This #BlackAugust, in partnership with @MXGMNational we're calling for the freedom of 5 #PoliticalPrisoners:
❤️ Dr. Mutulu Shakur
🖤Mumia Abu-Jamal
💚 Kamau Sadiki
💛Imam Jamil Al Amin
🤎Ed Poindexter
Dr. #MutuluShakur is a father, grandfather, healer, & human-rights activist who has been in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons for more than 35 years. He was targeted and victimized by the Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) as early as 1968.
@MumiaAbuJamal is an internationally celebrated Black writer & radio journalist, author, and organizer. He is a former leader of the Black Panther Party, and supporter of Philadelphia’s radical MOVE organization who has spent the last 40 years in prison.
@FreeKamauSadiki is a father and a grandfather, and an original member of the Black Panther Party. Kamau was targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO efforts to stop social programs such as The Free Breakfast Program and the Black Panther Newspaper.
#ImamJamilAlAmin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is a Black revolutionary, civil-rights icon, & human-rights activist, wrongfully imprisoned for the past 22 years. He was the 5th chairman #SNCC & the Minister of Justice for the Black Panther Party.
#EdPoindexter is a civil rights activist, writer, & leader within his community. Ed has remained in custody since his arrest in 1970 & is serving a life sentence after being wrongfully charged with the death of an Omaha police officer. #BlackAugust
We are not free until we are all free, and we will not leave our comrades, elders, and freedom fighters behind. Join us in taking action today to send them the love, support, and hope they deserve: m4bl.link/politicalpriso…. #FreeEmAll#BlackAugust#PoliticalPrisoners
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As we fight for Black liberation & safety for our communities, we urge the House of Representatives not to advance Invest to Protect, COPS on the Beat Grant Program Reauthorization & Parity Act, or any funding replicating mistakes of the 1994 Crime Bill.
Time and time again, the policing system has failed to protect all of our communities, and we know the increase in federal spending for police will only make these matters worse.
Additional police funding will only expand and entrench a policing bureaucracy that lacks accountability and respect for our fundamental liberties while failing to advance community safety.
First launched by #M4BL and our partners in 2015, Black Futures Month is a visionary, forward-looking spin on celebrations of Blackness in February.
During #BlackFuturesMonth, and always, we center Black, queer, & transfeminist perspectives. Black queer & trans people have long been at the forefront of dreaming and expanding what is possible for our movements.
We're uplifting political prisoners and supporting them in their efforts to reclaim freedom. True liberation for Black people will be a future in which all of us are free.
Today, we reflect and honor the lives taken on October 20th last year as Nigerian forces opened fire on #EndSars protesters, killing multiple people in addition to the dozens who had already been shot and killed throughout the demonstrations.
Nigeria's #EndSARS campaign brought global visibility to the corrupt Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) who have tortured and killed Black children with impunity for decades.
#EndSars, an inclusive and empathy-driven movement across the youth spectrum, is about more than police violence; it’s also about addressing root causes, calling power to account, changing government structures in Nigeria, and more.
This Labor Day let us remember that when labor unions first held strikes, Black people were not allowed to participate, as they were barred from unions.
However, Hattie Canty, a culinary worker, led the longest labor strike in American history in 1991. As the president of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, she and others walked off the job at Frontier Hotel over unfair labor practices.
Today, tens of millions of essential workers are on the frontlines and at risk for COVID-19 every day. With a majority of at-risk workers being Black, we want to take the time to honor those who sacrifice for their selves, families, and communities.
The uprising in defense of Black lives represents the largest social movement in U.S. history. As more people say #BlackLivesMatter, local and federal law enforcement are harassing, arresting, and charging activists and organizers with made-up charges.
1/6
We demand that charges are dropped against all protesters, including Black disabled, Black queer, trans, & gender-nonconforming folks who are more likely to be targeted for arrest -- & an immediate end to the practice of persecuting protesters in the U.S.
2/6
Police all over the country have tear-gassed, dragged, beaten, run over, & arrested over 10,000 protestors for defending Black lives. Amnesty International recorded 125 incidents of police violence against protestors from May - June 2020 in 40 states.
Discrimination, harassment, and violence against Black trans, intersex, queer, & gender nonconforming (LGBTQ+) people pervade schools, workplaces, systems of policing, prisons, parole and probation, immigration, health care, and family and juvenile courts and more. 1/8
There is a war on Black trans people, and it will take all of us to collectively, consistently, & authentically work to end transphobia.
2/8
Anti-Blackness is rooted in ableism, patriarchy, and gender-based violence, yet organizing practices and policy demands often do not center those most marginalized.
3/8