Jericho Amnesty Movement to Free All Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War

BY JIHAD ABDULMUMIT, Jericho Chairperson

Jericho started in 1998 from the inspiration and thoughts of Political Prisoner Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, along with the planning and strategizing of Brother Herman Ferguson and the late Sister Safiya Bukhari.

Over the last 12 years Jericho has supported political prisoners and POWs in the United States, and has consistently worked towards their liberation through legal redress on their cases, petitioning for commutation and amnesty, educating the community, and building a viable movement to call for their freedom. Jericho continues to stand in unity with other like-minded people and organizations to educate the people of the United States and elsewhere of the existence of these political prisoners and to call for their immediate release.

Everyone dedicated and committed to this cause understands the reality at ground zero; that the United States government and its sovereign states do not recognize nor acknowledge the fact that these women and men are, in fact, political prisoners. This denial is a conscious act designed to erase the pages of revolutionary struggle against racist oppression, political repression, economic exploitation, and social degradation of entire races and classes of people from the minds of the people. It is to even deny the very existence of these conditions. It is to criminalize the humanitarians, the liberators, the community activists, the educators, the organizers, and all those who have ever stood forthrightly against injustice and who have championed freedom and the right to self-determination.

In 2011, Jericho’s initiatives will focus on:

1. Educating the people to understand the importance of building a holistic movement to not only free the political prisoners from the national liberation movements and struggles of the 60s and 70s; but also, to realize the need to prevent modern day government and police repression and laws that invariably lead to more and more political incarcerations. These laws and repressive practices come under the names of Homeland Security, the war against terrorism, the Patriot Act, FBI spying and entrapment, and a host of laws directed at undermining Constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and association, protection from discrimination and persecution, and the right to peaceful protest.
2. Building unity amongst other people and organizations striving in the same cause
3. Mobilizing people to stand up for their Constitutional rights.
4. Mobilizing people to call for the freedom of all political prisoners
5. Calling for renewed Congressional hearings on the impact and effects of the FBIs Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to prove how conditions were created and police actions carried out to falsely accuse and imprison so many of the political prisoners
6. Conducting a People’s Tribunal in November in Washington charging the United States government and its sovereign states with human rights violations, to wit: the continued incarceration of dozens of woman and men for political reasons
7. Submitting federal and state amnesty petitions for many of the political prisoners

We invite people unfamiliar with Jericho to reference our web site at thejerichomovement.com to learn more about Jericho and what can be done to help.

Unity and struggle!