-Amin. > >A Suspicious Case from the Beginning >This current case against Al-Amin started as he was driving while Black in >Georgia's notoriously racist Cobb County on May 31, 1999. The cops stopped >him. They announced that the car (which he had legally bought a few months >before) was reportedly stolen. When Al-Amin got out his wallet, the cop >noticed a badge. Al-Amin had been made an honorary "auxiliary police >officer" from the town of White Hall, Alabama, where he had deep ties >reaching back to the civil rights days. It is a ceremonial badge given for >assisting in community events like parades or football games. > >The racist police of Cobb County charged Al-Amin with driving without proof >of insurance, receiving stolen goods and impersonating a police officer. The >whole thing was absurd. > >On March 16, the authorities announced that they were hunting Al-Amin. They >claimed that two sheriff's deputies had driven to West End Park to serve >Al-Amin a warrant for failing to appear in Cobb County court. Police claim >they did not find Al-Amin--but that shooting suddenly erupted. The deputies >fired at least ten rounds--and in the firefight, both of them were hit. One >later died. > >Police announced that they had found a trail of fresh blood that went from >the scene to an abandoned house a block away. They launched a country-wide >manhunt for Al-Amin, saying that the surviving cop had wounded his assailant >in the stomach. > >Four days, later, Al-Amin was captured in Alabama. Police were embarrassed >to discover that Al-Amin was not wounded and so could not have left the >trail of blood leaving the scene. Atlanta police spokesman John Quigley >quickly re-wrote the official explanation--now claiming that the trail of >blood was probably from some unrelated incident that same night, and >probably came out of the abandoned house, not into it, and so on. > >***** > >The media has mocked the idea that this manhunt and arrest could possibly be >the result of a government conspiracy--as Al-Amin has charged. Columnists >and government officials insisted this is the "New South"--and claim that a >political persecution of Al-Amin is unlikely because of the many Black >people in high office in Atlanta--including the mayor and the head of the >Sheriff's department. > >But in fact, the rise of "Black faces in high places" has not ended the >oppression of poor and working people across the Deep South. As Jim Crow was >legally abolished, the discrimination and exploitation of Black people have >continued, in both new and familiar forms. The impoverishment of both rural >areas and urban communities, the "separate but unequal" school systems, the >heavy and disrespecting tactics of the police, the continuing exploitation >in textile mills, factories, and in the fields--none of this is gone, even >though now some of it is administered by Black figures on behalf of the >system. > >In interviews with the media, people in West End Park have spoken out about >the abuse they suffer constantly at the hands of the police. And, in a vivid >example of this, the police launched Gestapo-like raids on the community on >March 16. The police openly claimed that Al-Amin was probably being shielded >among the people--an admission of the respect and support he was known to >have both in Atlanta and in rural areas of Alabama. And their attack at West >End was both a manhunt and punishment of the community. Police sealed off >the community and a hundred cops with police dogs went house to house--while >helicopters aimed searchlights from above. > >Since March 16, many people have spoken out in support of Al-Amin and >against the media hysteria that has attempted to demonize him and the Black >Liberation movement he once symbolized. Muslim leaders in Atlanta issued a >statement calling on the press not "to accuse, try and convict Imam Jamil >Abdullah Al-Amin." > >A defense fund has been established, and legal forces have stepped forward >to help with Al-Amin's defense. > >The RW will report on future developments in this important case. > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >---- > >This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online >http://www.mcs.net/~rwor >Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654 >Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497 >(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.) > > >---------------------------- > > >From: > > >http://www.mcs.net/~rwor/a/v21/1040-049/1049/carldx.htm > > >Carl Dix on the Persecution >of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin >Revolutionary Worker #1049, April 9, 2000 > >Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is in the clutches >of the state, facing extradition from Alabama to Georgia. The authorities >say he killed a cop and attempted to kill another cop. This isn't the first >time the police have pursued this brother. In the late 1960s, police >departments in different parts of the U.S. were lining up to take a crack at >framing him up for the crimes of calling out Amerika for being the violent >oppressor that it was (and still is) and calling on the people to rise up in >righteous resistance to this oppression. > >When Black people, enraged by brutal oppression, rose up and spread the >flames of rebellion from one end of the U.S. to the other, H. Rap Brown >stood firmly with the people. While the oppressors tried to suppress this >rage, with help from handkerchief head water carriers, Rap said, "Burn, >Baby, Burn!" Earlier, Rap had organized Black people in the South to resist >Jim Crow segregation and violent suppression by the KKK and red-necked >sheriffs. This brother has a long-respected history of standing with the >people against the attacks of the oppressors. This gives the authorities a >lot of reasons to want to go after him and punish him. The people have as >many reasons to want to uphold him and stand with him. > >We don't know exactly what went down in the confrontation in Atlanta that >led to one cop being killed and another wounded. The authorities have their >propaganda machine working overtime to slander Jamil as a long-time criminal >and to try and convict him in the media before the facts come out. They want >to use their legal system to murder him. We already know that their story >has holes in it. Right after the confrontation, they said the shooter had >been wounded and even talked about following his blood trail. Now that Jamil >is in custody, and we can see that he wasn't wounded, they're backing off >that claim because it doesn't fit reality. What other lies are they running >in their attempt to get Jamil? > >What stand we take on this case is critical. Jamil is locked down in their >dungeon. He has already said he's innocent, but he isn't in a position to >counter all the lies they're running and get his side of the story out. It's >crucial that we not buy into the story they're running and fall for their >game of trial by capitalist propaganda machine. Look at what's coming out >into the light of day about the LAPD. How those pigs framed up and even >murdered innocent people. Look at how the cops and the courts used lies to >frame up Mumia and railroad him onto death row. Look at how Mayor Giuliani >and his N.Y. Pig Dept. are lying about Patrick Dorismond, the Haitian >brother recently murdered by the cops. And I could go on and on. After all >these lies, why should we believe a damn thing this system has to say. > >In little more than a year, we've seen Tyisha Miller, Amadou Diallo, Latanya >Haggerty, Robert Russ, Gideon Busch, Malcolm Ferguson, Patrick Dorismond and >many, many more unarmed victims gunned down by cops. None of the cops >responsible for these murders are in jail. Most of them are still out there, >patrolling our hoods, with a badge and a gun. After all these cases of >people murdered for nothing, if Jamil defended himself against some cops who >stepped to him with murderous intent, that doesn't bother me at all. As far >as the capitalists who rule over us are concerned, they and their enforcers >can murder countless numbers of people, but if anyone defends themselves >against their murderous assaults, that person is labeled a horrible >criminal. We need to reject that logic. > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >---- > >This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online >http://www.mcs.net/~rwor >Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654 >Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497 >(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.) > > >------------ > > > > >_______________________________________________________________________ > > >REVOLUTION, COMMUNIST & CONTINUOUS ! ! ! > > http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/macau/1178 > > >E Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >To Subscribe or Unsubscribe; Click Reply in E Mail Program, > >enter 'Subscribe' or 'Unsubscribe' on Subject line and Send to: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >If wish to receive only certain types of Revolutionary Communist Information >Please Specify. > > >_______________________________________________________________________ > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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