Date: Thu, 25 Dec 1997 00:21:01 -0500
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: M-G: COCKROACH! #104 (Partisan Defense Committee!)


COCKROACH! #104 (Partisan Defense Committee!)

A EZINE FOR POOR AND WORKING CLASS PEOPLE.

WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS.

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1. Partisan Defense Committee!
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Partisan Defense Committee CLASS-STRUGGLE=A0DEFENSE=A0NOTES

The Partisan Defense Committee is a class-struggle, non sectarian legal and
social defense organization which champions cases and causes in the interest
of the whole working people. This purpose is in accordance with the
political views of the Spartacist League. (American section of the
International Communist League)

Build PDC Holiday Appeal for Class-War Prisoners!

"The labor movement must be awakened from its slumber and must be roused to
the menacing significance of the attempt of the capitalists to break the
morale of the working class by imprisoning its best fighters. The workers
must not be allowed to forget those who lie in prison for them, but must be
stirred to action in their defense.

" The International Labor Defense will take the initiative to organize a
widespread campaign for the unconditional release of imprisoned fighters of
the class struggle and will endeavor to unite all the class forces of
conscious militant labor for this fight."

This statement, adopted at the first conference of the International Labor
defense (ILD) in June 1925, remains the aim of the Partisan Defense
Committee today. This is the PDC's twelfth annual "Holiday Appeal for
Class-War Prisoners." When the PDC initiated our stipend program and Holiday
Appeal fundraising in 1986, we were in fact reviving a tradition of the ILD
and its founder and early leader, James P. Cannon. The ILD, the American
affiliate of the International Red Aid, was born in discussions between
Cannon and Bill Haywood, a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) in Moscow in 1925. Haywood had gone into exile in Moscow after being
convicted-along with thousands of other members of the IWW and the antiwar
wing of the Socialist Party-for his opposition to World War 1. These
discussions resulted in a fusion of the internationalism of the Russian
revolution with Haywood and Cannon's shared IWW heritage of militant labor
struggle and non-sectarian defense.

Our annual Holiday Appeal fund drive sustains the monthly stipend program
for 16 class-war prisoners and provides holiday gifts for them and their
loved ones. For while these courageous fighters endure punishment meted out
to them by the ruling class, day after day, they also must endure the pain
of watching from afar as their children grow into young adulthood without them.

Geronimo out after 27 years in prison hell!

On June 10, a jubilant crowd of 400 thronged around Geronimo ji Jaga
(Pratt), one of the PDC's original class-war stipend recipients walked out
of jail. He was released on bail when an Orange County Superior Court judge
ruled that he was denied a fair trial in 1972. But Geronimo is still not
free. He has the legal status of someone charged with a crime but not yet
convicted, as the Los Angeles D.A. has filed notice to appeal the decision.
All supporters of this fighter for black rights must join in demanding: Drop
the charges now!

Not Charity-An Act of Solidarity with Those in Prison

The class-war prisoners who recieve stipends from the PDC today are from
many different political backgrounds. All of them have fought and continue
to fight against racist and capitalist oppression.

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! December 1997 marks 16 years of Jamal's imprisonment
on frame-up charges. Former Black Panther, well known journalist known as
the "voice of the voiceless," MOVE supporter-Jamal was framed up on false
charges of killing a Philadelphia cop and sentenced to die for his political
beliefs and his defiance of the racist capitalist order. Jamal's case has
won support from death penalty abolitionists and anti-racist fighters around
the world. A rising tide of demonstrations and protests in the summer of
1995 stayed the executioner's hand for a time.

Over the past two years Veronica Jone's, an eyewitness in the 1981 shooting,
and Pamela Jenkins, a government witness in the infamous "39th District"
Philly cop scandal, have come forward to provide powerful evidence of police
coercion that forced Jones and others to give false testimony favoring the
prosecution at Jamal's 1982 trial.

Another chapter in the deadly state vendetta against Mumia is the mandatory
15-year federal sentence on bogus weapons charges faced by his 26-year-old
son, Jamal Hart, who was convicted in mid-October. Mumia adopted the surname
Abu-Jamal-"father of Jamal" -when his son was born. A prominent fighter for
his father's freedom, Jamal Hart is the victim of a transparent frame-up.

Mumia's case is currently on appeal before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
He continues to fight from behind bars with his biting commentaries, which
are published in newspapers across the country, and his books, Live from
Death Row and Death Blossoms. All opponents of the racist death penalty must
mobilize now to save Jamal's life and fight for his freedom. Mumia Abu-Jamal
must not die!

Jerry Dale Lowe is a United Mine Workers member framed up on federal charges
in the 1993 shooting death of a scab contractor in Logan County, West
Virginia. The scab was a part of a convoy leaving the struck mine, and was
shot in the back of the head from the direction of armed thugs hired by the
bosses.

Lowe was singled out by authorities because he was a militant defender of
the picket line. Sentenced in 1994 to almost eleven years in prison with no
possibility of parole, Lowe was released pending an appeal, then forced back
to federal prison in Ashland, Kentucky in January 1996. This fall, Lowe
filed a petition in federal court to overturn his conviction based on
inadequate legal representation and withholding of evidence by federal
prosecutors.

Ed Poindexter, 54 and Wopashchitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa, 51, are former Black
Panther supporters and leaders of the Omaha, Nebraska Committee to Combat
fascism. Victims of the FBI's racist COINTELPRO terror operation, they were
framed up for an explosion in 1970 which killed a cop. Both were convicted
on perjured testimony and sentenced to life. The Nebraska Board of Pardons
refuses to commute their sentences to a specific number of years, which
allows them to be considered for parole. Poindexter is at Lino Lake,
Minnesota and Mondo is at Lincoln, Nebraska.

Jack Laaman and Ray Luc Levaseur of the Ohio seven are radical activists
with a shared history of opposition to racism and imperialism, and were
arrested in 1984 and 1985, respectively. They were sentenced to 45 years to
life under RICO conspiracy laws on allegations of bank expropriations and
bombings targeting symbols of U.S. imperialism in the late 1970s and 80s.
Jaan Laaman is at Leavenworth, Kansas and Ray Luc Levasseur is in the
Administrative Maximum (ADX) high-tech torture chamber at Florence, Colorado.

Hugo Pinell is the last of the San Quentin 6 still in prison. A militant
anti-racist, he was a leader of prison rights organizing along with George
Jackson, who was murdered by prison guards in 1971. Pinell has languished in
prison for over 30 years and was recently again denied parole. He is
currently serving a life sentence at the notorious Pelican Bay prison in
Crescent City, California.

Nine MOVE members are in their 20th year in Pennsylvania prisons, serving
sentences of 30 to 100 years. They were falsely convicted of killing a
police officer in the 1978 police attack on their Philadelphia home. They
are Chuck Africa and Michael Davis Africa, Graterford; Debbie Sims Africa,
Janet Holloway Africa, Janine Phillips Africa, Merle Austin Africa,
Cambridge Springs; Edward Goodman Africa, Camp Hill; Delbert Orr Africa and
William Phillips Africa, Dallas.

Send Your Contributions to the PDC Now!

All the proceeds for the Holiday Appeal will go to the Class-War Prisoners
Stipend Fund. Send your contributions to: PDC, P.O. Box 99, Canal St.
Station, New York, NY 10013, U.S.A.

The PDC is a class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense
organization that champions cases and causes of the whole of the working
people. This purpose is in accordance with the political views of the
Spartacist League.

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