Revolution #242, August 14, 2011
Attica Means Fight Back!
September 9-13 will be the 40th anniversary of the Attica prison rebellion, and the police massacre of 43 prisoners and guards. Forty years ago, the men locked down in Attica rose in rebellion demanding to be treated like human beings. Their heroic actions and the way they conducted themselves showed that people who had been condemned as the "worst of the worst" could rise above the muck and mire, and transform themselves in ways that pointed to the possibility of radical social change. The memory of Attica is something people, especially young people, need to know about today. This legacy counters justifications given for warehousing 2.4 million plus in jails across the U.S. today. It could spark discussion and debate over whether those locked down today are common criminals who deserve to be locked in these dungeons or the victims of a new system of social control.
Important events are being planned to mark this anniversary in New York City:
"Stop Mass Incarceration: We're Better Than This!" Network calls on people to take the memory and the legacy of Attica to the streets of the Harlem community on Tuesday, September 13:
Attica Means Fight Back!
40th Anniversary Commemorative March and Rally
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
| 3:00 pm | Opening rally, St. Nicholas Park, 135 & St. Nicholas Ave. |
| 3:30 pm | March from St. Nicholas Park along 135 to Malcolm X Blvd. |
| 5:00 pm | Rally, Harlem State Office Bldg., Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. & 125 St. |
| 5:40-6:15 pm | Closing rally at Amsterdam Ave. & 125 St. |
For more information write to: stopmassincarceration@ymail.com
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Attica is All of Us
Day One: Attica is All of Us
Friday, September 9. 2011
7-10 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm)
490 Riverside Drive (enter at 91 Claremont Avenue)
An evening of music, performances and conversation to mark the 40th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion and Massacre and address current prison struggles. Free and open to the public.
Presented by Attica is All of Us and The Riverside Church Prison Ministry, in collaboration with the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow, The Culture Project, The Nation, Drug Policy Alliance, and The Brecht Forum.
With…Attica Brothers; Asha Bandele, Drug Policy Alliance, journalist, poet; Baba Amiri Baraka, African-American poet laureate, Pan-African elder statesman, and community activist; Dhoruba Al-Mujahid Bin-Wahad, Consultant, Institute For Development of Pan-African Policy, Ghana, W. Africa; Soffiyah Elijah, Executive Director, Correctional Association; Elizabeth Fink, Attica Brothers Legal Defense; Amy Goodman, host, Democracy Now!; Joseph "Jazz" Hayden, Campaign to End the New Jim Crow; Jamal Joseph, former Black Panther and Chair, Columbia University’s School of the Arts Film division; Cornel West, professor, public intellectual and activist.
Day Two: A Message from the Grassroots: Attica is Now
The Riverside Church Assembly Hall
Claremont Ave. (120 & 121 Streets)
2 – 5 pm
Special Guests: Herman & Iyaluua Ferguson, authors of An Unlikely Warrior, Herman Ferguson: Evolution of a Black Nationalist Revolutionary
Speakers and cultural presentations include: Africa Bambaataa (Universal Zulu Nation); Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report); Pam Africa (International Concerned Family & Friends for Mumia Abu-Jamal); Larry Hamm (People’s Organization for Progress); attorney Joan Gibbs; George Edward Tait (Harlem poet laureate); Artist King Eric III, former political prisoner Laura Whitehorn; Ralph Poynter (Lynne Stewart Defense Committee); solidarity messages from Lynne Stewart, Mumia Abu Jamal, and Assata Shakur.
For more information contact: atticaisallofus@gmail.com.
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