Audio of Delbert Africa of the MOVE 9:
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/delbert-africa-sci-dallas-pa
Free the Move 9: Everything you need to know to support parole for the Move prisoners!
Friday, May 17, 2013
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/05/13/survivor-remembers-bombing-of-philadelphia-headquarters/
By Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — It’s been 28 years to the day since the City of Philadelphia dropped explosives on the MOVE headquarters on Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia that set fire to an entire residential block.
The fire destroyed the homes of neighbors, who had grown impatient with the noise and conditions at the “back-to-nature” MOVE house.
Eleven people, including 5 children, were killed.
After nearly three decades, the memories of Monday, May 13th, 1985 are still etched in Ramona Africa’s mind.
At 58, she says she looks at the raised, scarred flesh on her arms and prays she’ll never forget the day the City of Philadelphia unleashed military force on her home.
“A lot of people have told me that these burn scars could be removed,” she says, “but why would I do that? I want to remember, and I don’t want others to forget.”
MOVE, the group Africa called “family,” was viewed as “radical” by the police. Africa says they were peaceful environmentalists that had a strong love for animals.
Authorities have said neighbors complained that members, who were mostly black, harassed passersby and lived in filth. Africa refutes the charge.
She claims MOVE was targeted because they refused to give up the effort to free the MOVE 9– the four women and five men convicted of the 1978 murder of Philadelphia police officer James Ramp.
Africa says members wanted them freed, so hostility between police, the city and the group escalated. It culminated in the 1985 bombing.
“The whole house shook, but we didn’t know what it was,” says Africa, recalling the moment the city dropped explosives on the MOVE home on Osage Avenue. “We didn’t even know initially that there was a fire.”
Africa says she was in the basement when the bomb hit.
She and her family were holed up, in a standoff with police and other city officials.
Africa says the authorities employed water tactics and tear gas…then the explosives.
“We tried to get our children, our animals, ourselves out of that blazing inferno,” she says. “And as the cops saw us coming out, they opened fire.”
Accounts of the day vary. Philadelphia police have disputed Africa’s account. She escaped, with injuries, along with one child survivor, Birdie Africa, who was 13 at the time.
“We never saw Birdie again after that until my criminal trial,” she says. “He testified. His mother was killed in the bombing.”
Africa spent seven years in prison for her part in the standoff, but no one from the city was ever charged. She filed a civil lawsuit against the city and won after years of litigation.
“I’m not bitter,” says Africa, “It was no coincidence or accident that I’m the one that survived.”
Africa has served as MOVE’s spokesperson for decades, appointed to the post by the group’s founder John Africa in 1979. She says her focus, her reason for continuing 28 years after one of the most horrific days of her life, is to gain freedom for the eight surviving members of the MOVE 9.
“Our family members have been in jail for 35 years now for a crime they didn’t commit,” says Africa. “They have seen the parole board numerous times, but the parole board refuses to give them parole.”
These days Africa hold lectures and other events on behalf of MOVE. And she seizes opportunities to tell her story and to keep the spotlight on the MOVE 9.
“My family is innocent and they know it,” she says, “so we’re not going to shut up, we’re not going anywhere.”
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
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