CBC: CAUCUS BETRAYS CAUSE
I regard Congresswoman Maxine Waters as an exception to a rule. One which
states that Black politicians must distance themselves from afrocentric causes to
secure their careers. The rule that states that one cannot be too Black if one aspires
to the White House. For years, Waters has dared not to betray or dismiss Black
urban agendas.
Waters’ Black activism is one of the key reasons that the CIA recently admitted to
chemical warfare against Black urbanites via federal crack dealing. This admission
came only under grave duress and after blatant and persistent lies to the contrary.
Waters led angry masses who refused to be silent as her politico peers hid safely in
her shadows.
I am wounded to admit that all rules were made to be broken. I still revere Waters.
But the pedestal upon which I had placed her has now been severely reconstructed.
On September 14, 1998, Waters and some of her Congressional Black Caucus peers
voted for HCR 254. This resolution calls upon the Government of Cuba to extradite
Assata Shakur (aka Joanne Chesimard, COINTELPRO target and exiled rebel sister
warrior) and all other escaped political prisoners, to the racist and bloody hands of
the United States Government.
Waters continues to be exceptional, even in her weak attempts to explain this
legendary betrayal and tragic injustice against Shakur. She is the only member of
the CBC who has published a formal apology. Yet there is no excuse for such a
horrid act of terrorism. Even sincerity does not excuse the inexcusable.
On September 29, 1998, in a letter to Cuban President Fidel Castro, Waters wrote:
"...the Republican leadership quietly slipped this bill onto the accelerated suspension
calendar last week as one of 13 bills that had been announced that same day. The
suspension calendar is supposed to be reserved for non-controversial legislation like
naming federal buildings and post offices. But, the Republican leadership chose to
push this provision, in an apparent effort to look tough on Cuba for the November
elections. As evidence of their deceptive intent, the resolution did not mention
Assata Shakur, but chose only to call her Joanne Chesimard...I respect the right of
Assata Shakur to seek political asylum...Assata Shakur was a member of the Black
Panther Party...The BPP was the primary target of U. S. domestic government
political harassment and persecution...This illegal, clandestine political persecution
was wrong in 1973, and remains wrong today..."
This explanation is inadequate. NO PERSON should endure such governmental
tyranny!!! No one should condone such global hunting of ANY rebel slave. A
political prisoner by any other name is still one who should be protected, not
doomed, by the CBC.
Assata Shakur is a superior poet and author. Read her works in her classic
autobiography entitled Assata. She stated the following in her own defense. It is
quoted from a superior article entitled “Hands Off Assata Shakur!”, published in
the April 12, 1998 issue of Revolutionary Worker (Vol.. #952):
"In a recent open letter, Assata Shakur described herself as a ‘20th century escaped
slave’ and said, ‘Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice
than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the
U. S. government’s policy towards people of color.’ On the moves to force her back
to the U. S. prison system, she said: ‘It is nothing but an attempt to bring about the
reincarnation of the Fugitive Slave Act. All I represent is just another slave that they
want to bring back to the plantation. Well I might be a slave, but I will go to my
grave a rebellious slave. I am and I feel like a Maroon woman. I will never
voluntarily accept the conditions of slavery...’
On May 2, 1973, Assata, Sundiata Acoli and Zayd Malik Shakur were ambushed
by police on the New Jersey turnpike. One state trooper shot Assata in the arm and
back as she had her hands in the air. Another trooper was killed. Zayd was gunned
down. Sundiata escaped and was later captured...One of the state troopers admitted
that he shot and killed Zayd. But Assata was charged with the killing of Zayd...as
well as the death of the trooper. Sundiata was also charged with both deaths. No
credible evidence linked either of them to the shooting of the state trooper...In 1977,
Assata was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to life plus 33 years in
prison...
After her arrest, Assata was shackled and chained to a hospital bed--one arm
paralyzed from a bullet wound and another bullet wound in her chest--as police
guarding her shouted nazi slogans, jabbed her with shotgun butts and threatened her
life....In the history of New Jersey, no woman pretrial detainee or prisoner has ever
been treated as she was; continuously confined in a men’s prison, under 24-hour
surveillance of her most intimate functions, without intellectual sustenance,
adequate medical attention, exercise, and without the company of other women for
all the years she was in their custody...
Assata wrote of her flight from prison: ‘In 1979, I was able to escape with the aid
of some of my fellow comrades. I knew that in the racist legal system of the United
States, I would receive no justice. I was also afraid that I would be murdered in
prison. I later arrived in Cuba where I am currently living in exile as a political
refugee.’"
I want to forgive Waters for what she and her detached and callous CBC peers have
done. However, it is a forgiveness that my reverence for Shakur and my
revolutionary conscience will never allow. Karmic rules are the only rules which are
never broken. The entire CBC and all others who continue to terrorize Shakur
WILL pay this huge karmic debt, across oceans of time...