------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 21, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
MARCHERS DEMAND "FREE PELTIER!" LINK ENERGY LAND GRAB TO 1975 STRUGGLE By Jim McMahan Seattle This year's International Day of Solidarity with Native warrior Leonard Peltier was marked by a rally and march for justice in Tacoma, Wash., on Feb. 9. The protest was one of a number of events across the country on the 27th anniversary of Peltier's capture in Canada in 1976. Supporters from coast to coast in the United States and around the world maintain that Leonard Peltier remains in prison for defending his people against an FBI-organized reign of terror on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. The U.S. government claimed Peltier had shot two FBI agents. Peltier's lawyers disproved the government's case against this world-renowned political prisoner during his appeals-- to the point that government prosecutors admitted they had no real case against him. Yet the courts would not grant him a new trial. The continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, like that of Black freedom fighter Mumia Abu-Jamal, is condemned by justice-loving people across the North American continent and internationally. The Tacoma marchers traveled three miles--from the Puyallup Nation to the federal courthouse downtown. Three drums led the march of 150 Native people and their supporters from the region. The Tacoma Leonard Peltier Support Group (LPSG), Northwest American Indian Movement (AIM) and the Native Peoples Alliance co-sponsored the action. Tacoma LPSG Coordinator Arthur Miller reminded those gathered at the rally that Peltier is in prison because the federal government wanted to strip-mine additional Lakota land for uranium in 1975 against the will of many of the Lakota. The day before the "Incident at Oglala," 133,000 acres of Lakota land were signed over to the federal government for exploitation by the transnational energy companies. That's why the government instigated a massive attack, a firefight, at the reservation where Peltier and other AIM members were forced to defend themselves and their children, he said. Other speakers condemned the Bush administration's terrorist war against Afghanistan and state repression in the U.S. This was the 59th action to free Leonard Peltier in the northwest region in the last nine years. There will be no turning back from the trail of justice for Leonard Peltier. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
