TToUsfi - Freedom Archives

Fighting RICO:
An Interview with Silvia Baraldini
In the fall of 1982, in the aftermath of the
ireuocessful Brink's expropriation, the US. began
the RICO conspiracy trial. The first major
political conspiracy trial of the decade and the
opening gun in a new drive toward hei^^ttened
represskan, RICO is the government's attempt to
destroy once and for all the ability of the Black
Laseratnn Stuggle — in this case elements of
the New Afrikan Independence Movement — to
build a revolutionary struggle for land and power.
Of the deven indicted, foia-, including two white
people, are still free and being sought by the
FBI. Others such as captued BLA sokiier Sekou
Odinga and Silvia Baraldini, a white
anti-imperialist activist in the pdblic mov«nent,
are on trial and fighting the case by exposing
and resisting it as oointerinsurgency. We print
this Interview in full solidarity with their
politkal aims. This RICO case is bdi^ tried
under extraordinary security by Judge Kevin
Duffy, an out-and-out radst noted in the press
for his anti-semitism. Robert Cordier of the
FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force sits at the
prosecution table. As Silvia Baraldini said In
another context, "TTiis trial is m feet the test
case for the new FBI guidelmes." This fftterview
was conducted in late June, 1983.
DEATH TO THE KLAN: Why are you indicted
in this case'' Why do you say it's a New
Afrion case?
SILVIA BARALDINI: U.S. imperiaUsm indicted
eleven people cn charges of racketeering, bank
robberv and accessory after the fact. Among
those indicted are members of the New Afrikan
Independence Movem«it, including Sekou Odinga,
New Afrikan Pr'soner-of-War, and three North
American members of the revolutionary
antt-imperiaiut mowsnent* Imperialism^ position
is that'^ft'^^i^''pn!Mi0^illtll|i^^^~'Cfrl)i'iiiMl tftterpHseb
This is a lie. What is being tried is the right of
self-determination and socialism. Sekou Odinga
Stated in Ws ooening statement; Tod^ there is
brother revolution g/c/lg^gj^fjfaiM'
'•Wem^ Revolution. lam a New A'
not consider myself an American
consider myself a New Afrikan citizen. You
may have heard the term the Republic of New
Afrika mentioned by the Judge — or if you
havent you will. The Republic of New Afrika is
the name given our nation by a group of Black
people who came together in I'JfiS and who
decided to declare ourselves free and
independent of the U.S." Despite the
government's denials, what has emerged during
the trial is the reality that members of the
Black Liberation struggle came together to build
a clandestine apparatus. These forces engaged
in a number of expropriations and liberated
Assata Shakur from captivity. These efforts are
part of ai overall strategy to free the nation
and its land base: Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana,
Mississippi and South Carolina. This is what
imperialism is trying to defeat.
I am the only North American being tried
in the RICO case. I am a member of May 19th
Communist Organization and I believe it is
because of the organization's principled support
of the New Afrikan Independence ^tovement and
its right to wage armed struggle that I have
been indicted. The government's theory is that
a number of North Americans worked with the
New Afrikan clandestine forces, so it is essential
to their strategy that a white revolutionary be
tried. I have worked politically with a number
of the people indicted, in particular on behalf of
my organization; I have participated in the
defense of New Afrikan political prisoners and
struggled to expose COINTELPRO. What is on
trial in my indictment is North Americans'
committment to the self-determination of the
Black nation in particular, our committment to
the defeat of U.S. imperialism and to the
establishment of a socialist society.
What is the government
with this case?
trying to accomplish
Our case 'S part of US imperialism's
counterinsurgency strategy in the 80's and the
consolidatron of its fascist infrastructure.
Counterinsurgency is being waged against
national liberation in Central America, in the
^^iddle East and right here at home. The aim is
the total destruction of oppressed peoples'
capabilities to organize themselves into
revolutionary movements that will challenge and
defeat US imperialism, '^'e have learned from
the history of other struggles, such as Vietnam,
Mozambique, Nicaragua, that only one strategy
can liberate oppressed nations — protracted
people's war. Counterinsurgency in the 80's
inside the U.S. is targeting the beginnings of
that crucial development within the oppressed
nations inside the U.S. empire. t.'.S. imperialism
is targeting the armed clandestine forces and the
Silvia Oaraldini
and Native
targeting the
struggle whose goal is tihe transft
white oppressor nation into a non-oppressor
socialist society.
Counterinsurgency has short and long-term
goals: the criminalization of the New Afrikan
independence Movement by trying freedom
fighters, activists and supporters under a law
aimed at organized crime; the isolation of
revolutionary forces by a media campaign that
calls them "terrorists" and "mad dog killers"; and
the creation among the people of a fear of
revolutionaries 'this was successfully done by the
CIA in Chile'*. Other goals include the
institutionalization of fascist "legal" procedures
such as anonymous juries and witnesses and the
gathering of intelligence against the movement,
"^^ost importantly, the goal in this RICO case is
the defeat of the armed clandestine forces of
the New Afrikan Independence Movement at the
beginning of their development when they are
weak and the enemy still very powerful. The
RICO trial is also being used to erase the
differences between the armed clandestine
movements and revolutionary public
organizations. If the government is successful in
establishing that common ideology constitutes a
conspiracy, this will justify infiltration and
provocations against many organizations as
provided for by the new FBI guidelines.
What are the differences between this and other
famous politksl conspiracy cases li