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Freedom Now!
Campaign for Amnesty and Human Rights for Political Prisoners
in the United States
POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THE U.S.A.?
The government denies it. Yet, today there are more than 100
people locked up in U.S. prisons because of their political
actions or beliefs.
The United States alone among the world's major
governments maintains the fiction that it holds no political
prisoners. The official position is that all those jailed
here for politically motivated actions are "criminals." Yet
in all other countries, regardless of the politics of the
rulers, it is an accepted truth that dissenters, jailed for
opposing the government, are, in fact, political prisoners.
The United States tries to hide the existence of
political prisoners because they challenge the image that the
U.S. is a truly democratic and humane society. These
prisoners expose the fact that there are political resistance
movements of such political impact that the government is
compelled to use repression against them.
By labelling political prisoners as criminals, the
U.S. government has also been able to shield from serious
view human rights violations against them. These include
prison sentences longer than in most dictatorships,
psychological torture, and brutality including sexual
assault.
The men's federal prison in Marion, Illinois, which
includes several political prisoners among its 400 inmates,
has been condemned by Amnesty International for violating
international standards on the minimum treatment of
prisoners. The men in Marion are under permanent lockdown
and are sometimes chained to their beds for days at a time.
The control unit for women at Lexington, Kentucky, was
an experimental underground political prison that praticed
isolation and sensory deprivation. It was finally closed by
a federal judge after two years of protest by religious and
human rights groups.
HUMAN RIGHTS MUST BEGIN AT HOME!
Who are America's political prisoners? Like the four
women and men pictured on the facing page [pictures not
available in computer text file] -- Alejandrina Torres,
Leonard Peltier, Geronimo Pratt, and Susan Rosenberg -- they
represent many movements for freedom and social justice.
People of color are most often targetted. Black
activists participating in the fight for Black Liberation and
against racism are the largest group represented, with well
over 50 political prisoners. Many of them, like Geronimo
Pratt, have been in jail nearly 20 years.
The movement for Puerto Rican independence has also
been heavily attacked with the imprisonment of many of its
members. These include 14 women and men such as Alejandrina
Torres who consider themselves prisoners of war. They have
taken this position because they believe that as colonized
people they have the right to fight for independence, and
their captor, the United States, has no right to criminalize
them.
Other political prisoners in the United States include
more than thirty white North American activists. These
militants are accused of various actions opposing foreign,
domestic and military policies of the U.S. government. Their
protests have been directed against symbols of U.S. support
for the apartheid regime in South Africa, military
intervention in Central America, and the continued colonial
oppression of Blacks and Puerto Ricans. Among these
prisoners are women and men from the religious peace
community who have received long sentences for direct actions
against U.S. nuclear installations.
Revealing the existence of all these political
prisoners is of extra importance now because greater world
attention is being focused on human rights. Many countries,
including the Soviet Union and Cuba, have released most of
their political prisoners. They have also started to raise
questions about human rights problems here in the U.S.A. Now
is the time to break through the wall of silence that has
surrounded these political prisoners in the United States.
We in the Freedom Now campaign are making information
available on all their cases to the people of the U.S. and
the world. While the government will continue to deny
holding political prisoners, we seek to make their existence
common knowledge in every American community.
At the same time all of us can begin to speak out
against the terrible human rights violations taking place
against political prisoners and all prisoners in the U.S.
Jails and prisons have abandoned all pretenses of
"rehabilitating" inmates, and have become concentration camps
for warehousing the youth from the ghettos and barrios of
America. We must especially denounce the spread of prison
control units which attempt to rob prisoners of their
humanity, sanity and even their lives.
Ultimately we must seek the freedom of all political
prisoners in the U.S. Other countries are now doing it. Why
not here? Freedom Now is initiating a campaign for amnesty
for all the women and men imprisoned in this country as a
consequence of their political actions. Officials of the
U.S. government have signed many international laws and
treaties governing political repression. We must now hold
them to those standards!
The Freedom Now campaign is about real people, women
and men behind bars who care deeply about justice and
humanity. The government has sought to isolate them, not
only from their friends and families but from their ability
to influence and lead political movements.
Our campaign is breaking that isolation. We are
bridging the walls with a common effort that includes the
active participation of the prisoners and their families,
along with political activists, clergy and professionals. We
welcome your participation! Join us in stopping the
continued imprisonment and mistreatment of political
activists in the United States. Human rights must begin at
home.
AMNESTY FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS!
[Photo captions. Actual photos are not available in computer
text file format.]
In 1983, Alejandrina Torres, a longtime Puerto Rican
community and church activist, was arrested in Chicago.
Because of her role in the Puerto Rican independence
movement, she was convicted and sentenced to 35 years for
conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government. Three times in
prison she has been beaten and sexually abused by guards.
For two years, until international pressure forced it to
close, she was held in the infamous Lexington Control Unit.
Today, though she remains imprisoned, Alejandrina is regarded
as a national hero in Puerto Rico.
In 1977, Leonard Peltier, a leader of the American Indian
Movement (AIM) was wrongly convicted of the murder of two FBI
agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
Hundreds of federal agents had invaded the reservation to
stop Indian people seeking control over their own lives and
land. Ample evidence exists that the FBI withheld documents
to frame Leonard. His appeals for justice have been
supported by 75 members of Congress, Desmond Tutu, and Jesse
Jackson. Despite this, he remains in jail serving two life
sentences.
In 1971, Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt, a leader in the Black
struggle for human rights, was framed on a murder charge in
California. The key witness against him was in the pay of
the police. Government spies infiltrated his defense team.
Many pages of evidence, proving Geronimo's innocence, were
"lost" by government lawyers. It was later revealed that he
was a target of the FBI COINTELPRO program which sought to
destroy the Black movement. Today, nearly 20 years later,
Geronimo is one of the longest held political prisoners in
the world.
In 1984, Susan Rosenberg was arrested and charged with
possession of weapons, explosives, and false ID. A white
North American woman, Susan has been deeply committed since
childhood to struggles for human rights including the
movements for Puerto Rican independence, Black liberation,
and women's liberation. Although she and her co-defendant
Tim Blunk were convicted of possessing the materials, not
using them, they received sentences of 58 years, the longest
ever given on this charge. Susan also endured two years of
psychological torture in the Lexington Control Unit before it
was closed.
Freedom Now Offices:
--------------------
National Office:
5249 N. Kenmore,
Chicago, IL 60640
(312) 278-6706
East Coast:
1560 Broadway Suite 807,
New York, NY 10036
West Coast:
3543 18th St. #17
San Francisco, CA 94110
(Please write or call for more information, if needed.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Freedom Now!
Campaign for Amnesty and Human Rights for Political Prisoners
in the U.S.A.
Dear Friend,
A long-time activist is arrested and beaten for hours,
while police scream racial epithets and death threats
in his face. The police shove his face in a flushing
toilet, tear his toenails out, and burn him over and
over with cigarettes. The political prisoner's
pancreas is nearly destroyed in the beating, and he is
hospitalized for three months.
Three women political prisoners are held in isolation
in an underground sensory deprivation unit. The unit
is painted high-gloss white; bright flourescent lights
are on round the clock' there is no way to tell if it
is day or night. The women live under the unblinking
eye of eleven video surveillance cameras monitored by
male guards -- one camera is pointed at the
uncurtained shower area. This special unit -- "the
living tomb" -- is condemned by Amnesty International,
the American Civil Liberties Union, and a number of
church denominations.
CHILLING SCENES FROM SOUTH AFRICA? CHILE? ARGENTINA? NO --
THE UNITED STATES.
Although the government denies it, today there are more than
100 people locked up in U.S. prisons because of their
political actions and beliefs. People like Leonard Peltier,
Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt, Katya Komisaruk, Sekou Odinga, and
the women of the Lexington Control Unit, Alejandrina Torres,
Silvia Baraldini, and Susan Rosenberg. While the government
calls them common criminals, these people are known and
respected for their long activism in movements for Native
American soverignty, Black liberation, Puerto Rican
independence, and against racism, imperialism, women's
oppression, and nuclear weapons. SOme of them have been
framed; others have utilized a variety of forms including
civil disobedience, armed political actions, and grand jury
resistance. Freedom Now considers these activists political
prisoners and, for some of them, prisoners of war. Like
political prisoners from South Africa to El Salvador, they
are among the most courageous and principled people in
movements for social justice.
Human rights violations like the ones described above occur
all too often -- not far away or long ago, but right here,
right now. Some political prisoners in the U.S. have been
imprisoned for 20 years, nearly as long as Nelson Mandela.
Others have received sentences four times as long as those
meted out by Latin American dictatorships. Women have been
held down by male prison staff, disrobed, and assaulted with
vaginal and rectal finger probes. A leader of the Puerto
Rican independence movement was held for over three years in
pre-trial preventive detention.
SO WHY DON'T YOU KNOW THESE SHOCKING FACTS? Because the U.S.
government denies that it holds political prisoners. Their
existence exposes deep injustices in U.S. society. Behind a
screen of secrecy and indifference, the jailers attempt to
break the prisoners' bodies and spirits and strike fear into
the hearts of others who would struggle for justice.
WE CAN CHANGE IT. The Freedom Now Campaign was launched at
the United Nations on the 40th Anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. This is an important time to be
advocating amnesty and human rights for political prisoners
in the U.S. Throughout the world, there is a groundswell of
concern for human rights. This year alone, hundreds of
political prisoners have received amnesty from the
governments of Mexico, the Soviet Union, Cuba, and even South
Africa.
BUT WE MUST HAVE YOUR HELP TO BREAK THE SILENCE.
On April 27-29, 1990, New York City will be the site of the
International Tribunal on Political Prisoners in the U.S.
Presiding will be an impartial body of ten internationally
known jurists and human rights experts. The judges will be
presented with a Complaint which outlines the conditions
faced by political prisoners in the U.S. Evidence and
testimony to substantiate the Complaint will be given by
family members, expert witnesses, and the prisoners
themselves. The findings of the Tribunal will be published
as a report for presentation at international and national
human rights forums.
WE WANT YOU TO ENDORSE THIS HISTORIC EFFORT BY JOINING US IN
SIGNING ON AS A PETITIONER IN THE COMPLAINT. We are asking
all persons or organizations who want to be a Petitioner to
send $50.00 along with the enclosed form to the Freedom Now
office in New York. If you want to be a Petitioner but are
financially unable to contribute $50.00 or more, we ask that
minimally you send $25.00. Contributions from Petitioners
are the primary way that the Tribunal will be financed.
If you become a Petitioner, the final draft of the complaint
will be sent to you by January 1990. If you prefer to read
the final draft prior to authroizing your name as a
Petitioner, please indicate that on the enclosed form. We
still ask that you make a contribution now, if possible.
Then we will require your signed authorization at the time of
your decision before you will be listed as a Petitioner.
Thank you for your support. We look forward to your
participation in this important effort. Together we can stop
human rights abuses in our own backyard.
For human rights,
(signed)
Adjoa Aiyetoro, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Margaret Randall *