To My People
By Assata Shakur
Black brothers, Black sisters, i want you to know that i love
you and i hope that somewhere in your hearts you have love for me. My name is
Assata Shakur (slave name joanne chesimard), and i am a revolutionary. A Black
revolutionary. By that i mean that i have declared war on all forces that have
raped our women, castrated our men, and kept our babies empty-bellied.
I have declared war on the rich who prosper on our poverty, the politicians who
lie to us with smiling faces, and all the mindless, heart-less robots who
protect them and their property.
I am a Black revolutionary, and, as such, i am a victim of all the wrath,
hatred, and slander that amerika is capable of. Like all other Black
revolutionaries, amerika is trying to lynch me.
I am a Black revolutionary woman, and because of this i have been charged with
and accused of every alleged crime in which a woman was believed to have
participated. The alleged crimes in which only men were supposedly involved, i
have been accused of planning. They have plastered pictures alleged to be me in
post offices, airports, hotels, police cars, subways, banks, television, and
newspapers. They have offered over fifty thousand dollars in rewards for my
capture and they have issued orders to shoot on sight and shoot to kill.
I am a Black revolutionary, and, by definition, that makes me a part of the
Black Liberation Army. The pigs have used their newspapers and TVs to paint the
Black Liberation Army as vicious, brutal, mad-dog criminals. They have called us
gangsters and gun molls and have compared us to such characters as john
dillinger and ma barker. It should be clear, it must be clear to anyone who can
think, see, or hear, that we are the victims. The victims and not the criminals.
It should also be clear to us by now who the real criminals are. Nixon and his
crime partners have murdered hundreds of Third World brothers and sisters in
Vietnam, Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa. As was proved by
Watergate, the top law enforcement officials in this country are a lying bunch
of criminals. The president, two attorney generals, the head of the fbi, the
head of the cia, and half the white house staff have been implicated in the
Watergate crimes.
They call us murderers, but we did not murder over two hundred fifty unarmed
Black men, women, and children, or wound thousands of others in the riots they
provoked during the sixties. The rulers of this country have always considered
their property more important than our lives. They call us murderers, but we
were not responsible for the twenty-eight brother inmates and nine hostages
murdered at attica. They call us murderers, but we did not murder and wound over
thirty unarmed Black students at Jackson State—or Southern State, either.
They call us murderers, but we did not murder Martin Luther King, Jr., Emmett
Till, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, George Jackson, Nat Turner, James Chaney, and
countless others. We did not murder, by shooting in the back, sixteen-year-old
Rita Lloyd, eleven-year-old Rickie Bodden, or ten-year-old Clifford Glover. They
call us murderers, but we do not control or enforce a system of racism and
oppression that systematically murders Black and Third World people. Although
Black people supposedly comprise about fifteen percent of the total amerikkkan
population, at least sixty percent of murder victims are Black. For every pig
that is killed in the so-called line of duty, there are at least fifty Black
people murdered by the police.
Black life expectancy is much lower than white and they do their best to kill us
before we are even born. We are burned alive in fire-trap tenements. Our
brothers and sisters OD daily from heroin and methadone. Our babies die from
lead poisoning. Millions of Black people have died as a result of indecent
medical care. This is murder. But they have got the gall to call us murderers.
They call us kidnappers, yet Brother Clark Squires (who is accused, along with
me, of murdering a new jersey state trooper) was kidnapped on April z, 1969,
from our Black community and held on one million dollars' ransom in the New York
Panther 21 conspiracy case. He was acquitted on May 13, 1971, along with all the
others, of 156 counts of conspiracy by a jury that took less than two hours to
deliberate. Brother Squires was innocent. Yet he was kidnapped from his
community and family. Over two years of his life was stolen, but they call us
kidnappers. We did not kidnap the thousands of Brothers and Sisters held captive
in amerika's concentration camps. Ninety percent of the prison population in
this country are Black and Third World people who can afford neither bail nor
lawyers.
They call us thieves and bandits. They say we steal. But it was not we who stole
millions of Black people from the continent of Africa. We were robbed of our
language, of our Gods, of our culture, of our human dignity, of our labor, and
of our lives. They call us thieves, yet it is not
we who rip off billions of dollars every year through tax evasions, illegal
price fixing, embezzlement, consumer fraud, bribes, kickbacks, and swindles.
They call us bandits, yet every time most Black people pick up our paychecks we
are being robbed. Every time we walk into a store in our neighborhood we are
being held up. And every time we pay our rent the landlord sticks a gun into our
ribs.
They call us thieves, but we did not rob and murder millions of Indians by
ripping off their homeland, then call ourselves pioneers. They call us bandits,
but it is not we who are robbing Africa, Asia, and Latin America of their
natural resources and freedom while the people who live there are sick and
starving. The rulers of this country and their flunkies have committed some of
the most brutal, vicious crimes in history. They are the bandits. They are the
murderers. And they should be treated as such. These maniacs are not fit to
judge me, Clark, or any other Black person on trial in amerika. Black people
should and, inevitably, must determine our destinies.
Every revolution in history has been accomplished by actions, al-though words
are necessary. We must create shields that protect us and spears that penetrate
our enemies. Black people must learn how to struggle by struggling. We must
learn by our mistakes.
I want to apologize to you, my Black brothers and sisters, for being on the new
jersey turnpike. I should have known better. The turnpike is a checkpoint where
Black people are stopped, searched, harassed, and assaulted. Revolutionaries
must never be in too much of a hurry or make careless decisions. He who runs
when the sun is sleeping will stumble many times.
Every time a Black Freedom Fighter is murdered or captured, the pigs try to
create the impression that they have quashed the movement, destroyed our forces,
and put down the Black Revolution. The pigs also try to give the impression that
five or ten guerrillas are responsible for every revolutionary action carried
out in amerika. That is nonsense. That is absurd. Black revolutionaries do not
drop from the moon. We are created by our conditions. Shaped by our oppression.
We are being manufactured in droves in the ghetto streets, places like attica,
san quentin, bedford hills, leavenworth, and sing sing. They are turning out
thousands of us. Many jobless Black veterans and welfare mothers are joining our
ranks. Brothers and sisters from all walks of life, who are tired of suffering
passively, make up the BLA.
There is, and always will be, until every Black man, woman, and child is free, a
Black Liberation Army. The main function of the Black
Liberation Army at this time is to create good examples, to struggle for Black
freedom, and to prepare for the future. We must defend ourselves and let no one
disrespect us. We must gain our liberation by any means necessary.
It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
FREE ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE!
WE WILL BE FREE! WE WILL BE FREE !
IN THE SPIRIT OF MARTHA PITTS
LET US CARRY
THIS STRUGGLE ON!
Assata Shakur Revolutionary and ex-political prisoner Havana, Cuba