Saturday, 11 September 2010

• MOVE & WACO: PUBLIC EXECUTIONS

  1999

   

  As the Waco incident re-enters headline news, I am appalled by the blindly patriotic denials that many flag waving Americans dare to still boldly embrace. Like MOVE,  the Waco torching was a public execution. Like Ramona Africa, I hope the Branch Davidians litigate relentlessly, until they win their righteous legal suits against the FBI.

  This incident is a profound example of the fact that oppression is contagion. None of us are free until all of us are free. Those fascists who murder black persons because of their skin and dreadlocks, will also murder white persons because of their religion and personal property. Those who come for us today, will return for you tomorrow.

  In 1985, Philadelphia police bombed the home of dreadlocked revolutionary rebels known as MOVE. That attack led to the state sanctioned torching of 61 homes and left 250 people homeless. 11 African people were murdered, including 5 children. In 1996, warrior Ramona Africa, the only adult survivor of this public execution, won $500,000 for pain and suffering. The family of MOVE founder John Africa, who was murdered in the execution, won $1,000,000. Other plaintiffs won smaller tokens.

  Yet, this legal victory was never motivated by cash. As Ramona stated after the verdict was announced, “Money don’t have nothing to do with this! This is about taking a stand for all people so that their government knows that the people ain’t gonna have them bombing people and burning people alive!”

  If what Ramona stated had been regarded as truth in 1985, perhaps Waco may not have happened in 1993. In some small way, that second execution may have played an accidental role in the legacy of MOVE. Now, millions of Americans are beginning to finally understand the fascist evil of martial law and how it threatens all of our lives across all boundaries of race and class.

  Rabid racism was the reason for the terrorist attack upon MOVE and droves of their neighbors. The city of Philadelphia harassed MOVE members heinously. These ongoing abuses went on far longer than the siege at WACO. MOVE members were beaten, incarcerated, murdered, tortured, and harassed by Philadelphia police at two residences since 1974.

  Even today, 14 years, and counting, after the public executions, 8 of 9 innocent MOVE members remain in prison; even after the legal victory has established that they were framed for the murder of a police officer, killed in the fray of friendly fire during the ambush and torching of their rebel peers. Merle Africa died while she was caged. Janine Africa, Janet Africa, Debbie Africa, Delbert Africa, Mike Africa, Edward Africa, Phil Africa, and Chuck Africa remain innocent as they are still being held captive inside the belly of the beast of the state of Philadelphia!

  Rabid racism is also glaringly evident in the fact that trigger happy agents of martial law shot to kill and fire bombed MOVE members in mere minutes! On May 13, 1985, within 30 minutes after policemen arrived on the scene, MOVE members were torched . Federal killers waited several days before they filled the WACO compound with gas and then blasted bullets into flames.

  State sanctioned murder is still murder. Gang banger drive-by massacres are still  ambushes, even when the gangs are the ATF or the FBI. Freedom is a constant struggle. Power corrupts constantly. The Branch Davidians should have been free to collect guns and to practice their own religion. The FBI murdered these peaceful persons on their own private property. For that execution, the FBI should pay millions.

  FREE THE MOVE 8 NOW!!!!

   

  POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

   

  ______________________________________________________________________

   

  “MOVE” - A DOCUMENTARY BY COHORT MEDIA

   

  {This is dedicated to The MOVE 9: Janine Phillips Africa, Merle Austin Africa, Debbie Sims Africa, Janet Holloway Africa, Charles Sims Africa, Edward Goodman Africa, William Phillips Africa, Delbert Orr Africa, and Michael Davis Africa....ON THE MOVE!!!...} 
   

   

  “AS LONG AS WE ARE ALIVE, WE WILL NEVER ABANDON OUR INNOCENT BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN JAIL. AND, THEY KNOW WE WILL NEVER ABANDON THEM. AND, THIS CITY WILL ALWAYS HAVE A PROBLEM UNTIL EVERY LAST ONE OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IS HOME...” 
                                       -MOVE

   

  “MOVE WORKS TO STOP INDUSTRY FROM POISONING THE AIR, THE 
  WATER, THE SOIL, AND PUT AN END TO THE ENSLAVEMENT OF LIFE - 
  PEOPLE, ANIMALS, ANY FORM OF LIFE. THE PURPOSE OF JOHN 
  AFRICA’S REVOLUTION IS TO SHOW PEOPLE HOW CORRUPT, ROTTEN, 
  CRIMINALLY ENSLAVING THIS SYSTEM IS, SHOW PEOPLE, THROUGH 
  JOHN AFRICA’S TEACHING, THE TRUTH, THAT THIS SYSTEM 
  IS THE CAUSE OF ALL THEIR PROBLEMS (ALCOHOLISM, DRUG 
  ADDICTION, UNEMPLOYMENT, WIFE ABUSE, CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, 
  EVERY PROBLEM IN THE WORLD). AND, TO SET THE EXAMPLE OF 
  REVOLUTION FOR PEOPLE TO FOLLOW WHEN THEY REALIZE HOW 
  THEY’VE BEEN OPPRESSED, REPRESSED, DUPED, TRICKED BY THIS 
  SYSTEM, THIS GOVERNMENT AND SEE THE NEED TO RID THEMSELVES 
  OF THIS CANCEROUS SYSTEM AS MOVE DOES.”  

                                        -MOVE

   

   

  The public execution of the Branch Davidians at Waco Texas was not the first such 
  government led slaughter. Similar state sanctioned torture and murder of MOVE 
  members in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania began in 1974. This harassment and abuse 
  culminated on May 13, 1985, in the bombing and torching of 60 homes. This police 
  attack at 6221 Osage Avenue, in the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia, 
  made the Waco fires pale by comparison.

  An entire neighborhood was hatefully transformed into ashes by rabidly racist 
  police officers in the “City of Brotherly Love”. Cohort Media directors Benjamin 
  Garry and Ryan McKenna have created a superb documentary that now fully 
  captures this shockingly violent and fascist moment in American history. You must 
  see this film!

  This documentary is a superb analysis of an event that is omitted from far too many 
  textbooks and databases. This film traces the history of MOVE and its legacy as the 
  city of Philadelphia declared war upon its organization and its home. The clever 
  combination of still photos and live footage graphically reveal the past, present, and 
  future of MOVE’s rebellion. We view and experience the shock and rage of every 
  tale shared by a host of MOVE members and journalists. We re-live the execution 
  of infant Life Africa, whose tiny skull was crushed on March 28, 1976, when a police 
  officer suddenly stomped and beat his mother, Janine Africa, as she cradled Life in 
  her arms.

  Just as in Waco, police officers executed many children and infants. They also 
  brutally murdered, beat, stomped, and shot male and female MOVE members, in 
  broad daylight. Many members were shot in their backs. Legendary journalist 
  Mumia Abu Jamal was a staunch defender of MOVE. He exposed the brutal 
  atrocities inflicted by Philadelphia’s sadistic police force as they harassed MOVE 
  members for years. Mumia’s framing, for the murder of a young cop who was 
  planning to expose his corrupt peers, was fueled by Mumia’s loyalty to MOVE’s 
  dreadlocked rebel warriors.

  In this superb film, many of the still photos appear as actual rolls of camera film. This brilliant artistic touch deepens the visual imagery of these literal portraits of a bloody and racist 
  history. A history that has been sinisterly revised and arrogantly omitted, until now.

  This film details the poison of revisionist history as it definitively records the truth 
  of each legendary and shocking incident between MOVE and the police. It proves 
  what really happened when one group was callously marked for death and an entire 
  neighborhood was cavalierly deemed a collective casualty of war. This film 
  documents what has been hidden from public history.

  In this film, we witness the inability of oppressors to ever stop a revolution. MOVE 
  members are still political prisoners and global rebel heroes. They will never be 
  defeated because they will never give up their rebel missions.

  This film takes us deep into the red hot soul of MOVE’s organization as it 
  simultaneously reveals the ice cold hearts of Philadelphia’s city officials. 
  Corruption, oppression, and hatred cross all boundaries of race and class. Power 
  corrupts absolutely. Absolute power breeds hatred. Wilson Goode was the black 
  mayor of Philadelphia when officers bombed MOVE.

  Had MOVE’s warriors been less Afrikan or less nappy, perhaps a neighborhood 
  mediation office may have intervened. That may have resolved all municipal and 
  residential conflicts. Instead, the city of Philadelphia dropped a bomb and torched 
  60 homes. None of the black residents were ever fully compensated for their 
  financial losses. Many of them owned their homes. This film examines their 
  eradication.

  This film clearly exposes the fact that Philadelphia’s police officers never attempted 
  any mediation. They came to the scene of this execution openly armed for war. In 
  addition to the bomb they dropped, officers came armed with 1000 rounds of 
  ammunition, M-60 machine guns, M-16 sniper rifles, and silencers. Silent guns do 
  not fire warnings. They only shoot to kill.

  The 60 row houses torched reached temperatures of 2000 degrees. Officers shot at 
  every MOVE member who dared to flee the burning house. During this melee, cops 
  shot a fellow officer. Then, they brazenly framed 9 MOVE members for that 
  murder. 8 members of The MOVE 9 are still incarcerated for the death of a police 
  officer felled by a single bullet. 9 MOVE members were jailed for one bullet from 
  one gun that shot “friendly fire”. This could only happen in the American “just-us” 
  system! Tragically, Merle Africa died in prison. 8 members of MOVE are still 
  incarcerated political prisoners!!!

  Even if one MOVE member had shot a police officer, why were 9 members 
  sentenced to 100 years each??? A dear Rastafarian friend of mine always laments 
  about “politricks in a wicked shitsym...”. This film proves that wicked politics led 
  to the systematic harassment, torture, beatings, murder, bombing, and framing of 
  MOVE members.

  In a just legal system, 9 people would never be prosecuted for a crime that no single 
  one of them has been proven to have committed!!! No just trial can ever be 
  conducted when no single piece of evidence is submitted!!! There is no justice in 
  Amerikkka’s elitist and racist “just-us” system. And, where there is no justice, there will never  be  any peace.

  The very same lying brutal cops who slaughtered and framed MOVE members, and 
  framed and caged Mumia Abu Jamal, destroyed evidence vital to the cases of the 
  MOVE 9. Crooked cops even blatantly destroyed the crime scene and  boldly 
  leveled the MOVE home they torched, even before defense attorneys could gather 
  any shred of evidence.

  This film exposes the contagion of oppression. It is a wake up call to those who 
  believe in the fantasy of selective oppression. Like those neighbors who thought the 
  police would burn only one home or abuse only nappy headed residents when they 
  arrived at the home of MOVE members. Like those who foolishly believe that a 
  selected president like George W. Bush/King Shrub can contain the terror that he 
  has brazenly unleashed upon international oil owners, poor persons, and 
  homosexuals globally...

  We are living in times when suicidally blind patriotism is being touted as loyalty or 
  character. Every fool who believes that America  is a democracy must see this film. 
  It will burn their rose colored glasses into the same kind of ashes that police officers 
  left at MOVE’s home....

  Every seeker of truths must see this film. Only the truth will free our collective 
  minds and souls. See this film today!!! ON A MOVE!!!! 

   

  To contact the rebel directors at Cohort Media, email: 
  cohortmedia@yahoo.com

   

  Read these books for additional information on MOVE:

  Ona Move 
  by 
  Chuck Dees

  25 Years on The Move 
  c/o Post Office Box 19709 
  Philadelphia, PA 19143 

   

  

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