Primary Artist: Henry Bortman
Created: San Francisco Collective, 2015
Medium: Offset printed
Dimensions: 17.25″ x 22.15″
By the mid 1980s, US prisons held almost 200 political prisoners; men and women who made a political decision to oppose the US government and fight against economic discrimination, Jim Crow laws, police brutality and killings, and voter suppression laws directed at their communities. Mostly members of the Black/New Afrikan, Puerto Rican, Chicano/Mexicano and Native American struggles, they were inspired by national liberation/anti-colonial movements erupting around the world against European countries and their colonial rule in Africa, Central and South America, and the Middle East.
Militant movements within the US and Puerto Rico emerged to fight an anti-colonial struggle for their own oppressed communities. The US government responded with repressive changes in the US legal system, which included imprisonment without charges by grand juries, prison sentences that were longer than those of a non-political person committing the same “crime,” the creation of Super Max control units in the prisons, the FBI Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), including an explicit license to kill by police and prison guards. This poster by the Jericho Movement highlights some of these prisoners. Visit their website for a list and profiles of those in prison today.
For more information see the article: Prisons, Fortresses of Repression
Image: Over all design meant to show a prison cell with photo of political prisoners or their names framed by the prison bars of the cell. Name includes the number of years they were incarcerated at the time of this poster’s publication.
Words: Photos starting top left: Mumia Abu-Jamal (30+ years), Sundiata Acoli (40+ years), Ed Poindexter (40+ years), Janine Africa (35+ years), Romaine Chip Fitzgerald (45+ years). Herman Bell (40* years), Veronza Bowers (40+ years), Jamil Al-Amin (10+ years), David Gilbert )30+ years), Robert Seth Hayes (40+ years) Alvaro Luna Hernandez (15+ years) Oscar Lopez Rivera (30+ years), Ruchell Magee (50+ years). Hugo Pinell (50+ years), Leonard Peltier (35+ years), Jalili Muntaqim (40+ years), Dr. Mutulu Shakur (30+ years), Russell Maroon Shoatz (40+ years), Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (5+ years) Names without pictures starting at the top left: Charles Sims Africa (35+ years), Debbie Sims Africa (35+ years), Edward Africa (35+ years), Janet Holloway Africa (35+ years), Michael Davis Africa (35+ years), Zolo Azania (30+ years), Hanif Shabazz Bey (45+ years), Joseph Brown (40+ years), Fred Mohammad Burton (40+ years). Byron Chubbuck (10+ years), Bill Dunne (35+ years), Richard Mafundi Lake (30+ years), Larry Hoover (30+ years), Jaan Karl Laaman (30+ years), Mondo we Langa (40+ years), Maliki Shakur Latine (30+years), Abdullah Majid (30+ years), Thomas Manning (30+ years), Marius Mason (5+ years) Rev. Joy Powell (5+ years), Luis Rodriguez (35+ years), Kijo Bomani Sababu (30+ years), Kamau Sadiki (10+ years). At Bottom: ”Did you know that there are dozens of political prisoners in the United States. Many of whom have been incarcerated for more than 20, 40, or 50 years? They have become elders inside prison–Black, Puerto Rican, Native American, Muslim, Chicano/Latino and white revolutionaries who have dedicated their lives to freedom. Now more than ever, we need them to come home. Free all political prisoners!” “For more information visit the jericomovement.com/prisoners.html, freedom archives.org, prsonradio.org or prisoners’ support websites.”
Color: black ink on white paper
Sponsor: Jericho Movement
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