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Friday 31 May 2013

Tuesday, June 4th: Fundraiser for POW Sekou Odinga at Random Row Books in Charlottesville, VA

Tuesday, June 4th @ 7 p.m.

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Fundraiser for POW Sekou Odinga
at Random Row Books in Charlottesville, VA


June 4th is Sekou's wife dequi kioni sadiki's birthday,
so she considers this a birthday gift!

Random Row Books
315 W Main St., Charlottesville, VA 22902 (434) 295-2493

7:00 p.m. SHARP!

BE ON TIME! SEKOU AND DEQUI WOULD EXPECT NO LESS!


Go to the link for maps and directions.
Way too important to get lost or be late!

http://randomrow.wordpress.com/
Pay what you can
Self Defense
Seminar
(with a brief teach-in on the BPP / BLA)

Who is Sekou Odinga?

Sekou Mgobozi Abdullah Odinga is a prisoner of a war that started more than 400 years ago and that rages even today.

“When we say prisoner of war,” explains Sekou from behind the walls of Shawangunk Correctional Facility in New York State, “the obvious question that should come to mind is, “What war? Is there a civil war going on in this country?” No, not a civil war. New Afrikan (Black) people are not part of this country. So, it can’t be civil war. Our people were illegally kidnapped and brought to this country more than  400 years ago. That was an act of war.”

“We have to distinguish first who we are and how we can be at war with the U.S. government,” says Sekou. “We are a colonized people, but many of us don’t understand what that means. A colonized people are a group or nation whose every aspect of life is controlled by another nation.

Among the colonized, there are those who don’t accept the colonized force. International law gives them the right to be free and independent by any means necessary, including armed struggle. We want to establish a New Afrikan State. While participating in that war I was captured, which makes me a prisoner of war.”

He didn’t declare the war, nor did he start it. But Sekou Odinga, 66, father of 8 and grandfather of 18, has committed his life to fighting back. First as a community activist, then as a Black Panther Party leader, and later as a soldier in the Black Liberation Army.

Odinga earned international recognition from his efforts to educate, organize, and liberate Afrikan people worldwide. Even from behind bars, Sekou Odinga remains a cornerstone of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. Comprised of a broad coalition of New Afrikan-nationalist organizations, the NAIM seeks to establish a Republic of New Afrika in land currently designated as Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina. (They promised 40 acres and a mule, so that is what would be the equivalent of the this area. Another broken treaty because the white man speaks with forked tongue.)


As part of its efforts to crush this movement, the United States has mislabeled Sekou as an outlaw, saddling him with a lifetime sentence for crimes that he did not commit.

In 1969, Odinga was forced into hiding when he and 20 other Black Panther Party members were falsely charged with criminal conspiracy in the New York Panther 21 case.

Months later, while still underground, he traveled to Algeria to establish an international chapter of the Black Panther Party. On October 23, 1981, Odinga and comrade Mtyari Shabaka Sundiata were ambushed in Queens by a joint task force of New York police officers and FBI agents. The cops murdered Sundiata in the street like a dog while he had his hands in the air surrendering and Sekou wept when he talked about telling Sundiata's child who her father was and how he died.

They captured Sekou, then tortured him mercilessly, eventually charging him with the liberation of Assata Shakur and the expropriation of money from an armored car.

“When I was captured, I was burned with cigars, beaten, had my head flushed in toilets,” recalls Sekou. “I was taken to a window, and the officers threatened to throw me out. This went on for about six hours, when they were trying to get me to give up information on other comrades. I was captured in October 1981, and didn’t get out of the hospital until February ’82.”

When he was released from the hospital, Sekou was thrown into a trial that was anything but fair. For instance, during his trial, in which he faced 11 federal counts and an assortment of state charges, the judge refused to allow Sekou to submit his medical records as evidence, suggesting that the freedom fighter may have fabricated his wounds.

Even before his trial, the charges against Sekou were manipulated to ensure cruel and unusual punishment. “They called the liberation of Assata Shakur kidnapping because jail-breaking was not a federal charge,” he points out.

“It was a state charge. So that the feds could get the case, they claimed that while liberating the sister, the comrades tied up and held two of the guards.

Even though they didn’t take the guards off the grounds, the court said taking them from one rooftop to another was kidnapping.”

In 1983, Sekou was convicted of two federal charges under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, and was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment and a $50,000 fine. He was also convicted of six counts of attempted murder of police stemming from his defense of Sundiata and himself during the police attack two years earlier. For this, he was sentenced to 25 years to life, to be served consecutively.

Initially Sekou was sent to maximum security in Marion II, “which is a joint they claim is for those who can’t deal in regular prisons, who kill and run drugs and try to escape. They never gave me a chance. They sent me there right away. So when you talk about my conditions in the joint, and how the prison system has dealt with me, you see that they have never dealt with me as a regular prisoner.”

“They treat me differently. They just don’t acknowledge that I’m a Prisoner of War.”

However, international law certainly does, Sekou observes: “There is a clause in the Geneva Convention of 1948 and 49, and follow up protocols of 1977 and ’78, which was actually signed in 1980. It states that a colonized people have a right to self-determination. And to gain it, they have a right to struggle by any means necessary, including armed struggle. As such, if captured, they must not be considered a criminal and tried as a criminal. They can be turned over to their own country. Under that law, it was illegal for them to try me as a criminal.”

Sekou Odinga is currently trying to raise funds for an appeal of his state charges based on jurisdictional issues. He says this is his last and best chance to get out of prison.

This is why the Sekou Odinga Defense Committee was recently formed. We need to raise at least $20,000 and probably more for legal expenses.

We encourage all organizations, especially those involved in political prisoner work, to hold fundraising events for Sekou, as the need is urgent. If your organization is planning an event, please send us the information so that we can post to the website: www.sekouodinga.com.

Make checks out to:
Malcolm X Commemoration Committee and be sure to write Sekou Odinga in the memo line. Send to:

Sekou Odinga Defense Committee
P.O. Box 380-122
Brooklyn, New York 11238
(718) 512-5008
sekouodingadefensecommittee@gmail.com
www.sekouodinga.com

Write to Sekou:
Sekou Odinga #09-A-3775
Clinton Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 2001
Dannemora, New York 12929

AS A WEDDING ANNIVERSARY PRESENT TO SEKOU ODINGA AND DEQUI KIONI SADIKI LAST YEAR, THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES (AS IF SEKOU NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED IN ANY WAY!) MOVED HIM FROM SHAWANGUNK (CLOSE TO NEW YORK CITY) TO DANNEMORA (WHICH IS A LONG WAY AWAY ON THE BUS. TAKES 6 TO 8 HOURS TO GET THERE DEPENDING ON THE TRAFFIC AND ROAD CONDITIONS).

THERE IS A LAW IN NEW YORK STATE THAT ALLOWS FAMILY TO VISIT. CLINTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITY IS DENYING SEKOU AND DEQUI THE RIGHT TO CONGUGAL VISITS BASED EXACTLY ON WHO HE IS. DRUG DEALERS ARE ALLOWED CONGUGAL VISITS, BUT SEKOU AND DEQUI HAVE BEEN DENIED THIS LEGAL RIGHT PRECISELY BECAUSE HE IS SEKOU ODINGA, INTERNATIONALLY REKNOWNED FREEDOM FIGHTER WHO LOVED HIS PEOPLE SO MUCH HE RETURNED TO THE UNITED SNAKES TO CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE.

HIS SON, ANOCHI ODINGA, HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT HIS DAD SINCE HE WAS 11 YEARS OLD. THE SITUATION IS URGENT AND WE NEED EVERYONE TO STEP TO THE PLATE RIGHT NOW AND MAKE THOSE CALLS! THIS IS ANOCHI AND HIS SONS AT ONE OF THE MXCC FAMILIES OF POLITICAL PRISONERS DINNER.
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MAKE THAT CALL! WRITE THAT LETTER! SEND THAT EMAIL!

Mailing Address:
NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
Building 2
1220 Washington Ave
Albany, New York 12226-2050

Phone:(518) 457-8126

http://www.doccs.ny.gov/DOCSwebcontactform.asp

sekou odinga recently had pneumonia and the so-called doctor at Clinton (who never heard of Hippocrates, by the way) told him he just had a bad cough. when he went the second time for a chest x-ray, the tech told him he had the same spot on his lung that showed up the first time. He didn't want dequi to be to concerned because he loves her so much, so he didn't tell her how sick he really was. AND I SAID, DON'T BE SO HUMBLE.  SHE IS YOUR WOMAN AND YOU LOVE HER BUT SHE IS A WARRIOR WHO CAN MAKE NOISE ON THE OUTSIDE HERE IN MINIMUM SECURITY. Thank God for the humble x-ray technicians who tell the truth! The tech said that Sekou had the same spot on his lung that he had the first time he had the x-ray!

The Hippocratic Oath says "First, do no harm!" If you want it in the original Greek, you can read the whole thing. Hippocrates was accused of "corrupting the youth" and he said, "yeah, I'm guilty. okay, I will drink the hemlock." Corruptor de jovenes!

Hippocrates is a friend of mine. Healthcare workers, we need you now! Make those phone calls! And let us know what response you get!

NYC JERICHO MOVEMENT

STILL FIGHTING IN THE STREETS!

Love and Struggle,
Anne
NYC Jericho Movement

Original message:


  Peace, all...

  Just wanted to let you know that I rescheduled the Sekou Event to June 4th, so if you know anyone in Central VA (Richmond, Cville, Harrisonburg, etc.), please spread the word to them. It's at 7pm, June 4th, Random Row Books (315 West Main street) - - pay what you can self defense seminar (with a brief teach-in on the BPP / BLA). I'll let y'all know how it went, and I hope to talk to y'all soon...

  Free the Land,

  J."g."J.



--
SIGN THE JERICHO COINTELPRO PETITION!

Free All Political Prisoners!
nycjericho@gmail.comwww.jerichony.org

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