Free the Move 9: Everything you need to know to support parole for the Move prisoners!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
S.O.U.L. (Students Organizing for Unity and Liberation) welcomes the public to a screening of "MOVE: A Documentary" with a post-film panel presentation.
"MOVE: A Documentary" focuses on the Move Organization and the repression they suffered from the racist and brutal policies of the Philadelphia police department and the US justice system during the 1970's and 1980's which led to the bombing of their Philadelphia residence by police. Post-film screening we will have a panel discussion featuring Ramona Africa the sole adult survivor of the May 13, 1985 massacre of 11 members of the MOVE organization.
February 26th 5:30pm - 7:30pm Location: Claudia Cohen Hall G17 Class of 1969 Lecture Room
"MOVE: A Documentary" focuses on the Move Organization and the repression they suffered from the racist and brutal policies of the Philadelphia police department and the US justice system during the 1970's and 1980's which led to the bombing of their Philadelphia residence by police. Post-film screening we will have a panel discussion featuring Ramona Africa the sole adult survivor of the May 13, 1985 massacre of 11 members of the MOVE organization.
February 26th 5:30pm - 7:30pm Location: Claudia Cohen Hall G17 Class of 1969 Lecture Room
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Screening of MOVE Documentary with Ramona Africa
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Ona MOVE for our Children!
Patrick Murphy, MOVE Supporter
The MOVE 9 has been incarcerated for 34 years. 34 years ago they were punished for a taking a stand against this system. They stood against brutality, rape, racism, drugs and they stood against the destruction and exploitation of family. They stood for ALL LIFE. The struggle of living truth against power continues.
MOVE has long fought to protect children from the money first/slave based/murderous values- attacks of this system. A system that regularly beat and murdered move children and unborn babies- a system that seeks to destroy/control all of our children every day.
The systems power over our children is stronger then ever. The beautiful and natural process of childbirth and motherhood is under attack- at best it is disregarded as an inconvenience- at worst mother and children’s lives are considered worthless by man’s laws n courts.
The truth is that their lives are valued in accordance with the slave-colonial based/ white male patriarchal supremacy we all live under.
The mentality of this system commands greed and selfish pride as its major flag bearers. These ideals, passed down from generation to generation, continue to destroy all life. This is why we consider ourselves to be a society making great progress yet all of life- the air, water, and soil we need to live, continue to be further damaged everyday. This system financially thrives upon the 2 million people in the US incarcerated and the deaths of over 100,000 people each day
from starvation and poverty.
In order to destroy and exploit life the mind is conditioned, by the system, to thrive off of a false wholeness- a fake feeling of rightness through constant monetary based instant gratification. Everyone is addicted to feel good bullshit. These fake oddities of human advancement- these technological “advances” are leaving us lifeless- keeping us blind and or emotionally unavailable to the fact that all of our privileges hinge on the death and exploitation of all life. Instead of life, everyone derives there worth from the phone in their pocket, the label on their clothes, the name on their car, etc…
This system is everywhere, in everything, in every one of us. It imposes upon every aspect of life. Life has never been and never will be its goal. Its goal as built and maintained is to have more “capital gains”- more privileges - at any cost.
We need to free the MOVE 9 because they were imprisoned for being true protectors of all life. We need the MOVE 9 and all those who support life over money to work together to defeat this system.
The truth is that we must stop depending on this system to raise our children and change our lives; it is only making things worse. A definition of insanity: repeating the same thing over and expecting a different result. I’d say that definition fits perfectly to us who think we can make it through the system. The system has and always will fail life. Wake up people, please, now, before it is too late and humans are responsible for destroying all life. This is 34 years too long. We need our brothers and sisters back. We need to grow as a people in revolution with life - sharing in the life first example MOVE has given us. Free the MOVE 9 Now! We need them more then ever!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Defeat the Media War on MOVE!
Sis Marpessa Kupendua, MOVE Supporter
MOVE is the most committed family of revolutionaries I have ever known because they uphold that all forms of life be free of repression and all forms of terrorism. They are also the victims of one of the most vicious and diabolical media campaigns ever waged against an organization.
The malicious portrayals of MOVE by the Philadelphia media as subhuman and violent are insidious and very well documented. Kitty Caparella, among many others, wrote despicable lies about MOVE on a daily basis from 1977 through the August 8, 1978 police siege on their home and continued sporadically through the May 13, 1985 bombing. MOVE was repeatedly mischaracterized as a 'cult" that was 'brainwashed' into behaving in a programmed manner, insane and devoid of logic. The virus of hate within these pre-packaged talking points sped zinging across the wires to be repeated as a mantra in every media outlet. These messages proclaimed that it was MOVE who were responsible for the attacks upon their own selves by police who invaded their own property! Clever wordplay changed the ‘bombing of MOVE’ to ‘the MOVE Bombing’ and continues to be referred to as such to this day.
This is the power of the press, which distorts reality to suit its own hellacious purposes, even unto the murders of innocent babies. As the flames raged on May 13, 1985, there was BREAKING NEWS – breathless reports that there were male MOVE members seen fleeing the burning house and escaping down the alley, so you betta watch out! A dangerous MOVE (boogie)man might just get ya! Many dreadlocked Black men in Philly and surrounding areas were either laying low or chopping off their hair while the panicked public had visions of these burning, running men that the media had dropped into through their heads. It will never be known how many Black men suffered as the murderous lynch mob rained down terror on MOVE that terrible ‘Mother’s’ day.
News reports focused less on the murder victims and more on the neighbors who had lost their homes. Human interest stories abounded, such as the neighbor who lost his jazz record collection and all those good-hearted Philadelphians who donated records to him. Glossy pamphlets appeared on the Septa train featuring an elderly couple from the neighborhood selling fire insurance because "You just never know what might happen!” (for real!).
The sci-fi invasion of the brain-snatchers caused far too many to unwittingly ingest and repeat this shitstem's sick media propaganda without blinking.
It's outrageous that this city had no problem sacrificing 61 homes in its zeal to murder MOVE people, but we all know that material possessions are not more valuable than people's lives, right! Since we also know that that it's truly HEINOUS that 11 men, women and children were murdered on that day, we have to conclude that they are not equal! Far too often the media blurs the conversation to simply state, "the MOVE bombing and destruction of 61 homes." Who was responsible for the bombing? Where is the mention of the stolen lives? Who, then, are the true brainwash victims?
Although the cellphone video evidence in the police murder of 22 years young Oscar Grant was able to at least garner an unprecedented trial for one of the killer cops who murdered him in San Francisco on New Years Day, 2009, the violent siege on MOVE in 1978 as well as the massacre of MOVE people in 1985 were both captured on news cameras and shown worldwide with no arrests of ANY of the perpetrators. MOVE people are also still being denied the right to bring their people home from the bowels of this shitstem after 32 LONG YEARS of wrongful incarceration!
We can and must double, triple and quadruple the creation of our own independent media, many of us have the gifts and talents to do so right from our home computers, blogs, cameras, etc., to build videos, organize events, speak-outs, demonstrations, and we better take advantage of this technology while we still have it! Did you know that at one point when the movement to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal was at its height in the mid 90's, Mumia was refused a simple pencil and paper? This man in a cell within a cell on death row, clinking and clanking with shackles and chains, became a frightening prospect when armed with a writing utensil! If he can do it in there, we can do more, we MUST and WILL do more!
Produce and deliver information to your communities and talk with people on a regular basis to give them a different conversation than that which they’re used to hearing. We've got to be on it as hard and as consistently as mainstream media and put out correct information to rebut their every attack. Those who are already doing independent media through newspapers, radio shows and other means depend on us to subscribe to and advertise in their newspapers and we must support their fundraisers for all forms of RESISTANCE media, they need us and we need them! We must also support our truth-telling journalists when they come under attack as without them we are left at the mercy of mainstream media. And we already know what that’s like, right? Ask MOVE.
Let the lessons of MOVE not be lost upon us, they are excellent teachers and have always stressed the importance of putting out information as a regular and consistent activity.
When there is information that must get out, people must know where to get it, and it must be there for them. As the MOVE organization says, THE POWER OF TRUTH IS FINAL! The ONLY way to defeat a lie is through the truth!
And if we don't fight
if we don't resist
if we don't organize and unify and
get the power to control our own lives
Then we will wear
the exaggerated look of captivity
the stylized look of submission
the bizarre look of suicide
the dehumanized look of fear
and the decomposed look of repression
forever and ever and ever
And there it is
(From "There it Is" by Jayne Cortez)
Never forget 1985! Now is the time to free the MOVE 9!
Friday May 13, Join the MOVE organization to watch “MOVE: A Confrontation” to understand the unjust incarceration of the MOVE 9 and how the battle for their release leads to the bombing of MOVE in 1985.
L-13 Gladfelter Hall, Temple University
1115 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia 6-9 pm
Saturday May 14, join us for a rally Broad & Chestnut sts, Philadelphia 12-3 pm
Sunday, May 8, 2011
What's Time or Money Got to Do With It?
Friday May 13, Join the MOVE organization to watch “MOVE: A Confrontation” to understand the unjust incarceration of the MOVE 9 and how the battle for their release leads to the bombing of MOVE in 1985.
L-13 Gladfelter Hall, Temple University
1115 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia 6-9 pm
Saturday May 14, join us for a rally Broad & Chestnut sts, Philadelphia 12-3 pm
What’s Time or Money Got to Do with It?
Phil Africa, MOVE 9
Ona MOVE!You may have heard about our family going to the D.A. last year to have murder charges filed against city officials and police involved in the murders of eleven of our family members on May 13th 1985. The D.A.’s office refused to carry out the filing of murder charges against its bosses and murderous racist buddies. A situation very familiar to all of us poor folks and people of color who have ever tried to have officials held responsible for crimes committed against us through out history. Nothing has changed from the older days of slavery til’ today. The double standard of how the poor and of color are mistreated compared to Monies & Official people still stands more than ever!
In a system where they still hunt Nazis for war crimes from World War 2, where soldiers are still being killed and killing long after the war created on lies in Iraq is suppose to be over, there are hundreds of people held captive on death rows waiting to be murdered many years after the crimes they were accused of committing have passes, but when it come to going after those who’ve murdered MOVE folks, the only thing of importance to this system is time, dollars and cents. In a system that is well known for its revengeful, violent attitude of never forget/never forgive and drive to hunt down those it sees as responsible no matter how long it takes or how much it cost when something is sees as wrong is done to it, for it to say our charges were “investigated decades ago” and that it is a legitimate policy decision for the D.A.’s office to save resources by not investigating a matter again” is racist and insane. Neither of the issues sighted by the D.A. and upheld by common pleas Judge Palumbo had anything to do with justice or being right. They both were the pattern response to Black and Poor folks complaints when they are against this system and its agents, that time and money are those in office only concern!
Of course both excuses are crap! This state has over fifty-one thousand people locked up in prison and adding more each day! At a time when other states prison populations are going down, this state is sky rocketing! The federal government stated that all crimes are down across the nation, yet Pennsylvania continues to lock people up and keep them locked up to the point where they have to build even more prisons, costing the tax payer more money.
One of the prisons alone is expected to cost $127 million, so three would put around $381 million. This system admits these three new prisons will be filled as soon as they are completed in about three years! And these officials got the nerve to talk about “saying scarce resources” as their reason for not wanting to investigate the murders of 11 move members that includes five children. Everyone should be outrages about this foul injustice.
Like with the case of Oscar Grant out in LA, as long as this system thinks that it can murder Black folks, poor folks at will and get only a slap on the wrist if convicted, they have no motivation to stop. These official criminals that hide behind the labels of Judge/DA/Mayor/Governor/Police Officer and misuse those positions/labels to commit crimes that non-officials go to jail for every day, must be stopped! These officials must be made to realize that they are public servants and when they cease to do the will of the public, the people, when they are exposed as being the same as slave plantation overseers, then they must be removed as any overseer should be removed. Keep in mind what John Africa teach “that just because its legal, don’t make it right”, LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA! That Judge and DA can talk all the legal crap they want, but it don’t make their rulings right. It is not right that they try to act like “time” has something to do with justice, that money has anything to do with justice, because they do not. 11 MOVE people were murdered on May 13th, 1985 and everyone knows that any honest investigation must be viewed as a accomplice in those murders. That’s how they roll when it comes to poor folks who they claim can hinder an investigation. What’s time or money got to do with justice making sure that those who are responsible for the murders of 11 people don’t get away! Bringing the guilty to justice should be the only concern. Clearly that’s not how the judges and D.A.’s office feels. Now if it were a cop who’d been murdered we all know the D.A. and Judge would be singing another tune! They would be kicking down doors, having Black males face down in the streets, the Mayor would be on the news vowing to capture those they think are responsible, every cop would be towing the Blue Line of saying they will never forgive or forget and swearing to look for the killer no matter how long it took or how much money it cost. Time or money would never be an issue. But when its Black lives we’re talking about, poor people’s lives we’re talking about.
Folks don’t let these people get away with murder! Don’t let these same people who have pulled every lie and trick they could invent to put and keep innocent MOVE people in jail for over 32 years at a cost of well over 5 million dollars for crimes this system know that we did not commit, get away with 11 murders and that the world knows that this system committed!
Like I said, Time and Cost got nothing to do with seeing that justice is done! People must demand that those responsible for the murders of 11 MOVE people including 5 children be made to face the charges like all those they hunt down daily for far less!
Let me make this clear, we in MOVE are not looking for justice from this system, John Africa has exposed this system for being completely corrupt with no justice to give, how could it, when it is founded on the foundation of rape, murder, slave, genocide, lies and oppression. People need to see that there is No justice in this system and need to stop allowing this system to ride hard over people as if it is just, fair, balanced, when all this system is, is a LIE! Each time we expose this system for being the racist, unjust monster that it is, we are doing the work needed to wake people up to stop allowing this system to get away with the crimes it constantly commits. LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA’S REVOLUTION AND DOWN WITH THIS ROTTEN REFORM WORLD SYSTEM! Free All Political & Class prisoners! Unity is Power!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Ona MOVE for the MOVE 9!
—Safiya Bukhari
Seven years ago, as a junior in college in Virginia, I met this Elder named Leroy who was the janitor at the school library. After about five minutes of conversation, he asked of my origins. I replied, “home of the moonshine, Franklin, Virginia”. After turning the question back on him, he responded―”I am from Philly, home of a Black mayor throwing a bomb on some Black folks house.”
That was my first piece of information about MOVE.
Five Years ago, I moved to Philly and I was surprised to see the light being dimmed on the MOVE 9’s case. It was one of the biggest cases of injustice in Philadelphia, and people had seem to forget that not only one, but nine of their own political prisoners were doing a 30-100 year bid in prison.
I remember watching the gritty, Black and White, documentary, “MOVE: Confrontation in Philadelphia” and feeling the outrage of the community after the August 8, 1978 incident. People were in the streets talking and fighting back against Rizzo and his gestapo police. They understood the injustice towards the MOVE 9! Fast forward thirty years later and while engaging in dialogue with people around the MOVE 9 case, I hear time and time again, ―”they are still incarcerated?”, “Hold up, you mean to tell me there are people in prison right now who are apart of MOVE?”
This type of brain drain is very devastating to an important case such as this one that needs support in the form of people power in demanding the MOVE 9’s freedom!
Everyday, I am making more of a personal commitment to the MOVE 9, while working towards enlightening my community about this case and putting out the information to ensure that our brothers and sisters of the MOVE 9 will make it back to us as well.
Even if you do not agree with the principles of the MOVE organization, or support their stance, we can agree that our political prisoners must come home! We must take the initiative to enlighten one another about the MOVE 9 and strategize on how we can bring Chuck, Mike, Janet, Janine, Debbie, Delbert, Phil, and Eddie home (and justice for Sis Merle as well). Along the way, hopefully we can enlighten others to find it in their conscience to make a MOVE for the MOVE 9! 34 years is too long!!!!
Ona MOVE,
Iresha
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