To my dear young brothers and sisters on the MOVE. As you listen in two cities, at the Asian Art Center in Philadelphia and [unclear] College in New York. Perhaps some of you feel powerless, hopeless or unfulfilled as you are unemployed or underemployed. If so, that’s only because you don’t see yourself fully. In the struggles of life, youth is the engine, for the energies of young people fuels movements that have transformed societies all around the world.
During the Civil Rights Movement, when its leaders were at a crossroads, it was young college students acting on their own who sparked the sit in movement that flashed across the country, pushing the movement forward. In the Black Liberation Movement, young people formed their own organizations and built movements that shook the world. You’ve heard perhaps, of the Black Panther Party, I’m sure. Did you know that most of its members were teenagers? Did you know that Dr. Huey P. Newton was 24 years old when he helped found the organization? Hey, I was 15, so I thought Huey was an old dude. Youth, organized, can change society.
If you feel that the state is repressive—and it is—and that the prison industrial complex is intolerable—it is that as well—you, organized, can build a movement that can challenge and transform that grim reality. Politicians cannot and will not build movements for real social change. That’s not their job. But people, especially young people, can and must build movements that can force politicians to address issues of social justice.
One last thing: I presume all of you know the name Nelson Mandela. What made it possible for him to become “Nelson Mandela?” Anti apartheid movements across the U.S., in Europe, in England, Brazil and beyond, made it impossible for the racist system of apartheid to continue as it was. Social movements can change history. Never doubt that. So, let us build a bigger, more powerful movement to bring down the poisons of mass incarceration, solitary confinement, death row, and even slow death row. I thank you. On the MOVE. From in prison nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
