| On August 7th, 1970, 17-year-old revolutionary Jonathan Jackson walked into the Marin County Courthouse. He drew his weapon and armed his compatriots James McClain, William Christmas, and Ruchell Magee. And, making his revolutionary intentions clear, he announced “Gentlemen, we will be taking over from here.”
Now a half-century later, the embers of revolution ignited in Black August are being stoked by the Black Lives Matter uprisings.
The Prisoners Solidarity Committee of Workers World Party invites you to join us this Thursday, August 13th, to honor the legacy of Jonathan Jackson who sought to free the Soledad Brothers, his older brother George Jackson among them. In this period of global uprisings and terminal capitalist decline, it is more important than ever that we study what these Black communist soldiers of the revolution laid down for us. For these were the events that lead to the uprisings at Auburn, Attica, Angola, and other prisons across the United States.
We also must draw lessons from the ruthless and calculating violence of the capitalist state. The ruling class will resort to any atrocity to maintain their stranglehold on workers and oppressed people: the assassinations of George and Jonathan Jackson; the murderous campaign waged against the MOVE Organization and the Black Panther Party before them; the shooting and frame-up of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Workers World Party would like to make one thing perfectly clear: we support, in word and in deed, the right of oppressed people to defend themselves and liberate themselves BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
Speakers include:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Historic video footage of George Jackson
Yvonne Orr-El, born of both the MOVE Organization and the Black Panther Party, daughter of Delbert Africa.
Mirinda Crissman, Prisoners Solidarity Committee of Workers World Party
Monica Moorehead, Managing Editor of Workers World newspaper and editor of Marxism, Reparations and the Black Freedom Struggle. |
