Politics – Page 2 – TIM HAYES'

LAW AND ORDER

July 22, 2016 by Tim Hayes Comments

JUST IN CASE YOU DON’T KNOW. Donald Trump has now called himself the “Law and Order” candidate..and has said at least three times that Law and order will be the “hallmark” of his presidency. Well I remember very well the last time a person ran for president as the “law and order” president…1968. This person used the fact that people were organizing in mass movements to protest an unjust war. The fact that the civil rights movement had grown to the point of addressing economic issues and foreign policy. A national organization born of the struggle to end police brutality and fight the militarization of police forces had grown to take on many of the responsibilities that aid to dependent children should have been taking on…was demonized and had hundreds of it’s members vilified ..murdered..incarcerated ..framed..This person used all those things happening in our country to scare the shit out of the majority of white Americans… won that election….turned the Presidency into an Imperial office..literally formed a separate government agency for the purpose of cheating in the re-election campaign, stole the re-election …got caught by it’s own arrogance and the President ended up having to resign in disgrace…Guess what ?? last night the republicans put up another “Law and order” candidate…And rather than seeing how this is happening …many alleged “progressives” are still bathing in the “sour grapes” of not getting the nomination for their “darling ” candidate….they need to shut the hell up and join us in some serious work we all need to do..

July 10th 2016 where I think we are ….where I think we need to go..Part one

July 11, 2016 by Tim Hayes Comments

As I begin writing this it is Sunday morning. All the news shows on TV are doing stories on the Dallas police shootings..and just as I was getting my coffee the kitchen radio tells me that there have been several incidents of “police ambush”…This sends a horrible chill up and down my spine….for reasons I will get into later. First let’s set the stage. In the last few days seemingly back to back we have had a Black man shot, on camera, lying down, subdued with two huge white men on top of him and suddenly he is shot several times. Then the next morning we see a video of a desperate Black woman with a baby in her car. And next to her is a Black man in a Bloody shirt, and as the scene goes on we see a policeman still pointing a gun inside the car as the woman, who remarkably managed to remain calm tells us and the now screaming officer that she thinks her “boyfriend” is dead. For me it seems just hours later that I find out that while I was sleeping ( I’m on a lot of meds because I am dealing with a cardio/pulmonary condition ) What at first seemed like several gun-toting people had shot more than several police officers during a “Black Lives Matter” rally ..killing at least five. .I am in my mid sixties….we have been here before. The years 1969 and 1970 were some fierce times. Police brutality and abuse have led to the formation of the Black Panther Party a few years before. The Party started out as a reaction to police brutality and cruelty in the extreme..And yes, the police were what we in those days called “trigger happy”..I feel compelled here to say that even in those days there were police officers who felt bewildered by the behavior of their fellow officers. And in the part of the country where I lived every year you would hear about some officer who “broke the code” and complained about excessive force used by some other officer…most of the time these people ended up leaving the force. We began to hear about these “whistle blowing” cops less and less…I now assume that it does not happen any more..The Black Panther Party in the beginning would follow police around, and when the police stopped a driver or confronted a citizen for any reason we would observe the situation and make sure the police followed procedure. This alone could be called a revolutionary action…in case you don’t know…..it got a lot worse. As the years went on the government began to position itself more and more in opposition to the BPP. We began to be raided ..ambushed and murdered at an alarming rate….and as time went on partially out of frustration but we know now partially because of people planted among us for the purpose of agent provocateur. There came to be people who wanted to declare “war” on police…punish them for every incident of abuse….Now let me say here that this is NOT a history of the Black Panther Party…I’m just setting the stage to tell you about how some very specific events came to happen. By late 1969, I began to meet people..some had been in the BPP at some point often having been thrown out…but even more who had never been a part of the Party. People who were trying to form underground armies..and Police assassination brigades. And yes …some people who I knew or had met actually carried out some of these actions..the most spectacular was when police were called to an address and got there and picked up a package in the room and it exploded. I was told later that this was an “initiation”..There are many of these people still being hunted by the government today…This is the memory that sent waves of fear through my body..Because I remember what happened after that…it became open season on Black activist of all kinds. I lost many really good friends and many people including myself went into exile moving to Cuba, parts of Africa and the Middle Eastand to South America …..some live there still ..in places I won’t talk about….did it make police behave any better toward citizens ? …..no…What it taught us is that when you live inside the cruelist most violent country in the world ..that society will spare no expense to preserve the status quo…and will throw both caution and morality out the window..to crush what opposes it. These actions brought down on even peaceful “non-violent” activists The full wrath of American Law enforcement. Well over a hundred people were killed who had NOTHING to do with any police ambush action..No little brigade of nuts who hate cops and start shooting them, ambushing them will succeed at changing the behavior of what we used to call the “Occupation army” of the oppressor…Okay that’s just one small part of what needs to be said before the idea to some how to retaliate against the police takes hold of some poor soul…it’s a road we have traveled down before…and I remember the consequences too well. There is more to say about the events of the last few days …For instance what’s broken with our police force and how or can we fix it…That’s tomorrow

Muhammad Ali January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016

June 4, 2016 by Tim Hayes Comments

I don’t remember the date, it was in September of 1970, I knew I was hungry, as I had almost nothing to eat the day before. Not an unusual thing in those days when I was full time in the Black Panther Party. On the streets of Atlanta Georgia, I had decided to go to Chestnut and Fair Street, in the center of the Black College complex. Clark College on one corner Spelman College a block away Morehouse College where I was technically still a student on the opposite corner. I was standing there trying to sell Black Panther News Papers. If I sold enough to cover the cost of food for the Free breakfast program I would be able to keep what ever was left for myself. I was busy trying to sell a paper to a really pretty Clark College girl and didn’t notice until I turned around that there was this really tall guy standing right next to me. After I sold a paper to a passing car I noticed the look on the face of the buyer when he looked at the tall guy. I stepped back on the sidewalk and looked up and sure enough it was Muhammad Ali. It was him who struck up a conversation. He said how he respected the BPP and the work we did and was sorry that he had not done more to donate money to our community programs. I told him that we all knew what he was going through, and that to us he was always the “People”s Champion” we went into a lot of subjects Like Abdul Nassar who had just died and how the new Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was a real Egyptian …a Black man and not an Arab. I told him that it meant a lot to many of us that he had taken this stance on the war.Ali kept saying that he had not planned any of this…he just had to do what he thought was the right thing…”suppose ” he said ..”when they grow up …my kids ask me what did I do about this” …”I don’t want to have to say I did nothing ” simple words …but I knew exactly what he meant….You have to understand that during the time Ali had been suspended from boxing the number of Black as well as non-Black men drafted to go and fight that war had grown enormously This was over forty five years ago so a lot of the words have faded away. But what got me was after about ten minutes somebody across the street said “HEY LOOK ….IT’S ALI “..all of a sudden his voice changed, his posture changed, he began to speak more in a “ghetto dialect” and got really loud.It was like a switch was thrown and he turned on his other persona….I think in that moment I learned more about him that in any of his interviews ….he knew who he was, he knew what he was. I knew in that one second that Ali was not being manipulated by Malcolm or Elijah Muhammad. Within seconds there were dozens of people ….trying to get close to Ali. I noticed that a bright yellow limo drove up..Ali pushed through the crowd ..gave me a ten dollar bill..I gave him the Black Panther newspaper, he got in the car and was gone. I found out a few minutes later that Ali had been using the gym at Morehouse College to train for his up coming comeback fight..against Jerry Quarry…it was an easy win about a month later. A lot of things happened to me during those Black Panther years but this day is one memory that I treasure…To guys in my generation maybe Stokely may have made Black what we called ourselves..but it was Ali who maybe not alone but in terms of the loudest voice, taught us how to BE Black men and women…real Black men and women…We were under no obligation to aide America in it’s imperialism …and it fact had more in common with the people America wanted us to kill…The most powerful words spoken by a Black American ..ever, were “NO VIET CONG EVER CALLED ME NIGGER” This took what we were still calling a “civil rights” movement and turned it into something much bigger. That’s what Malcolm died trying to do…it’s what MLK came to embrace at the end of his life…and despite all the money and being the “worlds most famous person” This is and will be what made Muhammad Ali….”The Greatest”…don’t have to tell Ali to “rest in power”…..we know he is.

Sorry, I just could not stay out of commenting on this election, even though I wanted to stay away until I dealt with some medical stuff.

May 25, 2016 by Tim Hayes Comments

Well …..I’m trying so so so hard to stay out of it while I deal with some things..but the insanity surrounding this election is making it so hard to stay away..one particular person on my friend’s thread was just so adamant about the only true moral way out was to not vote or even better to write in Bernie if he did not get the nomination..because ” crooked Hillary” had already stolen the election….I put up a valiant effort I think ..to hold it in rather than respond to this scary but growing totally fruitcake opinion…but suddenly ……all on their own my fingers jumped up and flew across the keyboard with this ……” I’m sorry but that is both childish and also a misreading of history. What George Bush Jr. did to Al Gore was a stolen election. But whether you like Hillary or not what has happened in this election is the same way we have elected Presidents for decades. I resent the fact that after 25 years of a Republican war on Mrs. Clinton, when she runs for President by the same rules all the rest have run with for most of recent history..so many clueless people are having a “hissy fit” because the person they like may not get the nomination. The person I like has NEVER gotten the nomination…ever. Hey I would like to see John Lewis get the nomination…or for that matter Bobby Seale..but that ain’t gonna happen. I knocked on hundreds of doors this past year trying to get people to vote for a person ( Bernie Sanders ) who made the choice months ago to run as a Democrat EVEN THOUGH HE WAS NOT ONE HIMSELF. Bernie knew then what the rules were. Now when as could have been predicted it looks like he probably won’t get the nomination all these silly children have picked up the talking points of the Republican party and just like Trump are making this some how Mrs’ Clinton’s fault. I don’t even like her but this whole “crooked Hillary” bullshit is just another example of how a whole group of alleged “progressives” got masterfully PLAYED by the Republican party.” my god I feel so bad now for falling off the wagon…but I could not take this fool for another second….now I have to start all over again.

On Sanders and AIPAC

March 22, 2016 by Tim Hayes Comments

I was going to respond to Bernie Sanders’ position on AIPAC with a long article for my blog web site …but after
three hours knocking on doors today ..campaigning for Bernie …people seem to want to know how I feel “right now”…Well I wrote this early this morning in a personal response to a dear friend at about 6:30 this morning and have not had time to write a longer article but this pretty much sums up what I feel Bernies AIPAC speech was worth…”for me Mr. Sander’s speech amounts to one step out of the United States/Israel “comfort zone” and two steps back into the usual bullshit. But for an American politician that one step may be a real first. What I mean is I think Sanders really does mean it when he speaks about the importance of the occupation. I quote him here. “Peace will mean ending what amounts to the occupation of Palestinian territory, establishing mutually agreed upon borders, and pulling back settlements in the West Bank, just as Israel did in Gaza – once considered an unthinkable move on Israel’s part.” for me that was the step forward, and I commend Mr. Sanders for that. But just like the well–intentioned Obama administration it falls short of mentioning the nature of Israel’s role in provoking a sometimes violent resistance to that occupation. Wrapping it in that old bullshit racist chestnut.that oppression is “necessary” for security . when in fact. Palestine’s right to RESIST is AT LEAST as important as Israel’s right to exist. Until not just Mr. Sanders ….but ANY U.S. presidential candidate comes along who at least acknowledges this double standard, and how it manifests itself in the continued spiraling down into Apartheid. WE won’t see anything but the same old “mumbo-jumbo”..I still support Bernie and in fact am scheduled to speak to over a dozen more church groups to get out the vote for Bernie in the primary…he is after all my choice in this election…but I am not fooled by this and I will not lie to voters.

Democrats need to CHILL

February 12, 2016 by Tim Hayes Comments

I am THRILLED that the GOP seems to be eating itself alive..But I also fear that the Left…what’s left of it is also in deep “doo-doo”..You ever heard the joke about the “circular firing squad” well for months now we have had the more “rabid” element of the Sanders supporters picking up the baton from the decades of Hillary hating Republicans and running with it. I’m a Sanders supporter and I see it everyday, I’ve seen it in the street and I’ve seen it.on the internet..and in recent days Clinton supporters have gotten just as willing to fight with dirt as the “Bernie Bots”..I have major differences with both Clinton and Sanders.. Clinton while a solid liberal in many ways stands for “business as usual”…while Bernie really speaks to me and what I want for America.but. he has all the foreign policy knowledge and experience of my cat..But either of them would be light years better than what the Repugs have in store for us..get behind Hillary or “feel the Bern” but DEMOCRATS CHILL OUT…..

It’s time for Democrats to pull up their “big boy/girl” pants

January 15, 2016 by Tim Hayes Comments

I am a Bernie Sanders supporter, in fact I was in several locations in North Philadelphia today talking to voters about Bernie. I am also a mature experienced community organizer with about 50 yrs of working for the people in the “hood”. Although I am a strong supporter of Senator Sanders. I have tried my best to stay as far away from the confused group of people who think that the way to campaign for Sanders is to demonize Hillary Clinton and totally forget that she is in the same party as Bernie..not to mention the fact that the only person the Repugs hate more than Obama would be Mrs. Clinton. Today I visited two daycare centers..one elementary school at dismissal time and one senior center. I got over a hundred people to sign a pledge to vote for Sanders in the Pa. primary with about 60 people agreeing to canvass their neighbors for the Sanders campaign..It might be my last good organizing day for a while because of the weather and some medical things I have to pay attention to. But my point is that I did that WITHOUT ONE SENTENCE of Hillary Bashing..Sanders is a good candidate and I simply did not have any reason to go there. Okay …..all of that said let’s get down to pulling up our “Big boy/girl” pants. I refuse to bash any Democrat in this election frankly because I think we have two really good candidates ..who happen to be good for different reasons…I would trust either of them to be a better President than ANY of the Repugs who are running. Second only an idiot would put her/himself in the position of demonizing one Democrat to the voters ..and then if that candidate gets the nomination …go back to the same voter and say ..OPPS..that person I said all that crap about six months ago is the person I’m telling you to vote for now…You know up here in S.W. Germantown I can walk down blocks and point to houses where I have registered three generations of voters in the same family…I never tell people who to vote for but I do tell them who I like….there is a difference. People come up to me in the market all the time asking me who looks like a good candidate…if I pull the type of crap the people I call the “Bernie Bots’ pull… crap like calling the other democrat “too corporate” or too close to wall street. When that candidate actually did nothing in her campaign that Obama did not do. And then if she gets the nomination and I have to go back and say “well yeah you should vote for her”…30 years of credibility will go down the drain. I know this is getting long but one more point. In 2008 I had the hard job along with about a dozen other people of mending fences in the Democratic party between the Hillary Clinton people and the Obama people…there was a lot of nastiness built up there..and what a lot of people don’t know is getting the cooperation with the two camps of organizers and street people was very very hard..This time I’m too old..and I really doubt if any of the short sighted Bernie Bots have it in them to rebuild bridges like we had to…they seemed cursed with a shoot ourselves in the foot psyche. Well I just watched an interview on Rachel Maddow with Hillary..she seemed sharp ..knowledgeable and ready to actually lead..I saw two interviews with Bernie this week He seemed sharp ..not quite as knowledgeable ..but with a fresh message that I like and ready to lead..which is why he gets my vote…..What do the Repugs have?? ..and do you want any of them picking the next Supreme Court Justice..??????…

Just how do we know who are our “allies” ?

December 29, 2015 by Tim Hayes Comments

Every once in a while I run into some one who for one reason or another tries to tell people in my community not to vote. Sometimes it’s other Black people but most of the time it’s a very special breed of White “know it all” ..many of them are the kind who in the wake of the “Black Lives Matter” movement have taken to calling themselves “allies”.And I have been hearing that term a lot. As well as seeing it in articles. One article I read by a Paul Kivel gives a detailed account of what some white people can do to be “allies” But even this guy , who seems to have made a career out of being the “go to” white guy in terms of being a friend of the “struggle” drips with the kind of “white boy arrogance” that has given me the “creeps” for decades..You get lots of so-called reasons from these people in terms of why voting is not important. One is ”there is much too much money involved in politics” well yeah, it costs to run for office and particularly in some of the national races like congress..Races can’t exactly be bought but a lot of them are influenced by how much money can be thrown at a candidate..for media and a good ground game.But even this can be busted up if enough local people knock on those doors and seek out the local committee positions. I’ve seen this enough to know that it can be done ..and is done all the time But for the most part it’s the local races that are the most important to the individual voter..in other words every vote is important ..but the closer to home the more important each and every vote is.And you get to see the result of your voting right away The Mayor, the District attorneys, the city council people..ALL the people we confront when we go out and protest and demonstrate are elected…and you can’t buy a local election if the people are motivated. But even if NONE of the above is true or is not enough to get you to see how important voting is..What kind of “allies” would be telling you to not use what may be the only voice you have. Protests and Demonstrations are important ..and I have done a lot of that over the last fifty years…but we are almost always protesting to get the ear of someone who was voted into office..DO NOT CALL YOUR SELF AN ALLY OF OUR PEOPLE IF YOU UNDERMINE OUR VOICE…Voting is our right..our sacred right..and the list of people who died for us to get it is too long for us to let any body fuck with it.

Thinking about Malcolm X fifty years Later

February 22, 2015 by Tim Hayes Comments

I was intending to post this Saturday, which was the 50th anniversary of the murder of Malcolm X..but family duties and getting ready for another snow/ice storm got in the way. I was still in grade school the first time I heard anyone mention Malcolm. It was my father and his sister Aunt Stella, they were arguing, Dad was saying how he could not stand those “Black Muslims” but somebody needed to say what Malcolm was saying, Aunt Stella just kept saying that her pastor said that Malcolm’s statements actually came straight from the “devil”. It was I think 1959 or maybe 1960.I did not think much about it after that..But in Atlanta where I grew up I would still hear grownups many times speaking in whispers. About the Muslim Minister who made so much sense. As I got older I was scooped up many times by members of the Nation of Islam when they were out “fishing” ….that’s what they called it when they would go out looking for people to bring to one of the temple meetings or on Fridays and Sundays for services. At first I never told my parents where I was going..although they knew I went to hang out with the older guys in SNCC..which they didn’t seem to mind as my father saw a type of nobility in what the SNCC people were doing …he still told me not to let my mother know where I was.But with the “Black Muslims” and later when I was starting to get involved with the Black Panther Party my father “just knew” I was going to get killed or at the very least bring the FBI down on our whole family…Dad would prove to be right about the FBI but that is another story. the first time the guys out fishing brought me to see Malcolm speak it was at Clark College. At first his speech was pretty much the same speech that all the ministers gave…in fact many of the famous quotations attributed to Malcolm today were actually standard phrases all the ministers used..and I mean all of them.. as I must have heard over twenty before I heard Malcolm..It was maybe the third time I went to see Malcolm speak and this would have been about 1963..that Malcolm began to include more than just the standard “Black Muslim” rap….he talked about the Bandung Conference in Indonesia, he talked about wars agaisnt colonialism ..he talked about how Ho Chi Minh had been betrayed after WW I and had not trusted the European again..he opened up a whole international struggle that I had never thought about..Of course when I would go back and talk to many of the SNCC guys about this it made me seem knowledgeable beyond my years. And those of you who knew me back then may remember how it scared many of the teachers at our high school. ….It was right after this that Malcolm left the Nation of Islam..and I began to follow every thing he did or said..most notably how Malcolm had begun to reject much of the teachings of Elijah Muhammad …I looked forward to the next time Malcolm came to Atlanta to speak……..It never happened….in 1965 just before Malcolm was killed I did get to see him again …you can read about our meeting by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post…but fifty years ago it was a Sunday and I was on the way home from church with my Mother and my siblings when the news came over the radio that Malcolm had been killed…in the same hall he had me passing out leaflets about… I went into a real depression for days after…but some good came out of this… about two weeks later I agreed to go to Selma Alabama on my first real civil rights march…..That was March 7th 1965…it became known as “Bloody Sunday” That was the attempted march where we were gassed, beaten, and I was trampled by a horse…..My.life was never the same. You can read about my meeting with Malcolm here http://www.timothyhayes.net/2014/05/19/what-does-malcolm-still-have-to-say/

This is Black Panther Party History Month

October 5, 2014 by Tim Hayes Comments

Black Panther Party Logo

In October of 1966 The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was formed. We are now using this month for Black Panther Party History. I look back on that long ago time when groups of young Black people all over the country got together and organized. And showed this country something it never saw before and has not seen again..To this day it remains the only American organization that ever made the philosophical as well as actual physical contact with the African, Asian and Latin American liberation movements of the time. Many of us including myself actually ended up meeting and training with liberation fighters from around the world. Those of us who are left now have the task of protecting our legacy.. knowing we can’t trust mainstream history books to deal with who we were fairly…Not to even mention the silly posers and Black racists organizations like the so-called New Black Panther Party.. rising up and using our name to get some legitimacy they have never earned..so all this month from time to time all over the country people will be gathering writing about and remembering the real Black Panther Party and we can begin at the Beginning the core of our belief system from the very beginning …..The Ten Point Program WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.

2.WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment, then the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3.WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALISTS OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of our fifty million Black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.

4.WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.
We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black and oppressed communities, then housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.

5.WE WANT DECENT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY.
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of the self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and in the world, then you will have little chance to know anything else.

6.WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR All BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.
We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventive medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give all Black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide our selves with proper medical attention and care.

7.WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, All OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.
We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against black people, other people of color and poor people inside the united States. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces and that all Black and oppressed people should be armed for self defense of our homes and communities against these fascist police forces.

8.WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.
We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive desire of the United States ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the oppressed people of the world. We believe that if the United States government or its lackeys do not cease these aggressive wars it is the right of the people to defend themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors.

9.WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U. S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR All PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.
We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in United States prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United States or by the United States military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial they must be guaranteed, by the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trial.

10.WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND PEOPLE’S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are most disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Free Huey Rally 1968