The Need for a Class Action Suit: A Call for a Unitary Legal Action
The opening sentence of Ward Churchill's book Cages of Steel states, "The government of the United States maintains that there are no political prisoners incarcerated in the country's penal facilities." Well, who are we? Where are we? There is little doubt in over one hundred minds that we are political prisoners and prisoners of war here in America's concentration camps. Perhaps, it is time for us to challenge the false claims of the US government in the federal courts.This is a call to all political prisoners and prisoners of war to join together and work on a single project. The time and conditions seem to be right for a collective legal action -- a class action suit on behalf of all political prisoners and prisoners of war against the United States government. Such an action would bring our plight into national focus.
There are many local, regional and national campaigns being organized to free prisoners across America. Some of these campaigns are organized in support of political prisoners, others in support of prisoners of war, while still others are organized in support of fighting clear cut abuses and injustices. All of these campaigns have supporters. Over the years many of these supporters have loosely networked with each other. Together they can form the base to develop a National Support Network for coordinated protest activities. Activities designed to raise the level of consciousness among the general population about political prisoners and prisoners of war.
A class action suit by political prisoners and prisoners of war is an ideal tool to organize national awareness of our plight. We have a number of common issues that we can raise in our defense: We are all imprisoned because we were involved in working to end oppression in our communities. We all belong to or are connected with political organizations which are or had been targeted by the US government to be subverted or destroyed. After our imprisonment, we did not receive fair trials because of the government's use of informers, agents, misinformation or the creation of negative climates towards us. In all of our cases there is still information being withheld by local, state, and federal agencies in the name of "security".
Through the use of a class action suit, we can show the relationship of all these issues to our status as political prisoners and prisoners of war. The records exist (our files and trial transcripts collectively) and will support our claim. Also, such a legal action would force the whole issue of political prisoners and prisoners of war into the public arena for debate. Questions would be asked such as: Who are political prisoners? Who are prisoners of war? What are the reasons for their existence? What led them to the struggle? What is and has been the relationship of the government to the struggle of poor and oppressed people over the last 30 years?
Most political activists are aware of the Church Committee findings in 1976. We understand from real life experiences that the United States government used many illegal and extra-legal local and national secret units to undermine, disrupt, and destroy opposition organizations. However, the general public is not aware of the level or degree of official government involvement in the training, directing and funding of secret units and operations which illegally spied on, harassed and imprisoned activists and community members. The public is not aware that these units and operations used agents provocateurs and other criminal elements to mislead, misdirect and imprison or destroy political activists over the last thirty years.
There is a new and growing interest in the Black/New Afrikan Liberation and the New Left Movements of the 60's and 70's by today's youth. A class action suit will give us the opportunity to educate the masses about these governmental abuses. Now is the time to raise the collective consciousness about political prisoners and prisoners of war.
I worked on the 1977 campaign for UN recognition of political prisoners here in the United States. We will have to continue working towards building international support and recognition. I know that we can work together to make a successful national campaign for our recognition. We will have to set aside political debates among ourselves so that we will be able to collectively and effectively reach our goal. We will need to open communication between the various campaigns across the nation. We need to convene a small group of representatives from as many campaigns as are willing to come together to discuss this idea of filing a class action suit -- in a collective manner. We will need to pool our resources together and seek to gather new ones in the legal arena.