An Interview with Laura Whitehorn on The War Before
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100414141102743
By Sara Falconer
Linchpin anarchist Newspaper April 2010 (Canada)
The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther,
Keeping the Faith in Prison, & Fighting for Those Left Behind. By
Safiya Bukhari. Edited by Laura Whitehorn. Preface by Wonda Jones.
Foreword by Angela Y. Davis. Afterword by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
--
In 1968, Safiya Bukhari witnessed an NYPD officer harassing a Black
Panther for selling the organization's newspaper on a Harlem street
corner. The young pre-med student felt compelled to intervene in
defense of the Panther's First Amendment right; she ended up
handcuffed and thrown into the back of a police car.
The War Before traces Bukhari's lifelong commitment as an advocate
for the rights of the oppressed. Following her journey from
middle-class student to Black Panther to political prisoner, these
writings provide an intimate view of a woman wrestling with the
issues of her timethe troubled legacy of the Panthers, misogyny in
the movement, her decision to convert to Islam, the incarceration of
out spoken radicals, and the families left behind. Her account
unfolds with immediacy and passion, showing how the struggles of
social justice movements have paved the way for the progress of today.
Why was it important for you to tell Safiya's story now?
Safiya's story has been and will remain important for anyone who
wants to understand the history of this country over the past 75
years. The history of the Black liberation struggle defines American
history in every period, but from the Second World War to now,
following the trajectory of that struggle is crucial. At the moment,
as people in the U.S. try to figure out what happened to their hopes
for Obama and a Democratic Party-led government, going back to
reflect on why Black people have yet to receive justice or equality
may be just the education the country needs. Her writings remind us
of why the struggle for justice is a struggle against capitalism and
imperialism.
Safiya writes about her experience of sexism in the Black Panther
Party, and how Panther women adopted some successful strategies to
empower themselves. How do you see those power dynamics playing out
in current movements today?
Like the non-progress on fundamental issues of justice for the Black
community as a whole, the status and real situation of women has
barely budged forward. In both areas, there are more people in the
middle echelons nowacademics, professionals and the like. But the
basic issues of racism, white and male supremacy and sexism remain as
deeply entrenched as ever in the economic, political and social
structures of our society. While the Left has incorporated more women
and people of oppressed nationalities in its ranks, the concepts of
leadership that elevated white men to those positions in the mid-20th
century have not fully been analyzed and altered. Safiya's writings
offer a profound position on the power women offer in radical
movements: Not just the people who do the work, but the people who
provide lucid thinking, courage and heart. I don't think it's an
accident that so many of the people we see actively engaged in trying
to win release of political prisoners, and making sure they are not
forgotten, are women.
As a woman political prisoner, what particular challenges did you
face and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge was to keep my heart from irrevocably breaking.
Every day, in every jail or prison I was in, I witnessed the
destruction of families and communities caused by the incarceration
of so many Black and Latina women. Another challenge was the sexual
assault prisons force on usdaily pat searches by male guards, an
utter lack of privacy or ability to protect our bodies from those
men. It exerts a corrosive effect on a woman's sense of herself.
The way these challenges and others (such as the dehumanizing effect
of powerlessness) are overcome every day in women's prisons is by the
collective power of a community of women. The love and support women
prisoners offer one another provides the basis for every level of
resistance, from individual refusal to succumb, to more collective
efforts to win better conditions. Often, those group efforts arise
from a combined leadership of some of the least privileged women
along with the most politicized. When those acts of resistance took
place they were essentially revolutionary.
Another challenge was that the prison system and government deny the
existence of political prisoners. To call people who have resisted
and tried to create systemic change in this society criminals or
terrorists is not only a way to mask their existence, but also a way
to assert that U.S. society is just fine, really democratic and free.
Political prisoners resist being criminalized by doing political
organizing inside, studying and reading, and staying as connected as
possible with political movements on the outside. That is why
organizing among leftist groups for support for political prisoners
is so important.
Both you and Safiya organized for social justice not just before and
after, but while you were in prison what advice would you give to
prisoners who want to be effective activists?
The first thing I had to do when I was arrestedsuddenly thrown into
a horrid situation and facing many years behind barswas to review
all my beliefs and actions, to know that whatever I faced, it was
worth it. (Safiya writes of this process in her book.) Once I did
that (it's partly a process of getting over the shock of being
arrested and imprisoned), I kept seeking a connection to other
activists. I did my first year or so in Baltimore City Jail. I got my
hands on a telephone book and found addresses for every progressive
organization I could think of. I wrote to them, and a few sent people
in to visit me. That was key: Knowing that there were people on the
street who were aware that I was there.
On the inside, I had to relearn much of my organizing knowledge,
taking my lead from the other women (some of whom had been in jail
many times before; most of whom understood power relations
intimatelya viewpoint of the powerless, the disenfranchised) about
how to organize for our demands. One particular example: The food in
Baltimore City Jail was beyond horrible. We knew the Christmas dinner
was going to be particularly bad. I urged that we throw our trays on
the floor, creating a rebellion. The other women won me over to a
different plan: We organized every friendly staff person, everyone's
families, the medical staff, etc. to help us hold our own holiday
party. We told them why we needed to do it: that we were family, and
a horrendous Christmas dinner would hurt us. The result was that we
had a kind of independent, lovely partywe even managed to get some
folks to smuggle a bit of real booze in (as opposed to the rot-gut
hooch we were able to cook up). The prison administration was
frightened, because we were refusing to allow them to make us upset
and powerless. I learned from that instead of ending up beaten up,
in the hole, and with possible extra charges, we were happy and felt
extraordinarily strong. And we did it as a group.
For Safiya, what was key (she writes about this in The War Before)
was that she did not share the fear the other women had when it came
to exercising basic rights. She had the benefit of a political
awareness and education. By citing Constitutional rights, she was
able to help people get legal materials. And as a revolutionary, she
understood this to be her workand fulfilling. She also understood
the need for repairing family rifts, and she helped to found a group
called MILKMothers Inside Loving Kids. She saw this as part of the
struggle against genocide, because destroying the Black family is one
aspect of genocide.
Safiya also teaches us something truly central to organizing
anywhere: She loved the fight for justice. If that is your
motivation, then you find ways to fight wherever you are. Safiya did
that, always.
How can people on the outside support that work without taking power
away from the prisoners who are working on those projects?
I think those of us on the outside have to recognize three key needs:
communication, honesty and respect. The main way I experienced the
problem of "taking power away" while I was inside was when people
would forget that I didn't know what they were planning, or what had
been doneand when people would tell me that something had been
wildly successful, when really it had not. It is tempting to tell
prisoners that the work is going better than it may be; that is
dangerous, because while we're inside, we don't have another reliable
source. What I mean by respect is this: On the outside, you don't
necessarily have a good sense of the limitations and dangers
prisoners face. The most well intended comment or letter could end up
causing someone to be thrown in the hole. I think it is crucial
always to find out from a prisoner what his or her actual situation
is before planning any work. But I also think it's important to say
frankly what you think should and can be done, and to state any
disagreements you have with a prisoner's view. When I was in prison I
was no smarter than I had been on the street. I did know my
conditions better than comrades on the outside, but I was not, by
dint of being a political prisoner, more to be revered than they.
Trying to maintain equalityI guess that would be what I would urge.
I also think it's worthwhile to try to help people inside get all the
resources and information possible. In New York, we try to make sure
all the NY state political prisoners have a sub to the NY Times,
along with any Left journals and newspapers they want. Books through
bars and other groups are important for getting prisoners other kinds
of educational materials and info.
Safiya's legacy is apparent in Jericho and the many political
prisoner support groups around the world. Yet, as you point out,
despite a widespread fascination with the rebellion of the 60s, there
has been relatively little interest in the plight of the
revolutionaries from that era and beyond who are still imprisoned.
What can the book teach us about taking that work to the next level
in building a mass movement to free political prisoners?
The book may surprise people. Safiya's thoughts on how to build
support for political prisoners evolved over the years, and her
original conception of Jericho was a bit different from what Jericho
became. The War Before, by putting together many of Safiya's
positions and ideas on political prisoners, provides a great starting
point for us to evaluate and improve our work. Mostly, I think the
book's message points to an important way to approach the issue.
Safiya's sense of revolution was not something that happened in one
period, then disappeared in the next. She traces, in the pages of the
book, the gestation of the issue of political prisoners from the days
of the BPP to the day she died in 2003. She saw possibilities of how
to build support forand how to fight for release ofpolitical
prisoners that have yet to be enacted. Over and over, in various
ways, she shows us how the fight to free political prisoners is
essential to the fight for justice. Her writings strip away much of
the verbiage and illusion surrounding both struggles. She also
wrestles with some of the obstacles to this work, suggesting ways to
overcome them. The War Before also shows the enormous capacity of
Safiya's heart and spiritthe solidarity basic to fighting for any
sort of social justice and freedom.
Order The War Before for just $9.57:
Or write to:
The Feminist Press at CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue
Suite 5406
New York, NY 10016
--
Sara Falconer is a Toronto-based journalist and social media
specialist. She is part of the collective that produces the Certain
Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar. As a member of the
Toronto Anarchist Black Cross, she helps produce 4strugglemag, an
online and print zine of writings and analysis by and for political
prisoners and their supporters.
.
--
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