A-Infos (en) Jericho '98

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Please pass on the info (and check out the website for more info)!

The United States government has been successful 
in refuting the existence of political prisoners and prisoners of war 
within its borders mainly because we, the public, have permitted this 
lie to exist through our collective silence and passivity. As a result, 
political prisoners and prisoners of war have continued to languish in 
sub-human conditions, to endure brutality and torture, and to be denied 
the impartiality implicit in due process, all because of their political 
beliefs. Anywhere else in the world we call this political repression. 
On March 27, 1998 in Washington D.C., we will do just that.
While those of us in the activist community have consistently contended 
that we are involved in liberation struggles, our approach to winning 
the freedom of political prisoners and prisoners of war has not 
supported our claim. Instead we have allowed the government of the 
United States, through its various police agencies, to criminalize 
community activists and freedom fighters, to try them in hostile courts, 
and to hand down outrageously excessive sentences, all while denying 
that these men and women are political prisoners and prisoners of war. 
Through our indecision, ideological division, and lack of organization, 
we have permitted this dangerous and unjust game to be conducted on the 
terms of this repressive state. It is the mission of Jericho '98 to 
raise this issue to such national and international attention that the 
United States will no longer be able to deny the existence of our 
political prisoners, that the politically concerned and active can 
recognize the mutual interest we have in this endeavor, and that through 
this collective mobilization we change the playing field from a corrupt 
American legal system to the level of international human rights.

Jericho '98 is a national education and mobilization campaign designed 
to achieve the following: 
1.To educate people about the existence of 
political prisoners and prisoners of war in the United States. 
2.To gain support for these political prisoners and prisoners of war. 
3.To force the United States government to recognize and acknowledge 
their existence; and 
4.To win amnesty and freedom for all political prisoners and prisoners 
of war in this country. 

We have vacillated for far too long. On the one hand we say we have 
political prisoners and prisoners of war, and on the other hand we have 
not forged a comprehensive approach to freeing them, let alone making 
the United States abide by the Geneva Accords in its treatment of them. 
In the coming months of organizing for Jericho '98 at the White House, 
we will bring this issue into the open and push for public recognition 
of the existence of political prisoners and prisoners of war inside the 
United States. The U.S. government realizes that if it acknowledges that 
political prisoners and prisoners of war exist, then it implicitly 
recognizes the existence of on-going liberation struggles inside this 
country. Political prisoners and prisoners of war do not emerge in a 
vacuum but are obviously the results of political struggles. For this 
reason we believe that raising the issue of political prisoners and 
prisoners of war is as much a significant act for the freedom of these 
incarcerated men and women as it is for our overall liberation 
struggles.

They are brothers and sisters, men and women who, while on the streets, 
made a conscious decision to organize for our freedom and liberation. As 
a consequence of their work on the streets, and/or involvement in 
military actions, they were targeted, assigned trumped up criminal 
charges or framed, arrested or captured, tried in criminal courts and 
sentenced to outrageous and vindictive prison terms. While trying them 
as criminals, the government, which maintained files on the political 
activities of these men and women through the FBI's COINTELPRO
 operations, violated the constitutionally protected rights to free 
speech and assembly by referencing the organizations and ideologies 
associated with the given defendant(s). Through witness intimidation, 
falsified evidence, perjured testimony and media manipulation, state and 
federal agencies created both a legal and public atmosphere designed to 
insure that these activists were convicted and that they remain in 
prison until they are forgotten, elderly or dead. These political 
activists cross all ethnic and racial barriers just as the struggle 
against oppression in this country crosses all of these lines. They are 
people like Leonard Peltier of the American Indian Movement (AIM), 
Janine Phillips Africa of MOVE, Tom Manning of the United Freedom Front, 
Sekou Odinga of the Black Liberation Army, Linda Evans of the North 
American Anti-Imperialist movement, Carmen Valentin of the Armed forces 
for National Liberation (FALN) and Marshall Eddie Conway of the Black 
Panther Party for Self- Defense. They are activists and revolutionaries 
who have been imprisoned in the United States because of their political 
beliefs, affiliations and dedication to changing the lives of their 
people for the better. They are men and women who refused to suffer 
oppression silently. They are men and women who dared to fight back in 
both word and deed. 

While we recognize that there are many people who have become political 
after their incarceration, we believe that this Jericho '98 campaign has 
to initially focus on those political prisoners and prisoners of war 
whose incarceration was political from its inception. We must do what is 
demanded of us to move our struggle forward, strengthen our movement, 
internationalize our struggle and gain the freedom of as many people as 
possible. It is not the intention of the Jericho '98 Organizing 
Committee to slight anyone. It is the intention of Jericho '98 to mount 
the strongest campaign possible for amnesty and freedom for our 
political prisoners and prisoners of war. 

Therefore, our strategy is to bring the cases of those people whose 
incarcerations resulted from their active involvement in political 
organizing and political activities on the street. Once we have 
established a case for amnesty and freedom for these individuals on the 
basis of international law, the next step is to raise the cases of those 
people who became political after their incarceration and have had their 
sentences lengthened as a result, those who have been brutalized and 
otherwise punished for daring to stand up against repression, and those 
who have been vindictively denied parole because of their organizing and 
educating efforts behind the wall. We are talking about people like 
Ruchell Magee, co-defendant of Angela Davis, who dared to stand firm in 
a San Rafael courthouse and declare, "We are the Revolutionaries;" 
people like Hugo Pinell, one of the San Quentin Six; people like 
Standing Deer who saved the life of Leonard Peltier when the state 
attempted to have him assassinated in the prison system; and the list 
goes on and on.
Then there are the people who are prisoners of the larger war, the war 
on the poor. The war on our communities. In building Jericho '98 and 
demanding amnesty and freedom for our political prisoners who have 
consciously decided to fight this war, we are saying to these other 
prisoners that you will not be left alone to rot in prison. We will 
stand by you, we will fight for you, we will free you. This is a wall to 
wall struggle! This is a struggle where, if we stand together and 
persevere, we will emerge victorious. 

What is the Plan? 
1.To forge a united front around the issue of amnesty and freedom for 
our political prisoners and prisoners of war. Our strength is in numbers 
and a unity of purpose. 
2.To educate people about who these political prisoners and prisoners of 
war are through speaking engagements, forums, mailings, radio 
interviews, leaflets, posters, the internet and whatever way possible. 
3.To organize Jericho '98 Organizing Committees all across the country 
designed to get the word out about Jericho '98, political prisoners and 
prisoners of war, raise funds to do this work, and bring buses to the 
White House on March 27, 1998. 
4.To raise $25,000 to use as seed money for a National Legal Defense 
Fund for political prisoners to ensure that a lack of money not be a 
reason that political prisoners, when brought to trial, do not receive 
the best defense possible, and that lawyers are on call to monitor the 
treatment of our political prisoners and prisoners of war. 
5.To continue to organize and agitate after March 27, 1998 for the 
release of political prisoners, prisoners of war and prisoners who 
became political in prison, as well as against the criminalization and 
warehousing of the poor and educationally excluded. 
We can wait no longer, the time is now! We need your support!

Safiya Bukhari, National Coordinator
The Jericho '98 Organizing Committee

For more information on how you can join this effort, call or write:
Jericho '98 Organizing Committee 
P.O. Box 650 New York, NY 10009 
hotline: (212) 330-8029 or (212) 473-4257
email: jericho98@usa.net
web: jericho98.togdog.com

note: the web page does not include the contact number for vermont.  Th
number for vermont's organizing committee is 1-800-426-5812 ex. 802-229-6381
(leave a message).  We had a successful meeting last night, and are presently
organizing a bus or buses as well as vans to travel to D.C.  for the event.  


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