Position Statement - Now is the Time to Build the National African Political Prisoners Association

[Thunder X]

Position Statement - Now is the Time to Build the National African Political Prisoners Association (N.A.P.P.A.)

- “Once the prison doors fly open, the real Dragon will emerge.” Ho Chi Minh



- “International capitalism cannot be destroyed without the extremes of struggle. The entire colonial world is watching the blacks inside the U.S., wondering and waiting for us to come to our senses. Their problems and struggles with the Amerikan monster are much more difficult than they would be if we actively aided them. We are on the inside. We are the only ones who can get at the monster’s heart without subjecting the world to nuclear fire. WE have a momentous, historical role to act out if we will. The whole world, for all time in the future, will love us and remember us as the righteous people who made it possible for the world to live on. If we fail through fear and lack of aggressive imagination, then the slaves of the future will curse us, as we sometimes curse those of yesterday. I don’t want to die and leave a few sad songs and a hump in the ground as my only monument. I want to leave a world that is liberated from trash, pollution, racism, nation-states, nation-state wars and armies, from pomp, bigotry, parochialism, (imperial, colonial white power), a thousand different brands of untruth, and licentious usurious economics.” George Jackson



Article II, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:



Adopted December 9, 1948



“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”



Article III:



“The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

Brothers, Sisters, and Allies,

The time has come for us, the masses of African working class people within the U.S., to assume the responsibility to lead the struggle to free those patriots of African people, many of whom, have been rotting away in U.S. prisons since the military defeat of the Black Power Movement of the 1960’s.

The prison question is the question of the period; the question of the day! It is the monster that lies just below the surface of this foul and decadent beast we call the United States of America. The prison question is the one that can expose the wickedness of traitors that have led our people astray over the last few decades. This is the question that can reveal the true opportunist nature of the liberal white left and the white population in general, that have often made a name for themselves at the expense of the freedom of our brothas and sistas locked down in these concentration camps.

It is first, important to realize that we are a captive people who have been engaged in the longest-running, and most destabilizing war in human history! Since the initial onslaught (the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Western hemisphere and the capture and enslavement of hundreds of millions of our people) that gave rise to the capitalist system, until today, our whole people have been under attack, and until we come to terms with that, we will continue to be ineffective at understanding the true nature of the so-called judicial and prison system; therefore being equally ineffective in exposing and inevitably destroying it.

The 1.8 million of our people currently locked down in U.S. prisons are prisoners of war! The 7 million of our people tied to the prison system are, too, prisoners of war! And the scores, if not hundreds of those conscious freedom fighters held captive in these prisons are Political Prisoners!

Whether it was on the plantations of the South, the convict leasing of the Reconstruction Era, or the funneling of our folks into ghettos and slums that literally guaranteed the conditions for our incarcerations, we are all captives in America!

With this being said, we have to make struggle! We have to have the ability to render a real consequence if our demands are not met! We have to lead! We can no longer allow the liberal white left to dictate the terms of how we make struggle to free political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

This is a call to every African to take up the banner to free our brothas and sistas being held captive for fighting for the rights of African people.

This is no small task that we are embarking on and there are no limits to the number of obstacles we will face in attempting to make this struggle, but victory is our to seize and this time in history is the first that is allowing the democratic space necessary to wage a militant struggle on behalf of our whole people.

On June 10, 2009, my husband (political prisoner, Ajamu Bandele) and I, came to the conclusion that what the people need is a consolidated organization that truly has the potential to expose the prison question while linking up African workers throughout the country into a process that could create the capacity to yield consequences if the demands of the organization are not met. The following are ways in which we see NAPPA functioning:



1) We see the currently-running “Free Ajamu” Campaign as the campaign to jump off the work to build NAPPA. (details of the campaign to be discussed later)

2) Political Prisoners must have the ability to influence the direction of NAPPA, so they are invited to participate in a democratic process that will empower them with the capacity and ability to influence the policy and direction of the organization.

3) The families and friends of political prisoners will play and integral role in the organization.

4) Prisoners skills will be incorporated into a process that will be mutually beneficial. To be discussed later in detail

5) While solidarity is welcome, Africans will lead! All African committees and All African leadership.

6) Create International exposure to the campaigns of the organization and the prison question in general; we have to redefine the image of African people in the US as the victims of U.S. domestic colonialism, not as the criminal class we are currently painted out to be to the entire world.

7) We must pickup the task that Malcolm initiated. We must charge the US government with genocide and crimes against humanity and take the US to the World Court, the UN, the WCAR (world conference against racism), and other arenas that can further expose the parasitic nature of the prison system

8) We must wage a relentless propaganda campaign that will expose the ongoing tactics of the US Counterinsurgency, expose the complicity of the general white population, the treachery of the negro-colonialists (uncle toms), popularize the freedom demand amongst young people, and galvanize the broadest base of participation from the African working class.

Immediately, we need to develop an ad hoc Central Organizing Committee for the National African Political Prisoners Association. There are tentatively 8 positions that will need to be filled within this committee (job descriptions and training will be made available to those who express interests):

- President/Chair

- Secretary

- Treasurer

- Membership Coordinator

- Political Action Coordinator

- Fundraising Coordinator

- Agitation and Propaganda Coordinator

- Outreach Coordinator

For those who are interested in the Campaign to “Free Ajamu” and are eager to develop the National African Political Prisoners Association, you can contact me at 717-650-0550 Iyapo Ngina-Bandele. Thank you all for your support and I look forward to working with you! Black Power!


All Power to the People, Black Power to the African Community!