Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners

by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Matt Meyer (Editor)

Let Freedom Ring presents a two-decade sweep of essays, analyses, histories, interviews, resolutions, People’s Tribunal verdicts, and poems by and about the scores of U.S. political prisoners and the campaigns to safeguard their rights and secure their freedom. In addition to an extensive section on the campaign to free death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, represented here are the radical movements that have most challenged the U.S. empire from within: Black Panthers and other Black liberation fighters, Puerto Rican independentistas, Indigenous sovereignty activists, white anti-imperialists, environmental and animal rights militants, Arab and Muslim activists, Iraq war resisters, and others. Contributors in and out of prison detail the repressive methods--from long-term isolation to sensory deprivation to politically inspired parole denial--used to attack these freedom fighters, some still caged after 30+ years. This invaluable resource guide offers inspiring stories of the creative, and sometimes winning, strategies to bring them home.

Contributors include:  Mumia Abu-Jamal, Dan Berger, Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, Bob Lederer, Terry Bisson, Laura Whitehorn, Safiya Bukhari, The San Francisco 8, Angela Davis, Bo Brown, Bill Dunne, Jalil Muntaqim, Susie Day, Luis Nieves Falcón, Ninotchka Rosca, Meg Starr, Assata Shakur, Jill Soffiyah Elijah, Jan Susler, Chrystos, Jose Lopez, Leonard Peltier, Marilyn Buck, Oscar López Rivera, Sundiata Acoli, Ramona Africa, Linda Thurston, Desmond Tutu, Mairead Corrigan Maguire and many more…

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, Politics

912 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Argentine civil rights leader Adolfo Pérez Esquivel won the Nobel Prize of 1980 for peace for his efforts to promote humanity in Latin America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_...

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important historical collection of documentation from early 90’s-2008 surrounding US (political) prisoners and the struggle for their individual and collective liberation.
If you are new to this stuff then it is a treasure trove of fascinating histories and testimonies and organizing strategies. If you are not new to this, you will likely get annoyed at the tremendous redundancy that exists between the texts throughout the book. The editor argues in the beginning the book should not be read from start to finish but rather as resource to refer to, but I feel like the book missed opportunities to situation content in the present of 2008 when it was published and I hope if there is a second edition that comes out, more work to actually situate content in the present, which will make the content more relevant, will happen.

[Ernesto Aguilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sixties presented social movements with some of recent history's most spectacular schisms, many of which continue to be debated. Assimilation versus revolutionary nationalism versus cultural nationalism; and Old Left aesthetics versus New Left rejection of convention were among them. But none so clearly defined the troubles of that period like the verbal and other skirmishes over militancy.

Pacifism, the use of political violence and the peculiar merging of the two that came to be called self-defense were prominent fixtures of the Vietnam War era. The integrationist sit-ins contrasted with the incendiary solidarity acts of groups like the Weather Underground, which were at times motivated by those same sit-ins as well as the fiery deeds and iconography of the Black Power movement, which itself clashed at points with the mainstream civil rights movement in how each saw the way forward.

Though it isn't about those debates, Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners cannot be divorced from such either.

The massive tome, spanning over 800 pages, endeavors to tell the story of political organizing primarily from the aforementioned period, along with the narratives of individuals incarcerated for activities in alliance with same. The definition of 'political prisoner' is most assuredly to be contentious, for in this reading, such encompasses individuals who have taken up political violence as a means to an end. Such a designation, to hear groups like Amnesty International tell it, obscures non-Western activists' tribulations and the spirit of political resistance. Or does it? Meyer makes a persuasive case for consideration.

Let Freedom Ring brings together scores of previously released documents, featuring former combatants from a constellation of North American organizations including the Black Liberation Army, Weather Underground and more. Many of these writings would have otherwise been lost, and the service Meyer does in capturing a critical though largely unknown call to free those imprisoned for actions associated with political demands in the United States is bold.

Few areas in the realm of such trends are left unaddressed. Race, history, public policy and revolutionary arts are among the themes writers cut into. Meyer should also be applauded for avoiding old-school divisions around political orientation; Earth Liberation Front sabotage, for example, is discussed with the same level of seriousness Puerto Rican liberation campaigns are, and each is presented as part of a larger vision for freedom. Gender and sexism are also plumbed, though more might have been offered. Consider books like Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement & the New Left by Sara M. Evans to supplement some of Let Freedom Ring's offerings.

Key business for those interested in the ideas of Let Freedom Ring is how political prisoner movements cross paths with aspirations for criminal justice reform. Jails and poverty impact economically disadvantaged people and communities of color in fathomless ways. Yet, for the commitment former Black Panther Party members and others went to prison in hopes of seeing such disparities end, little progress has been made in linking their hopes and those of people caught up in the prison-industrial complex. Meyer serves to give hope such a connection is possible, and Let Freedom Ring is a great start for organizers seeking not only context but inspiration.

[Mirza Sultan-Galiev · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and amazing collection