Prison Radio
Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall

“Linking Movements and Daring to Be Free” by Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall.

What does the Black Lives Matter, immigration movement, J20 protesters, Poor People’s Campaign, and Occupy movement have in common? Their commonality is that the government’s police enforcers has arrested and incarcerated their members in an attempt to break their movement: the people’s movement.

For people who are exercising their human rights of engaging the government to transform the U.S. political power structure and change the material conditions in our community, the government has incarceration looming over their heads like a gloomy cloud constantly threatening their freedom- freedom.

In such times of racial justice, struggles, and social movement upheavals in America, the government has always stolen away the pretense of law enforcement in favor of straight-up naked oppression and class warfare. [Inaudible] workers strikes breaks, Kent State University student killings, Black Panthers, Occupy Wall Street, and #BlackLivesMatter. Such are the times when people who are blind to the ways of the Machiavellian government can clearly see that the police, the courts, and the prisons acts to serve and preserve the interests of the powerful American business elites they seek to defend, and not the rule of law or public safety of the people.

Since incarceration is a real possibility for people involved in direct action within social justice movements, you would think that they would build coalitions with groups within the human rights prisoners movement. And for the same reasons, you would think that the groups within the human rights prison movement would build coalitions with groups within the social justice movement.

Though this hasn’t fully happened yet, the seeds of change has yet been sung. And we are seeing alliances between movements germinating in small pockets throughout the country. The common people and people who are engaged in social justice struggles are now coming to understand a number of things.

The government will seek to destroy all movement for social change advanced by the people by arresting problems away. The cops, courts, and prisons don’t serve the interest of the poor people in no way, shape, or form, and are there to oppress the working poor citizens of America. Mass incarceration is the U.S. Government’s criminalizing us is social control over Black, Latino, immigrants, and Muslim people specifically, and over the poor people in America generally.

The various social justice movements and the human rights prisoners movement must establish alliances and coalitions with each other to form a single mass movement to overcome the agents of oppression and to bring about much needed total [inaudible] of America. Come and join the human rights struggle in America.

From the belly of the beast at Prison Radio, I am Shakaboona.

These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.